Winding down this leg of vacation

Pheeeeewwww.

We're home from Nashville, home from the coast, and beginning to say goodbye to the last bit of Paul's vacation in July. (We get two more weeks in September.) It's been nice, but kind of frenetic!

First I'll report on Nashville, what I didn't tell you already. We never ordered room service ice cream sundaes--sorry, Theophilus. We just never had opportunity. Lots of evenings were taken by big dinners, that had dessert with them already, and the other evenings we were out on the town getting back late. I suppose I'll have to say "next time" on that....but when would that be? Heavens, I don't expect to stay in such a hotel again in my life.

I'd left a comment in the last post about Paul asking the archbishop about altar girls....he just brought up female deacons, didn't ask about them, because female deacons in this country is further off, and he wanted to focus on what's closer. Plus they already have female deacons in Greece, in an exceedingly limited fashion. The archbishop said four words that Paul said he'd hold onto: "It might be feasible." Well, it's something. Really it's the same kind of answer that's been given for a long time--maybe, wait, not yet.

On Thursday was the Grand Banquet, which I said I might just cut and run from. As it turned out, they held us captive in two ways: first, they had the program between the salad and the entree, so we couldn't leave unless we didn't want to eat. But second, it was an amazing program! It didn't drag on and on like usual. They had the Victory Choir, which is an African American choir singing traditional black gospel music. Wow, were they great! And even more interesting than the actual choir was the Greek response. I wouldn't have expected it....some were just sitting not reacting, but a lot were up on their feet, clapping, moving to the music.

Then there was the keynote speaker. He was from the First Amendment Center and he was amazing. Paul's and my reaction to his speech, without coordinating it, was to immediately jump up to give him our highest applause in a standing ovation. He brought up so many issues of social justice, racism, and poverty that we as a church need so badly to focus on, and have been remiss in not doing for far too long. Of course, he had the beloved Archbishop Iakavos to give as a shining example of someone who marched with Martin Luther King.

On Friday we had some time to do shopping at the hotel and then it was off to the airport. Paul had said hang it all, he was wearing his tie-dyes, not clerical wear. But at the airport, we ran into none other than the archbishop, Met. Nicholas, and the whole retinue. Oops! Paul spent the first bit of time trying to have them not notice him, and ended up just walking up and greeting the archbishop as is. :-) Oh, we also saw, at the airport, an old friend from seminary. We'd actually seen him in the altar on Sunday, but only recognized his beautiful chanting--he's grown a full beard since then and we didn't think it looked like him. It was nice to see him. He's in Greece now but is returning to the states soon.

Oh, Mimi--I tried to have some sweet tea at the airport while Paul got his last thing that he wanted from Nashville: a shot of Jack Daniels. :-) But all they had there was Snapple. Not what I was looking for. I did have some sweet tea with some fast-food Chinese just before the NashTrash tour. And the fruit tea was sweet, but not exactly what I was thinking of.

We returned to blistering weather (it had been blistering in Nashville, too, but we lived in the unreality zone of the air-conditioned outdoors at the Opryland Hotel--or as Theo Nikolakis called it, the Biosphere) in Portland. We got out as soon as possible on Saturday, with kids and Paul's parents, to the coast. We didn't really do anything there but relax on the beach. On the way back we stopped at the Evergreen Aviation Museum, which houses the Spruce Goose. Paul's dad worked on planes in the military, and some of the models there were models he worked on. So, even though the hangar was not air-conditioned, we enjoyed some time there before we escaped back to our air-conditioned cars. :-P

Paul's parents went back to Tucson on Tuesday, and we've spent the week being tourists in our own city: we went to the falls on Wednesday, and walked around downtown yesterday. Had dinner at Bombay Cricket Club, an Indian restaurant. We've been trying to get over there for awhile....I'd read the service left something to be desired, but I found the service to be almost over-attentive. But some of the food wasn't as good as I've had: my favorite, saag paneer, wasn't very good. But the naan was delicious, and so were the pakoras and samosas.

Alas, today we have an unpleasant task ahead of us. We returned from the coast to find that a couple from the parish lost her son to suicide. His funeral is today. This will be difficult. Please pray for Toby, the son, and Dennis and Cherie. I know Dennis from choir.

Paul is out with the kids working on their newfound passion: building a sailboat. It's a small job, just big enough for the two kids probably. So they're looking for materials at the Rebuilding Center and the Restore Center, both places for recycled materials that benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Sunday we'll be back at church, and Paul's vacation will be over! But I think we're ready. Hibi's going to the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls in a week and a half, and then the kids with both go to church camp. I think we've got a good August coming up.