Whew!

Anna and I just got back Saturday night from a lightning fast trip to Seattle. We went so that I could conduct the Service of Remembrance for Anna's Aunt Phyllis, so it was more like a business trip than anything else. We flew into Seattle Thursday night, having left Dundee after Anna was finished with her workday, and left Seattle Saturday afternoon, less than 48 hours after we arrived. I'm sorry I didn't have time to visit with everyone while we were there, but I had promised my supervisor that I would be back in time to be in the two pulpits I was scheduled for on Sunday morning.

It wasn't all business, though. Anna had a great chance to get caught up with her cousins, and I had time to visit with Andrew over breakfast at University Village, near the University of Washington. I must say that travelling by mass transit in the Seattle area is pretty good! I was able to get from where we were staying in Edmonds to the UW campus in just under an hour, and I didn't have the stress of fighting traffic or looking for a place to park. We ate at a little place called Specialty Cafe and Bakery in the U Village, and we were the only people silly enough to be there during the 7 o'clock hour on a Friday. I was grateful for the chance to get caught up with my son, and just sorry that I didn't have enough time or transportation options to visit with Daniel in Bellingham. Thanks to the Metro Transit web site and Andrew's lap top computer, along with the UW campus-wide wireless Internet access, I was able to figure out how to get back to Edmonds as well.

Anna and I also decided that while we had a little free time in Edmonds we would take advantage of the fact that we were within walking distance of the Edmonds to Kingston ferry landing. We walked aboard the Walla Walla to Kingston where we had lunch at the Drifter and poked around some of the little shops in downtown Kingston, then boarded the Spokane for our return trip to Edmonds. We still had enough time to cruise downtown Edmonds for a bit, and we checked out the artist gallery where Anna's cousin sells custom jewelry. There are lots of artists that display their stuff there, and many things to choose from. Anna's cousin Bonnie creates jewelry using mostly fossils and semi-precious stones set in silver, and it is really nice stuff.

The service itself was an opportunity to preach Christ and the hope of Christ's promise of eternal life to those who have lost touch with their faith. Many people that attended the service have no church affiliation, so I took it as an opportunity to invite the Holy Spirit into the room to get to work. Most of the people in attendance thanked me for the service, even the ones who don't go to church, so I'm hopeful that the Holy Spirit was able to work on them. I think some seeds were sown, now hopefully the soil is good enough to get them to grow.

Saturday morning came with an opportunity to visit with Anna's friend Phyllis and her husband Roger, and have lunch at Anthony's in Des Moines. The restaurant was just as good as I remember it, and it was good to eat some fresh salt water fish again. Here in Minnesota the salt water fish isn't worth the purchase, but the Walleye is good. Anthony's serves Alaskan True Cod and it was very good, as was the clam chowder. The visit with Roger and Phyllis was too short, as was the whole trip, but they faithfully took us to the airport, where we boarded our plane for the uneventful flight home. The nice thing about the return trip was that the seat next to Anna and me was empty, so we had a little room to spread out. When we returned, it was a quick hug to my cousin Kathy, thanks to her husband John who did the car-sitting for us, and then back to Dundee. After two worship services Sunday morning we slept for a bit Sunday afternoon, but woke up just in time to see the end of the Vikings game where they beat the Packers for the first time under Childress.

Yesterday was another quick trip to the Twin Cities for Anna's doctor's appointments and a chance for me to visit the seminary to pick up the new Pastoral Care book. It was fun to chat with people there, and Mary in the bookstore insisted on imprinting my name on my new book, so now it is obvious who it belongs to. With everything that has been going on in our parish lately, I'm sure I will get a lot of use out of this book. We got home before dinner time last night, so we got a good chance to get some good sleep before getting things back to normal today. The only thing not normal about today is the weather. The forecast is calling for freezing rain followed by snow. I have a few places to go today, so driving will be no fun. Yes, I'll be careful!
Blogged by Don