June 22, 2014 - Washington DC

What a beautiful day we had today! The weather was cool, there was a nice breeze and it didn’t rain! What more could one ask?

Holly has been agitating to go to a Latin Mass and she found one at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. It was at 10 a.m., so we left early and lucked out with a parking spot right in front of the church. This is one of the more spectacular and historical churches in DC. It is the church that JF Kennedy was buried from and there is a large round plaque on the floor in front of the altar commemorating it.
The church is beautiful with stained glass, marble on all the walls and columns, statues, and a huge cupola. 

The mass was interesting – bringing back memories of mass in our home parish in Winnebago MN. They have a schola cantorum that sings and they were wonderful. We sat right in front of them, so I enjoyed watching and singing along. A lot of the Latin came back to me. There was a fairly large congregation and they were singing and reciting the Latin with no problem. It was a very moving experience.

After mass we looked for a place for lunch. We drove around Dupont Circle and noticed some places on Connecticut Avenue, After some struggle we found parking on the street (most of the meters do not run on Sunday), and ate at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe & Grill. It was a cute place with a book store attached. We waited in line amongst the books and it was a real temptation not to buy one! The food was delicious. Don’s meat was too salty and the chef agreed with him, so did not charge us for his meal. What a nice place – definitely on our list to come back to.