Author Archives: lydia

About lydia

An avowed francophile who speaks very broken but earnest French, Lydia is married to Joseph, of ancient Basque and modern Mexican lineage who has spent the past several years studying his Spanish heritage. In the course of their 50 plus years together, they have been abundantly blessed by a wonderful family which now includes 9 grandchildren, many longtime friends, and the desire to search their roots. Since Lydia doesn't have any French roots, her love of France must have come from her highschool teachers and from her father who never lost his ability to recite "The Grasshopper and the Ant" in French. His reading her the horrible wonderful French fairy tales didn't hurt either. Lydia plans their trips and Joe has the power of veto, sometimes! Genealogy research in Spain has led to a wonderful friendship with our Artajona Banales family. Our love of the Camino de Santiago has led to a love of the Camino Real de California. And then, there's always France, and Ireland, and Croatia, and, and.... This blog is an attempt to share some of the stories as they happen to spare their family and friends when they get home. We hope you enjoy it.

10/20 Two Flights Home

  It’s our final day of this long journey. We had to take two flights to get home: Chicago to Minneapolis and Minneapolis to LAX. I think its Delta’s way of discouraging us from using air miles. The first flight … Continue reading

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10/19 Tour with Garrett, then Back to Chicago

  We agreed to meet Garrett at 11:30 for the baseball tour so we packed up, had an excellent breakfast supplied by the hotel and checked out. Garrett gave us a great tour of the baseball complex including his locker, … Continue reading

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10/ 18 Garrett Day

Garrett had to finish a paper and go to class so we agreed to meet in the afternoon. That left Joe and me free to catch up on sleep, do laundry (this hotel even had a guest laundry!), go to … Continue reading

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10/17 Goodbye, Katherine; Hello, Garrett

Two flights today – 9 hours Madrid to Atlanta and 1 1/2 hours to Chicago with a 3 hour layover in Atlanta. Then rent another car (last one!) and drive an hour and a half  to Valparaiso to the Best … Continue reading

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10/16 Last Day wth Family in Spain

The day finally came when we had to finish our Artajona visit and take Katherine back to school. I was dreading this day, but, as usual, the family made it very special. Joe and I had a liesurely morning waiting … Continue reading

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10/15 (Cont’d) More Artajona Photos

On our way back to Artajona from Pamplona we could see the terrible devastation caused by the great fire this past August. Hundreds of acres burned and homes were threatened. We’re used to hearing this, but the Spaniards are not. … Continue reading

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10/15 Revisit Uncastillo, the Ancient Roman Ruins, Pamplona and more

We got going by 9am, a minor miracle, and drove to Uncastillo, a charming village Joe and I first visited 18 years ago. The weekend fiesta of the Virgin of Los Banales is held here each year on the last … Continue reading

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10/14 (Cont’d) More Artajona photos

Word press only allows a certain amount of photos in a post so I’ll see how many I can put on this page. (Couldn’t insert the video as it is too big. I’ll post a video of the Jota singing … Continue reading

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10/14 Banales Roots Day; then Artajona

This is the day for all things Banales. The plan is to see the Torre near here, a tower or castle once occupied by the Banales-Salazar families. We also plan to go to the mining operation in another site where … Continue reading

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10/13 To Portugalete and Banales Roots

(Sorry for no posts the past few days. Our hotel in Portugalete and our hosts in Artajona did not have wifi. ) Picked up the rental car, upgraded to a compact with automatic transmission, met Katherine, had a quick lunch … Continue reading

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