Slightly Perilous: Toms/Barnett Pyrenees Adventure

Home Sweet Home As much as travel is exciting, educational, interesting, and fun, there is no place like home. We could not wait to get back, especially to spend some time with Fundy and Rae. Even though we got home after dark, we raced out to the garden to see how it did during our absence. All in all, this was one EPIC trip - not too shabby for a 20th anniversary celebration for my parents. We decided that some families go on vacation or holiday. Our family goes on "trips" which generally includes ample type 2 fun. Trips like these inherently have stressful moments where we have to depend on each other. We talked about how each of us played an important and indispensable role on this adventure: My Mom : Chief Communicator and Planner. She did most of the planning for this trip and we relied on her for her Spanish and French skills. My Dad : Adventure Guide. He did the research for the canyons and via ferratas and was in charge of figuring ...

7-04-2019 DAY 16 Alarm clocks went off at 2:15am and we hit the road by 2:30am for the 1:30 hr drive to the Barcelona Airport. Our 1st flight was to Amsterdam where we connected with our flight to JFK. My parents, James and Maya had a movie marathon on the flight back, but I chatted with the person next to me almost the whole flight. She was from Germany and was going to NYC to study. I think the heat followed us from Spain back to the states, because it was super hot in New York, but it was also humid. We got our minivan (which felt so spacious) and drove to Pennsylvania to visit my dad's side of the family for a few days. A special surprise was that Grandmama was there. It was good to see everyone. Our internal clocks were a little off, so our sleep patterns were a little off during our visit.

7-03-2019 DAY 15 Another early to rise day with a sunrise on the agenda. It turns out the only the girls and women of the bunch were willing to sacrifice some sleep to witness this event. So my mom, Maya, Petra, Carla, and Anna met at 5:30am to walk to the beach. The destination was Cala Maset for viewing the sunrise show. This small beach  has a secret - during the days around the summer solstice, when the sun rises exactly in the east, the first rays of dawn fall right there and transform it into a kind of golden jewel. Since it was just 1 week past the solstice, we thought we would check it out. After taking 2 incorrect access paths, we finally found it on the 3rd try. It was a very small beach with cliffs on either side. Petra had brought some Belvita crackers "a.k.a. biscuits" so we nibbled on those. The mosquitos also decided to have a nibble on us. My mom had brought long pants and a jacket, but everyone else was just exposed to the blood sucking insects. T...

7-02-2019 DAY 14 After much discussion, we decided that we would eat breakfast at the hostal before heading out for the via ferrata, even though breakfast did not begin until 8:00. We were worried about starting the via ferrata in the heat too late and also there was a concern about there being lots of people doing it at the same time as us. This did not stop us from enjoying a delicious breakfast. There were yummy pastries, meats, cheeses, eggs, yogurt, bread, fruit, beans, cereal, juice, and even sparkling white wine. With full bellies we headed out to do the via ferrata. Paul was not feeling well and Anna (10 years old) has a sun allergy, so Petra hung back to help out and we brought Carla (15 years old) on her 1st via ferrata.  Located in the middle of the Costa Brava, Cala del Molí Via Ferrata of Sant Feliu de Guíxols (Baix Empordà) is the only via ferrata all over Europe which goes across sea cliffs. The views are spectacular - the water is a beautiful blue, the cl...