Ahh, back on the red leather couch on Vashon Island, ready to blog! This is like the driver seat for the whole deal. Well, LA and San Diego were exciting for sure but a guy can only take so much. Now back to ordinary Phil here at home.

Our crew and hosts were so great. Thank you Annie for steering the ship. Thank you Doug for making time. Thank you Carol and Esther for the handling. Thank you Ivette (and Marc) and Sherie for the accommodations and extras. Thank you Janet for getting us around. Thank you Paulette for the lovely and exciting meal. Thank you Bill and Maggie for the laughs and the views. Thank you Bob and Lois for the pool party. Thank you Quint for showing us the way. Thank you Todd and Jess for the Padre’s game and the lovely time at your wedding. Thank you to all the warm folks from Agape and Santiago de Compostella Church for being who you are. Thank you to our audiences who came to see the film. Thank you to the Royal Theater and Emil’s Bakery in Santa Monica. Thank you to our son Wiley for covering for us here in Seattle. There are certainly people I and forgetting here but know that we appreciate you all. We had a great and memorable experience.

The next topic is the Port Townsend Film Festival in Port Townsend, WA taking place on September 23-25. If you are planning on coming to experience this and want to stay at Fort Warden with us let me know. There are some rooms left in the block that we reserved and where My Rebecca and I are staying. These are plain but very reasonable. If you want to leave a comment on this post I can pick up your email address from there and put you in touch with John who is taking care of the booking.

Well, there, that taken care of. Want to talk a little about Mass this last Sunday morning. We had made the trip down to San Diego on the 5 and we were with Sherie there in Point Loma. So Sherie and I made a plan to go to Mass Sunday morning at San Diego Mission Acala, which is the oldest mission in California. What a beautiful and holy place. It was so moving being there and I got a chance to go through the Door of Mercy on the way in.

The long narrow church was just beautiful in that rugged historic funky sort of way that is so rich because of it’s simplicity and honesty. Ivette explained to me that these structures were narrow because the beams that were used to span from wall to wall were only so long coming from the trees of the dry environment so to make the space bigger they could only make it longer. I see.

Mass was beautiful and I wept during the Eucharist. And the people in attendance whether they were mostly regulars or visitors like us I don’t know, applauded afterward which we joined in on and that was new and fresh. Even though Roman Catholic Mass is the same worldwide on any given day there are local peculiarities that are fun and meaningful that sneak in. Maybe Padre Tomas is reading this and he can let us know his thoughts.

Well, time to go and make Tuesday happen. Have a great one and send a comment to let us know how you are doing. Sun coming out loves, Felipe.