They climb. They puke. I turn around and see two of them slapping at each other on top of the kitchen table over the Pirates Booty scraps.
Why did I do this to myself?
summer heat will be arriving tomorrow for possibly the entire week! UGH!
Had another MD appointment on Thursday. Needed to have my MD check some things that have arisen now in week five post-TAVR procedure. So, now am the proud "wearer" of a ZIO heart monitor patch for two weeks.
Then my lawn mower's self-propelled ability seems to be on the blink so I can't use it, too much exertion post procedure pushing it with what is like a break applied to he rear wheels.
Oldest son, ndslc, is here through tomorrow morning from Seattle area since he has a business meeting all week in the area. May try to get the mower working correctly. I have been considering going to a Ryobi battery mower (have lots of Ryobi tools) so I may just treat myself to one.
Oh, it is my Birthday weekend, tomorrow is the day but we will head up to a great crab/seafood spot later today for my annual "birthday platter".
Barney, you need to reture so every day can be a Saturday!
Best to all, have a great and safe weekend!
says.
Please tell me the name of this great crab/seafood spot as I love seafood. Sadly, Mrs. Barney68 does not ...
And Happy Birthday tomorrow. That will be me singing in the background ...
in Frederick. Been there for ages. I learned of it years ago through fellow Bechtel workmates who were from the Frederick area when we moved our offices from Gaithersburg to Frederick. Introduced to it when we took some client folks there for lunch. We didn't go there a lot but a few years ago Mrs. SIG and I started making it my birthday dinner spot.
Placed was packed tonight, but we usually are there on a weekday, a birthday day. Today was a day early since son, ndslc, is here,
They did not sing the birthday cheer but put My name up in animated lights on their sign out front.
Everyone was safe but she had a scary video to send along.
Fortunately for us the bigger tornado was out west and the second one by the airport was east. First time in 8 years we’ve lived here that any have come that close.
I thought of your posts on the Camino, which I always enjoyed.
We just did a day hike from San Sebastian to Pasaia (yeah, in reverse), but it was absolutely spectacular. I don't recall if you've done that one, but that leg hugs the coast line. I suspect we saw one of the best parts, so I am not sure it was enough to convince us to attempt a larger chunk in a future trip.
Do you have a recommended 7-day stretch? I would particularly enjoy one that lands in Santiago as it would be as much about the spirituality as it would be scenery. However, I'd like to see some beautiful sights along the way.
and hiked to San Sebastian on the Sunday before my Spanish immersion course started. The family I was staying with own a condo only a couple hundred yards from where the Camino comes down off the mountain into San Sebastian. Yes, the beach is VERY close and, yes, the beach scenery is spectacular.
It's easy to understand why you think you saw some of the best scenery. It may even be true. My experience lost its ability to identify the best scenery fairly early, however, as it seemed as though every turn of The Way had a better view lurking just beyond it. That said, the old aqueduct somewhere along the chunk you hiked remains a favorite of mine.
Rather than write something new, I'll follow BI's model and just past a draft of something I'm working on for my seniorpilgrimage website:
00 - Places along el Camino
After thinking a bit about my official 828-kilometer Journey and reading a lot of things about the Camino, the realization came to me that folks are often interested in the places a pilgrim encountered along the way. This section of my blog will be my best attempt to describe a few of the places that enriched my Journey. The places selected will be arbitrary based on my memory and what data is available in my photos and notes.
Importantly, my Journey was along el Camino del Norte from Irún to Arzúa and then along el Camino Frances from Arzúa to the Cathedral Square in Santiago. Thus, there will be no discussions of the many wonderful places along other Camino routes.
At least for now. As this is written in the spring of 2024, injuries have imposed limits on my plans through the height of the coming summer. While those same injuries have failed to impose any limits on my dreams, much of my Camino experience must be in reminiscence rather than active hiking.
Three segments
El Camino del Norte has, by my experience, three segments. The first is from Bayonne to Ribadeo, the second from Ribadeo to Arzúa, and the third from Arzúa to Santiago and the Cathedral.
Irún to Ribadeo
The first of the three segments is right along Spain’s northern coast, which faces the Bay of Biscay. The Gulf Stream in this area has turned south from the Arctic and is a major factor in the weather there.
Guidebooks tell me that the coastal weather combines relatively mild conditions with a blustery, rainy day two or three days in the average week. My own experience from Irún to Ribadeo, where el Camino del Norte turns a bit southwest and away from the coast, is that this is true for the summer months.
The scenery is generally spectacular. This is sometimes because of ocean views, sometimes because of mountain views, and sometimes due to the works of humankind. Where the scenery is not spectacular, the hike through Bilbao comes instantly to mind, there are other rewards to be enjoyed, the Guggenheim in Bilbao for example.
Ribadeo to Arzúa
The del Norte changes with its turn to the southwest at Ribadeo. The weather became drier. The terrain changes from coastal to mountainous. The scenery seems, in memory at least, to evolve into something a bit less challenging; certainly at Abadín, but somehow even earlier at Mondoñedo despite the long climb.
If the terrain is different, the pilgrims are more different, still! It seems as though there are instantly more peregrinos. The shift at Baamonde is beyond notable. Where many of the pilgrims one meets along the path to Gijón, for example, are embarked upon a Journey, the pilgrims beginning at Baamonde are focused on a destination: Santiago. They go to Baamonde by bus, pick up the Camino at the 100-kilometer mark, and qualify for their Compostela in the process of experiencing the Journey and its magic from that point.
Arzúa to Santiago
If “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown” is an iconic quote, I’ll do it one better: “Forget it, pilgrim. It’s the Frances.” The del Norte that I loved from Irún to Ribadeo and its sibling from Ribadeo to Arzúa definitely ended at Arzúa. The Frances is very different. Different terrain. Far, far more pilgrims. And if there were more than a few pilgrims who joined the del Norte at Baamonde, there seemed to be even more who joined the Frances at some equivalent 100-kilometer spot.
The fact that I arrived in Arzúa as World Youth Day approached and the young people hiking to Santiago as part of that celebration turned Arzúa into what appeared to be a village-wide party did nothing to reduce this impression of change.
With all that yet to be published verbiage, I'll offer what is, for me (a non-Catholic), an important difference. I found the Camino to be an indescribable spiritual Journey. Yes, there are all the other things, but it was that spiritual Journey that, for me, was the essence of the Camino.
Not being Catholic makes it impossible for me to conceive of the spiritual importance of arriving in Santiago and receiving one's Compostela. Thus, my recommendation that you plan your seven day Camino experience to include either Ernesto's Place or the Monasterio de Zenarruza. For me, those are places where the people are, somehow, the essence of el Camino de Santiago.
The Monasterio de Zenarruza seems like a great experience. I would definitely consider that as a starting point of a shorter trek to Santiago.
That beach by where your host's condo is located is the one that has the great surf. It was entertaining watching the surfers from afar.
We stayed on the other side of the river, in the old town. The water there did not appear to be surfable, but the back drop of the mountains and parts of the town in that bay made for spectacular views out of our window.
since I stayed there in '21. The accommodations look vastly improved. I looked at the material on the web over and over to convince myself that the shots of the exterior, which looked perfect, somehow corresponded with the shots of the interior, which looked like a completely different place.
It is not possible to overstate the dedication the folks there have to the pilgrims they serve. It is also not possible to overstate the incredible impression they made on me. Words like "wonderful" are simply inadequate.
If you need some toe-tappin' jitter-buggin', WAAAY south of the border tunes, here you go, straight outta the Mission district. I kid you not. This woman "Spins" some VERY interesting 20th century vinyl. It sounds like 60's Santana / Tito Puente / Surf music, cross-bred with disco, brass, Caribbean, and FUNK! ...from aaaaall over South America: