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.

Comments

Laurie said…
Seriously, I almost looked up dog psychiatrists in the phone book. If you had been gone one more day, she was going to start cutting herself.

And Brian was nuts not to know you were going to turn out super-fabulous. Geez what is WRONG with that guy.
Unknown said…
In his defense mom, she did graffiti A LOT at camp. :) Love everything about this, except that I wasn't there too. Love that you had such a good time and saw so many of our favorite people. And like Lucy, I'm glad you're home.
Meredith said…
Oh man. What an epic trip. I can't believe I hadn't met Fran until this year... and I know of John Philip Newell via San Diego! The rector of the cathedral there, who married Mike and me, often quoted and mentioned him.

The spirituality with both those men in the same place AND you all bringing the Camp Cross must've turned wherever you were from a normal place to a thin place to a hole straight to heaven. Not to mention one amazing east coast camp reunion afterward. Next time you plan something this amazing, let me know, and I'll drop pretty much everything to come play, k? :)
Lis said…
What a great sounding trip. Loving the bangs! Have you lost your furry growth yet or is she still sticking to your side? :-)
Katie said…
Mer - there is some talk about Fran and JP meeting up in new mexico in july for a young adult retreat... I'll keep you updated! :

And Lis, I lost my sidekick for a day, until grammy took off to seattle again on us!
Cara said…
glad you had such a grand time. we only wish you would have stayed around the burg a little more=)