Spontaneous Incredible Pacific Northwest Trip!

So, the week before the 4th of July, I found out that I had one more vacation day that I had to use before the end of the month (or I would lose it). I decided to go back to the Pacific Northwest, where I have longed to go for four years. I was last there with my friends Penny, Dana, and Scott four years ago. Way too long for me to be away from the spiritually-moving beauty, culture, and air of the Pacific Northwest.

Anyway, here is a brief overview of my trip in words and pictures.

Seattle was great! It was warm and sunny the whole time, which is a surprise, and a blessing. I stayed with my cousin, who lives in Seattle. I flew there on the 4th of July. I had reserved a compact car, and what they gave me was a PT Cruiser... but a convertable! I have never driven a convertable, so I had fun with the top down on the car.















I went to the famous Pike Place Market for a bit, and then met up with my cousin Tiffany. We went to see the movie "Sicko", a documentary by Michael Moore about the sad state of American healthcare. Then we went to a gathering of her friends, and then went to dinner. Afterwards, we saw fireworks from a distance, over the Elliott Bay on Puget Sound in Seattle.

On Thursday, I pretty much just slept in, drove around by along Lake Washington, visited the Univ of Washington Campus (this is a picture of the side of the Library), went to the Burke Museum of Natual History on the U. of W. campus. U "Dub" is a great campus!















I also went to the classical Japanese Garden in Seattle.















Then I went downtown by myself, watched the movie "Transformers" and chilled in the cool downtown area.


Friday my cousin and I went to Portland, Oregon, and hung out in that downtown, shopped, and went to a huge Blues Music Festival on the Riverfront. That was great! We also went to a Classical Chinese Garden.















Then we went to the International Rose Test Garden, with over 7,000 rose plants, in over 500 varieties. It was amazing, on a hill overlooking downtown. We came back Saturday, hung out with some friends, and then I took the red-eye from Seattle to Cincinatti, and then to Akron.




























I left Seattle at 12:45 am on Sunday morning, got to Akron at 10:30 am, was picked up, and went straight to church. I came home and crashed (sleep wise) the rest of the night. It was a long trip home, but the trip was amazing. Portland definitely grew on me. Hum... who knows what the future holds.

The Seattle Bizarro World Anti-Church

I assume that most people will remember the Seinfeld episode where Seinfeld and his friends meet their “oddly normal” counterparts, which they refer to as “Bizarro World.” Well, I have met the Bizarro World counterpart to our home church.

While here in Seattle, visiting my cousin, who is a humanist and atheist, we met up with some of her friends from the Seattle Atheists organization for a party for the 4th of July. We got there late, and I walked into the room, and was greeted by a few friendly faces. I looked around, and there was a middle-aged guy teaching a young teenager how to play a song on the guitar. We went outside, and there were several others out back, sitting around in a circle, talking about “normal” stuff. They had had a grill potluck, complete with beef burgers and veggie burgers… but all the beef burgers were gone. I sat down and listened as one of them said suddenly, “I finally found an issue that I can join the conservatives on.” “Why would you want that?” replied someone. “I miss being conservative. I want to be conservative, but I just can’t be now.” So, before he could explain his issue that he could be “conservative” about, the group made him explain why he wanted to be conservative. Then he went on to share his thoughts, which resulted in good-natured ribbing, honest discussion, and total civility. A little later, a guy pulled up a chair and started talking to my cousin and me. He talked about how one of the members of the group wanted to produce an Atheist Show for public access TV… and how he didn’t have time to work on it… and thought only astrologers and weirdo Christians had public access TV.

Apparently, this is pretty typical for this group. They meet regularly, have meals together (either potlucks or at restaurants), sit in a circle and talk about things, celebrate birthdays and weddings and holidays, share songs on the guitar, and generally seem to function like extended family. The parallels were more than a little unnerving.

So, this Bizarro World anti-church reinforced a couple of things to me. First, Atheists are normal people with normal lives who are seeking very similar things in life. They don’t have Bible burnings (though I think some of them wouldn’t mind it), they don’t have a monolithic political agenda, and they value marriage (at least, some do; they recently had a wedding in their group, and some are married) and relationships. Second, Atheists are seeking the same thing our group is seeking – relational intimacy (ie, family). In this respect, I begin to really value to “model” of relationality that a Triune God involved in the perichoresis provides to those of us seeking intimate relationships.