Many Blessings

This past weekend was a crazy whirl of last minute errands and bon voyages.

Although I’m not leaving until Easter Sunday, and Francine not until the 17th of April, we thought it best to avoid the rushing around the week before Easter.

We topped up our equipment at the REI sale in Tacoma on Saturday. Some crazy deals at the “returns” sale – much of it basically brand new.

We also made trips to get some pipe tobacco for the Camino, a copy of April’s issue of Magnificat from the local Catholic bookstore, and a few other random things.

At Sunday Mass, our pastor graciously agreed to confer upon us the Pilgrims’ Blessing.

It was absolutely beautiful. In addition to commissioning Francine and I as pilgrims, our backpacks (“rucksacks” in the text) were blessed, as were our walking sticks and shell medals and patches.

It felt distinctly odd to be shouldering a backpack in Church, especially while wearing a suit.

Our friend Mary took some photos, and I’m sharing just a few of them here.

After Mass, we had a lovely brunch with daughter Victoria, though I’ll never make the mistake of going into an Irish place on Saint Patrick’s Day again!

Then we were off to Feisty Gals Coffee for an afternoon of board games and camaraderie with many of our friends and family.

This lasted into the night, and we had quite a crowd of folks there to see us off and wish us well.

It was great!