Category Archives: Churches

San Fernando Cathedral – San Antonio

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The 18th-century San Fernando Cathedral is the first church built in San Antonio, the oldest standing church in Texas, and one of the oldest cathedrals in the U.S. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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A copy of Michelangelo’s Pieta.

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It is disputed whether the remains of some of these Alamo heroes are entombed here but they are honored here.

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I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

When I uploaded my photos I noticed that my lens had a hefty smudge on it. This was a hot muggy day so it’s no surprise my lens got smudged. This was my last stop on the trolley tour and from here I walked back to the hotel. I visited another church in San Antonio before we flew home that was a beauty. I’ll share that one next week.

Friday was a banner day for exercise at this old house. After Zumba in the morning I mowed our yard and the front yard of our neighbor. During this time Dear and our son in law continued the work on our front walkway. (collage below) In the evening Dear and I took a walk since we were falling asleep too early. Today I might just be sitting around doing nothing until the Sounders game tonight.

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The walkway work will continue on the next dry day we have.

Hope your weekend is going well…

InSPIREd Sunday – Edison Lutheran Church

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On Friday morning Dear took the day off and we hopped in the car for a little road trip. We headed north on I-5 and exited on Chuckanut Drive. We turned left (west) off of Chuckanut onto Allen West Road headed for Farm to Market Road where we turned right (north). We spotted this steeple and decided to take a closer look. It was just off Farm to Market Road on Church Road.

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After I took these photos we continued on Farm to Market Road to Bow Hill Road in the little one block downtown of Edison, Washington. We enjoyed visiting the Bread Farm Bakery and then had breakfast at Tweets.

It was a beautiful day for a drive in our state with temps getting up into the 80’s! I’ll share a post about our day and all we saw and ate soon.

I’m linking up later today to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

If you click over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook today you’ll see some of my favorite things in my kitchen.

Sunlit and InSPIREd Sunday…

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On our sister weekend as we were leaving Coupeville on Whidbey Island we stopped so I could take photos of this church.

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A well kept church with a great belfry!

And my shot to welcome Spring and the beginning of Holy Week taken at Stanley Park in Vancouver B.C. yesterday.

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Linking up to InSPIREd Sunday and I believe the last week of Sunlit Sunday.

This coming week will be a busy one as our household prepares for our Easter observances. Cleaning, decorating, getting the guest room ready for our son and daughter in love from Eastern Washington, baking our traditional Easter bread Kulich/Paska, our sweet cheese topping, Seernaya Paska and decorating eggs. Haven’t decided on the main course for our Easter meal but it will most likely be rack of lamb. Are you getting ready?

InSPIREd and Sunlit…

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On our way to the daffodil fields during our sister weekend my sister Lana said I should turn around and go back to this church that I zoomed by. I have posted photos from this church on my blog but my sister Lana hadn’t seen it before and wanted to get a closer look and take some photos. She pointed out something that I had totally missed on my previous visits.

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Fir-Conway Lutheran Church. You can read it’s history here.

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She said, “did you notice the crown on the cross on top of the spire? I said “no I didn’t” and I hopped out of the car to zoom in.

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How very cool is that. Jesus is my King.

12472540_10208920338794004_1037827750771597552_nThe moral of the story is to keep looking up and take your sisters on more road trips!

I’m linking up to InSPIREd Sunday and Sunlit Sunday.

Sunlit ~ InSPIREd Sunday!

Later today I’ll link up with Sunlit Sunday hosted by Karen at My Little Home and Garden and InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Beth and Sally. Here are more churches from San Francisco and some other sunlit inspirations.

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St. Agnes Catholic Church in the Haight Asbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

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Another church I saw on the upper deck bus tour I took. Wish I knew what church is is.

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The First Congregational Church in Downtown San Francisco that is now the Academy of Art.

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A recent sunrise out my stairwell window beyond my neighbors huge maple tree.

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A timely sunlit photo for this particular Sunday. This sculpture in Kirkland Washington always is decorated according to what’s happening in our world or for holidays.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Sunlit and InSPIREd

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When Dear and I arrived in San Francisco January 20th we checked into our hotel and then braved the walk uphill to the Mark Hopkins hotel on Nob Hill. On the way we passed Grace Cathedral. Grace Cathedral is a beautiful church that I’ve posted about before when I did a more thorough visit in 2008. I’ll leave a link to my full posts at the end of this one. We continued on to the “Top of the Mark” for some small bites and a drink. This next photo shows a view of Grace Cathedral from above.

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On our way back to our hotel (all downhill this time) we stopped in at the Cathedral for a quick view of the inside and then I took some photos from the outside during sunset.

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To see more from the inside and outside and to read some history of Grace Cathedral click here and here.

Later today I’ll link up with Sunlit Sunday hosted by Karen at My Little Home and Garden and InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Beth and Sally.

I’m having a carefree Saturday with just a little shopping excursion planned to pick up a few last minute items for our Lunar/Chinese New Year Super Bowl party tomorrow. Dear vacuumed for me yesterday and I dusted and sorted out a lot of junk piles so our house looks crisp, neat and ready for fun. While I prepare this post I’m enjoying some Barclay’s Premier League Soccer on the telly. Yes, I’m a fan of soccer. Dear and our son-in-law are off to our near son’s home to do some hard labor with a jackhammer! I suppose I better have a hardy meal ready for dinner for the workers! Hope you have a good weekend.

Old St. Mary’s Cathedral

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Old St. Mary’s in San Francisco’s Chinatown. The first building erected as a cathedral in California, Old St. Mary’s served the archdiocese of San Francisco in that capacity from 1854 to 1891. Once the city’s most prominent building, much of its stone work was quarried and cut in China and its brick brought “around the Horn” in sailing ships

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Old St. Mary’s Church was established by Father Henry Ignatius Stark as a mission. The purpose was to teach the Chinese community about the Catholic faith. It was built by Chinese laborers in 1854 with brick brought around Cape Horn and granite cut in China. It was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in 1909.

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When I was in Chinatown with my friend Alice we got to the church after it was closed for the day. On Saturday before we left San Francisco Dear and I walked to Chinatown and we went into the church. Because of a funeral that was about to begin I didn’t feel comfortable taking too many photos of the inside.

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They’ve built a new St. Mary’s that is not in Chinatown and my friend says that the people of Chinatown aren’t thrilled about traveling to go to the new church.

Linking up to InSPIREd Sunday with Beth and Sally.

Hope you all are enjoying the last weekend of January. We are here at this old house. The sun is shining through the clouds for a change and we can see some blue sky. We’ve had a very rainy week so it’s nice to see some blue mixed in with the grey clouds.

Churches and Barns…

On Saturday we took a drive to the city of Snohomish to shop about in the antique and specialty stores before it started pouring down rain.

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We saw some barns on the way…

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And while we walked about we saw a couple of churches. I didn’t get close enough to the churches to give you details.

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Our daughter came with us on our little drive and shopping excursion and she bought a couple items and we bought one small item. We ate lunch together in the sunshine and came home in a downpour!

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I’m linking up with Tom the Backroads Traveler for The Barn Collective and with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday.

This coming week will be full with travel to San Francisco later in the week. Still taking any suggestions for restaurants and sights to see in San Francisco from any travelers out there. I got some good suggestions already but I’m always ready for more!

InSPIREd Sunday

I’m re-posting these photos from my visit to Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in December of 2008. I’m anticipating another visit to San Francisco at the end of January for a cancer symposium. Dear is the one who will be at the cancer symposium and I will be a tourist in San Francisco again.

 

Grace Cathedral is descended from the historic Grace Church, built in the Gold Rush year of 1849, and the imposing structure on the corner of California and Stockton streets that was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. San Francisco’s Crocker family gave their Nob Hill porperty, destroyed by the fire, for the building of a new cathedral.

 

Work began on this structure in 1928. Designed in the French Gothic style by Lewis Hobart, it was completed in 1964.

 

 

Famed for its Ghiberti doors, labyrinths, stained glass, the cathedral has become an internationally-known place of pilgrimage.

 

The Doors of Paradise are considered by many to be the first and greatest masterpiece of Italian Renaissance. The magnum opus of Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), the doors were made for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral (the Duomo) and told the story of the Old and New Testaments. Grace Cathedral’s doors were made from the same molds – which were later destroyed – used for the originals.

 

 

 

I was also impressed with several of the other doors into the cathedral and wanted to show you them, too.

 

 

 

One of my special treats the day I visited the Cathedral was a small orchestra practicing for a Christmas concert. It was just so beautiful to walk around the inside of the cathedral being serenaded with beautiful music that inspired me to praise God for all the wonder available to us…

 

So much wonder this time of year. I’m taking time to adore my savior.

Friday night we are going to have a small Raclette party at our house. Maybe I’ll take photos to share later. A dear friend of ours was the Realtor we used to buy this old house. She has not been back since 1998 to see the improvements we’ve made. I don’t know how that happened but finally she and her hubby are coming for dinner and we’ll give her a tour of the improved version of this old house. Since we will be busy with preparations for our time together I’m posting this early because I won’t be on the computer until who knows when. Hope you all are enjoying the wonders of the Christmas season!

I’ll be linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday! I’ll probably be missing in action next week.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.

InSPIREd Sunday

 

Langley United Methodist Church on Whidbey Island. We were in Langley on Thanksgiving weekend and I took this shot.

Linking up with Beth and Sally at InSPIREd Sunday.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.