A family trip of a lifetime - Walking the Camino Frances PART ONE - Camino excitement
I don't even remember how to go about creating a blog post. But I'm going to give it a go...
This summer my brother and his two children set off to walk the Camino Frances - a pilgrimage across northern Spain that spans from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela. It is a 500 mile journey, walking approximately 12 miles a day for about 33 days. Some people do it more quickly and many do it slower, but however you do it I think it can be said that it is an experience of a lifetime.
My brother and the twins set off June 1, 2019 to walk the Camino. But it didn't start there....
The seed was planted last summer at our yearly family reunion. Sitting around the picnic table just chatting and catching up with various members of our extended family I mentioned something that I had been wanting to do for a long time. I told them that I would be turning 60 in November and something I really wanted to do was walk the Camino and I wanted to walk with my daughter. The twins chimed in and said, "Really? We were just talking about that. We are planning to do it as our graduation gift from high school!" So... the seed was planted and we began our planning. We would do it together!
I was so excited. This felt like it could really happen, and happen soon.
By November the plans were looking promising for walking the Camino in my 60th year. I was beyond excited. The only frustrating part was that I would not be able to get enough time off work to do the entire journey from end to end. My brother and the twins would do the entire 500 miles and me, my daughter, my younger brother and my sister-in-law would take approximately 12 days off and plan to meet up at some point along the journey and walk to the end - to Santiago - with my brother and the twins to receive our Compostelas (certificate of completion). My husband and Taylor's husband, agreed to stay home and take care of the animals (in reality they were not the least bit interested in walking, and certainly not walking for 10 days in a row!).
So by Christmas time we decided that gifts should be Camino related. I made copper shell pendants for all of us and also bought some books about other peoples journeys along the Camino. REI gift cards were received so we made an adventure out of a shopping spree at REI where we found shoes, socks and this and that. I had already found my backpack - Osprey 36L in green and my hiking poles which i bought with my REI dividend. REI is the best.
We sat around the dining room table and talked about routes and how to work out meeting up along the Camino. We discussed different items we would need and most importantly exactly when it would happen. We also planned for a training hike the next day. We used a hike at our local Sope Creek trail to test out our new shoes.
more to come... a lot more planning is needed.
This summer my brother and his two children set off to walk the Camino Frances - a pilgrimage across northern Spain that spans from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela. It is a 500 mile journey, walking approximately 12 miles a day for about 33 days. Some people do it more quickly and many do it slower, but however you do it I think it can be said that it is an experience of a lifetime.
My brother and the twins set off June 1, 2019 to walk the Camino. But it didn't start there....
The seed was planted last summer at our yearly family reunion. Sitting around the picnic table just chatting and catching up with various members of our extended family I mentioned something that I had been wanting to do for a long time. I told them that I would be turning 60 in November and something I really wanted to do was walk the Camino and I wanted to walk with my daughter. The twins chimed in and said, "Really? We were just talking about that. We are planning to do it as our graduation gift from high school!" So... the seed was planted and we began our planning. We would do it together!
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| Taylor and Marilyn at the family reunion |
By November the plans were looking promising for walking the Camino in my 60th year. I was beyond excited. The only frustrating part was that I would not be able to get enough time off work to do the entire journey from end to end. My brother and the twins would do the entire 500 miles and me, my daughter, my younger brother and my sister-in-law would take approximately 12 days off and plan to meet up at some point along the journey and walk to the end - to Santiago - with my brother and the twins to receive our Compostelas (certificate of completion). My husband and Taylor's husband, agreed to stay home and take care of the animals (in reality they were not the least bit interested in walking, and certainly not walking for 10 days in a row!).
So by Christmas time we decided that gifts should be Camino related. I made copper shell pendants for all of us and also bought some books about other peoples journeys along the Camino. REI gift cards were received so we made an adventure out of a shopping spree at REI where we found shoes, socks and this and that. I had already found my backpack - Osprey 36L in green and my hiking poles which i bought with my REI dividend. REI is the best.
We sat around the dining room table and talked about routes and how to work out meeting up along the Camino. We discussed different items we would need and most importantly exactly when it would happen. We also planned for a training hike the next day. We used a hike at our local Sope Creek trail to test out our new shoes.
 |
| Edward's family and Taylor with Daisy at Sope Creek |
more to come... a lot more planning is needed.
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