Day 1: Starting Off….

Today is our first day of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela.

It will be interesting to see how well Sebastien and I do, walking an average of 28km (over 17 miles) per day, just about every day for the next 30 (we are hoping to make up some ground so we can have three rest days too. This route (the Camino Frances – the most traveled pilgrimage to Santiago) is approximately 800km (500 miles) long, from start to finish. This is definitely an intimidating number, but like everything in life, I have to be content with taking it (literally) one step at a time.

The terrain on today’s trail is some of the toughest we will face during the whole month. We have to cross the Pyrenees Mountains from France into Spain, which will mean having to walk 25km (15.5mi), while ascending 1450m (almost a mile) to the peak!

I hear this day takes about 8 hours of hiking to finish, so I am sure I will be ready for a nice glass of wine (or two), some delicious manchego, and some sausages. Mmmmm. There is nothing more satisfying than eating a delicious meal after exercising.

I hope things are good in your life, and that you are happy an healthy. Wish us well!

Long Walks, Long Links, Long Weekend, Part 1

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh.....

Long weekends make it all worth it.

Thursday July 1st was Canada Day, and because we are living in Canada now, we took advantage of the day off! Seb and I also took Friday off, to make the weekend especially luxurious!

We were busy little bees this weekend, but in the best way possible. It wasn't that we had much planned; we didn't. It was busy in the way summer days should be.

For Canada Day, we took a long walk around town, to stretch our legs a bit. We walked just a touch over 8 miles, and ended our walk at the Yaletown Grand Prix, to cheer on our friend Ted and his cycling team. We went home for a while, and left soon after because Sebastien represented Acadamie Duello in the Canada Day Parade (along with 53 other swordspeople)! After that we were thoroughly exhausted.

Friday we did another long walk (this one 12 - 1/2 miles), picking up groceries and lunch along the way, and chatting about all the different neighborhoods we passed through.

After our lovely walk and delicious lunch (near mile marker 6), we made sure to take off our hiking boots (!). We headed off to watch our friend Anil's passion project for the last year - a documentary series pilot (the two episodes we watched were about Jodhpur, India). It is splendid. I can't wait for it to get picked up by Discovery or TLC (any of you out there reading this work for Discover or TLC?)!

It was a relaxing couple of days, even more so because we would normally have been at work!