Marian Trio

To celebrate this trip, I decided to repost this photo of Mary Ann, Tresa, and me in Santiago de Compostela where there is a famous statue of elderly ladies in the park. And soon, we will escort our lovely mothers on our European jaunt.



For some background…..Finding great travel companions is not easy. But Mary Ann who I met in New York City through a mutual friend Jamie, has been a wonderful travel mate. She lets me travel plan and ideate activities and logistics, and we enjoy wonderful conversations over many meals together.

Our first trip together was when we traveled with Jamie and Caitlin to Peru in 2013. I can't believe this is the only photo of the two of us I could find from the trip as we took so many group photos:



After a dinner at Mary Ann's apartment and talking about the movie, "The Way", we decided we would walk the last 100 km of the Camino De Santiago. In 2019, Mary Ann's sister Tresa joined us from Germany and we also explored Bilbao and San Sebastián. Tresa is a phenomenal travel companion too - fantastic energy and positive attitude! She also lets you know when cars are coming from behind and bicycles from the front - she’s always looking out for us!



And because traveling with Mary Ann once in a summer is not enough, I traveled to Bremen, Germany to meet Tresa's family! And Mary Ann and their mother, Anna from India, was in town at the same time as well! Although it was only a few days together as I traveled through Germany alone for a few days, it was wonderful to meet Anna in Bremen!



During our many dinners and catch ups, Mary Ann and I are always brainstorming and talking about future travel. Through our conversations, we decided a trip with our mothers to visit the Catholic pilgrimages of Fatima and Lourdes would be fun to do together. It's not the most exciting of trips when you think about what people humblebrag about on Instagram and not that mainstream, but we decided it would be fun to do together.

Tresa was excited to join us as well, so after waiting out the pandemic and working through schedules, we are finally here.

This mother-daughter duo fivesome will be visiting Marian Shrines in Fatima - Portugal, Lourdes - France, and Montserrat - Spain and finding adventures in between. So it will be three pilgrimage sites in three countries, and three daughters!

Mary Ann, Mama Kim, and I converged at JFK where I even ran into an industry colleague who is on the same flight. This trio is ready to board for Europe!