Aaagh! This is so late!

Anyway:
As I noted in my last post, I was going to (and now have returned from) Washington DC.

I went with a 31-person group from the Fargo Diocese.

Our five-day adventure went like this:

Thursday, January 20th
We spent the whole day on planes. We flew from Fargo to Minneapolis, then from Minneapolis to Washington DC.
We arrived at the St Francis Hall (which is right across from the Fransiscan Monastery of the Holy Land ) by dinnertime.

Friday, January 21st
We went up to Emmitsburg Maryland and visited the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes.

While we were in Emmitsburg, we had Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

After Lunch, we drove up to Gettysburg Pennsylvania and toured the battlefields.

Saturday, January 22nd
We romped through the streets of DC!






We also split up and visited a few of the Smithsonian museums. I went to Air and Space.

Sunday, January 23rd
We went to the Holocaust Museum. I can’t really say I had a good time, but I’m glad I went.

By this time we started seeing other groups also gathering for the march.

By about 2:00 we found ourselves at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

We ate lunch, then spent about four hours waiting for mass to start. Even though we arrived this early, we had to sit on the floor.

Mass lasted about two hours, and was absolutely amazing.

Monday, January 24th
The day of the march!

before the march we called on Senator John Hoeven and Congressman Rick Berg. Neither of them were in, but their assistants were kind enough to show us around and answer our questions.

We got to the mall…sometime. There was a rally featuring some awesome speakers, followed by the *drummroll* MARCH FOR LIFE!



There were a lot of people (I tried counting, but my brain almost melted). According to the website, there were approximately 400,000 people. That’s about seven times the population of my town!

I was, however, able to count the counter-protesters using  my fingers ;)

The march was quite an experience. I’ve prayed outside of an abortion mill and participated in short marches in the Fargo area, but nothing nearly this big. There were people, and banners and even bagpipes!

Tuesday, January 25th
Just when I had the names of almost everyone in our group memorized,

it was time to go home.

But before we went to the airport, we were given a wonderful tour of the Monastery.

Thanks for reading, and if you want to see more pictures, you can go over to my flickr page (Extremely disorganized, I’m afraid).

Finally, I’d like to thank my friends, family and fellow parishioners for their prayers and contributions. You guys are awesome beyond compare!

Fin