A Fun Walking Day

Hmmmm!  The Cathedral looks upside down.

Yay!  Camino Seattle is here again!  For those of us who can’t quite make it to Spain for a genuine Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, there is an abbreviated version right here in Seattle.  St. James parishioners gather to walk, pray, meet and greet other parishioners, see some local beauty spots, and mostly, have a lot of fun.  You know,

 "Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,

There's always laughter and good red wine.

At least I've always found it so.

Benedicamus Domino!"

Well, though generally the Camino walks do not have good red wine, all the other elements are there.

Last week, I was disappointed that I was unable to join any of the scheduled walks.  It seemed like there was some other compelling thing on every single day.  We get little stickers in our booklet whenever we go on one of the walks, and I am like a child in the grocery store expecting a sticker for not having overbalanced the grocery cart or not grabbing candy bars from off the shelves.  I covet the stickers.  And none all week! Sigh!  But on Saturday evening I got off work early (too many nurses, not enough patients – my heart sings whenever this happens) and shortly after I got home, The Twins texted to say they were testing the walk they would lead  the next day.  Would I like to come along?  You bet I would.  We collectively decided that this earned us all a sticker.  They are the bosses of the stickers, (Maria is the creator of the whole thing, in fact,) and so can make these executive decisions. And we all got another sticker the next day for going on the real walk.

The walk was a neighborhood Catholic history walk, and included new and fascinating information  - new to me though I live here and was born just down the street.  We passed through Seattle University, saw the Garrand Building, the original Seattle U edifice and now the School of Nursing, and then viewed the site of the Maryknoll Our Lady Queen of Martyrs parish church and school.  

This parish served immigrant communities – primarily Japanese and Filipino.  After Proclamation 9066, the Japanese parishioners were relocated to Minidoka and their Maryknoll pastor moved with them, along with two Maryknoll sisters to minister to their needs in the internment camp.  The parish continued serving the immigrant population, then primarily Filipino until the 50’s, when it finally was closed. While I knew about this parish and school and had friends who had gone there, I did not remember it, didn’t know its history, and didn’t, in fact, even know exactly where it had been.  Such history nearly next door! 

We continued on by historic Providence Hospital, founded by the Sisters of Providence in 1878.  This, on the other hand, was my early stomping ground. In fact, I was born there. 

Then on to Seattle’s oldest church, the Church of the Immaculate Conception (familiarly known as “the Immac.”) 

Corinna is filling us  in on the history of The Immac!

 My aunt was married there, I was baptized there and played the organ there for many years. It is one of my favorite churches ever.  It is very nineteenth century funky, and everything is a little overdone. The aroma is one of years of prayer and joy.  Just perfect! 

The Lourdes shrine was one of my favorite things in the world when I was wee!

 Then on to the Carmelite monastery where my father was an altar server as a little boy. You can read its interesting history (which I knew nothing about,) here. 

It was a fun walk, but the Catholic sun did shine a little too brilliantly for my taste.  I am not a sun worshiper.  But then, most of the walk was in the shade so were saved from the evils of too much sunny brilliance and could bask in the Corinna and Maria brilliance.