Trip of Awesomeness!!!

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

Michelle and I had an amazing trip touring the East Coast.

I (shockingly) remembered my camera! And took many a picture!

But none of the Virginians.

Rest assured, they look great.

Here is a sampling of what happened:

We bummed around Fredericksburg.

Did some X-mas shopping, drank some beers, walked.

Then, we drove (7 hours!) to Asheville NC.

My first time in NC! (And the tip of Tennessee. Scary.)

We went to an incredible retreat, titled A New Ancient Harmony.

It was wonderful. Peaceful. Incredibly spiritually overwhelming in the best possible ways.

I'm still processing.

Perhaps, one day, I will know what I learned. :)

I didn't get many good pictures from that.

But this one? I love this one.

This is Fran McKendree. He is probably one of my favorite people on the planet.

He is soulful, kind, immensely talented yet humble, and overflowing with love and light.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about the man.

I think I'm probably in love with him.

Unfortunately, he is happily married and lives across the country.

This (terrible) pic is of me and Michele with another amazing source of inspiration in my life, Brian Prior (on the left). Brian is the current Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, but will forever be known to me as the man I probably tortured as a super annoying camper when he ran Camp Cross. I asked him this weekend if he would have guessed I would turn out so great, and he honestly said "You? No. Never in a million years."

Also pictured, J. Phillip Newell, the keynote speaker at our conference.

Profoundly spiritual, and honestly living every word he preaches. A rare gift in this world I think.

Also, he really rocks the scarf.

Alas, all good things must come to an end.

It was onward and upward, via brief stopover in F'burg, to DC for the rest of the weekend.

I tried to condense pictures.

But rest assured, an awesome time was had by all.

(All being me, Michele, and our old Camp friends Ellen Adams and AJ Frye. Plus a few visits from our bud Ashley and AJ's girlfriend Andrea...)

We drank. We talked shit. We laughed a LOT.

Like ridiculous amounts.

We wandered around DC.

It was cooold. But beautiful. (A nice change from Asheville, where it rained/misted the entire time!)

We goofed around. Saw some sights.

And I discovered my amazing gift for the self-pic.

I love it.

Honestly, people would offer to take our picture, and I usually refused.

So there you have it.

I could not be happier to be home, though.

I missed my dog something crazy.

And I think she was about to go on hunger strike.