catching up with May (part 2)

I decided when I was loading photos for my last post, that I would separate the church photos from the rest of the images. No particular reason, just that I had a lot of them. The first image (above) is of an old church on the main drag. It was open and all 5 of us toured it briefly. My interior shots were not so great, so I'm just posting the historic placard that is on the outside. After lunch at a combo deli/ice cream place on main street, we all strolled down to a side street where the guys had earlier parked our cars (thanks guys for dropping us off). There were two churches down there, and TH and I decided to tour the main one after RT & co. left for home.

From this angle (above) you can sort of see the smaller church off to the left. The larger structure  is "St. Mary*s in the Mountains." It has been nicely restored (after having been shut down for lack of a congregation in the 50s or 60s?) and is open for business of both the sacred and more profane sort. During the period it was shut down, it was home to a group "mad monks," so-called because they tried to add some modern(e) architectural features, which of course the contemporary parishoners and historic preservationists see as evidence of their clear insanity (being a fan of mid-century modern--I thought it was kind of cool to see some of the minimalist modification they made). A museum and shop is operated out of the basement (also a corner gift shop upstairs, now that I think about it). Both locations sell--among other Catholic-y things--the Church's very own wine label, appropriately called "Mad Monks," the sale of which helps to fund further restorations. We bought two bottles under the pretense of giving one to a colleague who had a birthday coming up. But later we thought, "wait a minute, we are keeping this stuff for ourselves!"  You'll have to drop by for a tasting.

Now for the St. Mary*s pics. Poor TH stood out in the heat patiently while I took photos of the exterior. Click, and click again, to enlarge.

 

That stained glass rosette is one of the "mad monk" additions; the balcony (or whatever it is called, was taken down by the mad monks, but was located and rebuilt). They are very proud of this. 

If you head up to see this place, don't forget to go below...

And...lastly, the Episcopal Church which is just behind St. Mary's (and below).

This reminds me that I have some sort of cool cemetery photos from Sutter Cre*k to upload. Did I do that already? Hell, I cannot remember--it has been THAT busy of a semester.