Day 4 Burning Man

Yeah... the clouds and breeze i ordered up arrived!! Off to camp artica to get ice for the camelback and some friends.. and
we are on our way.. A giant dome art car arrived in Kidsville to take us on a ride around the playa, it was great, we could climb as we rode. Folks were very excited to see a whole slew of kids roaming the playa and wave and cheered for us like we were
running the LA Marathon.

Finally we got some weather.. the clouds turned in a massive wind and dust storm, quick find the goggles and dust masks!!
It did not slow us down a bit, we roamed for hours in the wind and white, we finally made it to WhoVille and they happily
read us 3 awesome Dr Suess books, we passed by Barbie Death Camp, funny but morbid demo of Barbie bitting the big one in 10,000 ways, we rode the tire swing on the giant tree house, we got to hoop and custom order make our own to keep and we visited the temple and got to write and draw and add to the fabulous community creation of art and feeling. it was a treat to read many of the note folks wrote, barring their souls and expressing in the temple perhaps what they wanted to share with others and had not yet. very heartfelt.

The best time was at sunset they have out 1,000 light up light sabers and we had a hell of a battle, we were there for over an hour and the kids laughed the whole time. Reese had a plant saber in his pocket and would pull it out mid battle as a surprise, it was very entertaining to watch.

We went to bed early exhausted. Everyday seems better than the last!

8/29/07 Day 3 Burning Man

it was hot today, really hot, so we went to ...
the slip and slide.. at the duck pond.. it was
a 100 feet long slip and slide, they squirted
you down and of course poured water on the
slide and off you went, most of the folks were
of course naked.. naked slip and slide, it was
beautiful.. After about an hour of sliding the boys
went to work squirting down the slide, they were
so cute!

We also played Putt Putt golf, yes they had a
full 9 hole course and the boys had a ball. We hung
out in the chill dome, the biggest dome on the playa
and wrestled of course (while everyone else chilled)
and the kids handed out candy, giving in the burning
man spirit. We got to visit with friends who arrived,
Aunt Courtney, Megan and Andrea, it is very nice to
see familiar faces amongst the crowds.

We roamed, we mingled, we got our bodies painted,
we swung on tire swings, we rode on an art car and
danced at the Outaw bar at the Deep End.
One big adventure.. and wow the lights at night..
beyond description.. everything glows, glowing flowers,
monkeys, trees, art, and fire, lots of fire, blown like a torch,
wow... wow.... wow

8/28/07 The Burn day 2

Another great day in Mad Max's Thunderdome, the art cars are really beyond creative,
vehicles decorated like spiders, cats, elephants, sperm, naked ladies, pirate ships, flying carpets,
sulton's palace, on and on..

We spent the morning chilling in Kidville, riding bikes, trampoline, light saber play, dodgeball and
whatever else they dream up, i visited a bit and met a few folks. We spent the afternoon randomly
roaming the playa, boys in the bike trailer, drinking lots of water and seeing all the theme camps.
We got head massages, made mandalas, did some hooping, drank lemonade and did some swinging,
got faces painted, and did some treasure hunting and gift exchange. People are so happy to see my
kids here, the are so welcomed and loved, many folks tell me they have kids but did not bring them and
they are so happy to see my kids and they want to bring their kids but haven't yet. it is a hard call to make,
i think, do whatever i want and party all night long.. or take care of my kids all week. For me it is pretty easy,
i am very much enjoying the day time activities and really love seeing all the color and expression through their
eyes.

Today i think we will check out Whoville and hear some Suess, make a pole for fire twirling, see some awesome fire
shows tonight, go to the circus, ride on an art car and go on a scavenger hunt.. but it is a loose plan.. the best kind..

8/27/07 Burning Man Day 1

wow wow wow
amazingly friendly people
amazing art and sculptures and structures and creations
very child friendly, everyone is excited to welcome my kids
talk to them, give them gifts, play with them, they are really having a blast

i visited my friend Greg at Camp Lustre, where they have Glitter Camp (glitter your body), a giant TeePee Lounge,
cosmic playground with bowling, 4 square, and tetherball, & classic movies showing at night.

My other friend Scott (of 15 yrs) is at Black Rock Yearbook, they are taking photos of folks and creating memories of
Burning Man.

We saw Gabrielle (the 11 yr old that inspired me to come) and Jolly Roger, Anna and their son Morgan at The Alternative
Energy Zone who are in our homeschool group back in the South Bay. It was so cool to cruise around and say hi to everyone
and watch as the city comes to life.

I am still looking for Megan my girlfriend who came out 10 days early to help build the very elaborate Temple.

The boys and i spent the whole afternoon riding the playa playing with everything in site, trampolines, climbing structures, and the boys even got to ride on an art car. Reese kept saying I want to ride on that, so i said ok, run for it, and of course he did and they happily helped him on, that lasted 3 minutes until Luc said I want to ride on that, so i let him out of the bike
trailer and he ran for it too and the both enjoyed a 20 minute ride and momma followed on the bike.

The weather has been awesome, no big wind today (i guess the last two days had long white out times) it is warm but the breeze is great. I am exhausted from all the biking, sun and getting up at 6am, gonna chill out

8/26/07 Burning Man arrival

4 great days driving around Lake Tahoe, we camped at Zepher Cove, Camp Richardson, and King's Beach all awesome.
When we arrived at King's Beach a van pulled up next to us, a girl got out and walked by, no bra, purple dredlocks, burners!
Reese i bet those folks are going to burning man.. we beaded together, Mike taught us a bunch of new tricks, they had come from Scotland for the burn and brought their fire sticks for the event. They actually travel all around Scotland and put on fire shows, my kids were ready for their first lesson.

The excitement started to build, i mean Reese and I were getting really excited! We camped with our friends again the next night just off the 395 near Reno, we went to Party City and bought last minute hats, glasses, glow sticks and candy to share with friends. We went to the grocery store to buy fast cooking food and 35 gallons of water, we were ready i could not believe it. 3 months of reading online, all the preparation stuff, to be able to survive, be properly costumed, stay warm at night, look funky, stay cool during the day, camp at the right camp, and were did it, we were actually ready.

Not one person i knew was ready to take their kids to burning man, thank god for kidville and the yahoo chat group i've been on for the last 3 months and all the questions and discussion and for Gabrielle the 11 year old dynamo beauty we kayaked with in Santa Barbara in June that told me about her last 3 years at Burning Man. I could feel this girl from across the room, she had such presence and vitality. I could feel how Burning Man had shaped her and i asked her.. "it's shaped you hasn't it?" She nodded her head and later told us story after story. The thing i liked the best was that she told me that if she was hanging out with her friends and they saw someone dressed differently or expressing themselves uniquely, the friends might say "oohh look at that person" .. with a wrinkle in their forhead.. and Gabrielle response was not just tollerence but a cheer "go express your creative individual self.. whoa whoa!!"

Three weeks of her life over 3 years and by age 11 she had learned what we try to demonstrate in AA.. our code..
love and tollerence.. but she had actually surpassed tollerance, she had appreciation and celebration for diversity. what a concept! I instantly wanted to take my 7 yr old son, what greater life lesson is there that to love others exactly as they are, to celebrate diversity and give each person a chance to shine in their own way and to feel safe enough to do so.

One hour past Reno we came up over a big hill to Pyramid Lake, it was spactular, the desert is just incredibly beautiful and we swam (it was 90+) and talked with a bunch of folks on the way to the Burn, one of the had a pink naked lady car that we really liked.

We drove in last night and the kids got to ring the big bell on arrival, they greeted us at the gate with gifts and hugs.. Welcome Home they yelled! We cruised the playa and watched lots of things being built as the city comes together, what a trip.

I woke up at 6am and watched the sunrise on the playa and i was really silenced by the beauty. It feels amazing here, the community, the art, the aliveness.. I am so excited for this week and i can actually get internet so i can write about it.
gotta go put up my shade structure now.. more later..

8/21/07 Beautiful Lake Tahoe

I have not been to Lake Tahoe in 10+ years, i visited friends a lot here during high school and college but my interests were so different then. We camped at Zepher Cove and played on the beach there, Tahoe is just breathtaking. Camp Henderson down the road was a real jem. We passed right by the casinos, the stores, the restaurants and all the "activities" and headed for the campground and the beach.

It is awesome to have been reduced to such simple pleasures, I love the fire at night, hanging out at the campground in the morning, playing games, beading, doing henna tatoos, riding our bikes, then head to the beach in the afternoon and play in the water and make friends. The evenings are about playing games, reading, campfire, talking and whatever catches our fancy. I am so loving discovering new sights, being in the RV (feels so like home) doing life everyday with my kids and enjoying all the simple pleasures of nature.

I had a discussion today about life, parenting, what children need, uprooting, stability and what is that, how important is it to be happy, and the like. We were coming from very different places and see life in a very different way, but i felt good about the conversation and it warms me now to think about it.

Basically i want for myself the same thing i want for my kids, to be happy, to do what i enjoy, to treat others with love and respect and tollerance. I want the freedom to follow my passions and listen to my heart and follow my own intuition. I feel that i have spent 15 years of dilligent work to heal from the past, recover from addiction and my own false beliefs and unhealthy patterns and i have learned about how i created my own suffering mostly by thinking that things or people should be different from how the are. I am not doing that now and it is grand. I feel so at peace with myself and most of life. Byron Katie has a book called Loving What Is, that so sums up this way of being, it is also all through the AA program, live and let live, Acceptance is the answer to all your problems, let go and let god, etc..

I am not saying that my goal is to only have good and avoid the rest, but rather to embrace it all, but not create suffering by resisting what is. I think the best thing i have to offer my kids is my joy, I get frustrated sometimes when i feel like i am not enjoying my kids as much as i'd like and i try to pause and adjust myself accordingly. I want to help them learn about life and themselves and to be open to explore and embrace the joys that life has to offer. Of course being with my kids all day everyday my life is about them, my activities are largely dictated to their likes and dislikes but i don't see parenting as self sacrifice, i think it about the art of meeting all of our needs as best as we can. To get clear about what the most important thing is; being together, being in harmony, enjoying each other, laughing and celebrating the miracle of being alive, accepting each other, respecting each other and discovering together how we teach each other about how to be in the world and enjoy this experience. I can be with them and still listen to music, write, exercise, eat well, enjoy friends, travel and be myself.
what a journey.. it is so sweet..

8/20/07 Placerville to Grover

We left our campground to get on the freeway and sit completely still
for 50 minutes. I knew it wasn't construction because a policeman came
by, so i turned off the car and called some friends and listened to my ipod.
Actually an RV is a pretty comfortable place to be when you are sitting
on the highway. When we reached the front we saw an RV on fire, it was
pretty dramatic, I got an overwhelming wave of gratitude, really i was
high for a few hours, i was flooded with feelings. Then i heard the
Natalie Merchant song Kind and Generous and i almost started to
cry, i suddenly thought of my friend Lee who was my AA sponsor and
spiritual teacher for 10 years. I was suddenly so full of gratitude for
all that he gave me, we walked on the strand once a week for 10 years,
he walked me down the isle at my wedding, he taught me so much
and he loved me, i always felt loved in his presence. About a year ago
i had some big shifts and did not feel that i needed a teacher anymore,
i felt very inwardly guided and i moved on. But today this immense
appreciation came over me, for all of the love and kindness i had
received. I knew that i wanted to call Lee and express this and at
the same time I knew that the appreciation was for me to feel, it felt
incredible, to feel so much love for him, for the teacher/student
relationship, and mostly that i got the mentoring from Lee that i
never really got from my family, what a gift!

An hour later i saw a second car accident and again i was so
grateful to be safe and sound, enjoying the forest lined road
doing 55 in my MoJo mobile, listening to tunes and just
cruising along with my boys as they both took a nap.

I've gotten a variety of different responses from folks in
sharing that we are going traveling, mostly they say, wow that is
is so cool, how do you make it work? They are intrigued, curious,
and interested. Others seem uncomfortable about uprooting and
get distant or disinterested i guess. They honest ones tell me straight
out that they are jealous or super happy for us, or both, and that they
want to hit the road as soon as they can figure out how!

We had a great morning, slept in, we were tired after the 4 day HSC
conference, i went for a nice run, we swam in the pool and took a
shower and we headed out. We stopped along the way when we
saw 2 beautiful white horses literally calling my name.. come
feed us apples, love on us, talk to us!! so we did!! I did most of
the talking, they slobbered a lot, but those eyes..

Today i drove up to a plateau of 7700 ft, the American River
alongside me to Grover Hot Springs State Park about 30 miles
south of Lake Tahoe. The MOJO mobile had a little trouble in
elevation at Lassen but we changed the fuel filter and viola..
she is running like a charm. There is nothing quite like
driving up a big mountain around 7000 feet and feeling
your engine failing, it is quite exhilarating and makes
you feel very alive! NEXT experience..

Grover is the place to go to get off grid, no cell and no
internet, just lots of critters and big tall trees.. oh and
a big pool and a hot spring pool right next door. Only
cost $9 for the 3 of us, sounded better than the spas
in Napa that wanted $120 for the 3 of us. They had a
lifeguard watching the kids, the half of the giant pool
was 2.5 to 3 feet so Luc could stand and they could go
back and forth from pool to pool and i could just sit
and relax in the warm pool.

I met 2 different guys at the pool both traveling on their
bikes (one was headed from SF to Burning Man). The
other guy was traveling for 6 weeks or so from
Medford to Montana, on a bike, no tent, only carries
10 lbs, camps in the wild, no campgrounds, and rides
for 12-14 hours a day! They had both traveled a lot of the
world and both been to Thailand recently (where we are
going soon) and one told us to go in our winter, that
spring was very hot, so we have to move up our plans
i think. So far hot springs is the best place so far to meet
very interesting folks.

We enjoyed our fire, the boys played with friends (yes
we try to park right next to another group of boys)
and mommy wrote on her computer, a happy clan.

8/18/07 Homeschooling Heaven

The schedule for kids was amazing, huge game activities, art deck,
drawing, painting, blocks, legos, waterplay, play doh, jewelry making,
mask making and on and on and on.. lots of family activities too, a
wonderful traveling family the Goza's put on an incredible show of
comedy, panamime, folk stories and fun!
Friday night they had a Fire and Flow Arts exhibition, lots of poi and
flow wands, of course a bunch of Burning Man folks put on a great
show and we will get to see them on the playa. Nothing like spinning
fire to get a group of kids attention. Reese and i bought a flow wand and
we are practicing (of course the had an instruction class the next day) for
the next talent show.
Another highlight of our weekend was that we got to see Marcella our
babysitter from Redondo who moved up to Sacramento last year, we
called her thurs on the way and asked if she'd like to spend the
weekend with us and so she did. My boys were so happy to see her
and we had a blast playing with her all weekend.
I really enjoyed listening to Sandra Dodd speak and also they had a
group meet to talk about traveling homeschoolers and I really enjoyed
the stories everyone had to share.
There is a website www.familesontheroad.com and they also have a
yahoo chat group for folks doing it right now so they can make connections
with others along the way.

8/16/07 Happy Birthday to Me!

41, what a great year so far, driving around Sebastopol we accidentially
drove down the wrong street looking for a park and pool and discovered
a whole street of the most awesome sculptures made out of junk, see article below.
i love stumbling on this type of stuff. Every
house on the street had one of these sculptures in the front yard.
As you approach Sebastopol on State 116 west, an hour's drive north of the
Golden Gate Bridge, look for the Fosters Freeze to your right: Perched on the
roof is a scarlet convertible driven by a guy accompanied by his red-haired
wife and a yapping dog. The car is the work of local artist Patrick Amiot, a
French Canadian who creates "urban folk art" from discarded junk. His
sculptures, from a dynamic 12-foot Batman to a 1930s pickup truck
with a cow in its bed, have become Sebastopol's most intriguing attractions.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/17/NB165807.DTL

The boys and i headed to Sacramento this afternoon driving through
Napa and Steve headed south to take care of some business, we
were very excited to attend the HSC Homeschool Conference at
the Radisson Hotel. They started out with a talent night so Reese
dazzled with his hooping and they ended with a big drum circle and
in closing they went around the circle and asked each child to say one
word, something they were greatful for or valued, most kids said
my family or happiness, Reese said "compassion", and i said to myself
Ohhh.
It reminded me of 2 years ago, when Reese was 5 we had signed up
for a Spirituality for kids class at the Kabbalah Center in LA, they
had a candle lighting ceremony at closing and asked the kids to say
one word of gratitude of that they valued, my little 5 yr old baby got
up in front of the whole class and said "sobriety". I guess they really are
listening to what we say we value.

8/15/07 Occidental and Teresa

My friend Teresa moved to Northern California over a year ago
and we've been chatting over the last 8 mos or so. She
told me that she lives in a little cabin in the Redwoods
she has her own garden and a few kitties and she's
never been happier. I got to visit her today, she took
me to her little cabin way up on a hill in the midst of
a gorgeous Redwood forest and showed me her sweet
home and garden and i met the kitties too. I got my
first break in 6 weeks from my little angels and had an
uninterrupted adult conversation for 1/2 a day, it was
glorious! She played a few of her new songs for me, I
read her some poetry and we opened our hearts and
poured on each other and let all the love in, beautiful!
She took me to a local Zen Buddhist AA meeting in a
Sanga, they picked passages from a book about
one breath at a time, a Buddhist perspective on the
12 steps, it was very cool. We talked about Ramana
Maharshi, the truth of not knowing anything, and
the illusion of the separate identity. very sweet.

8/13/07 Clear Lake State Park

I love the state parks, we did a self guided nature
trail here and learned a lot about the Indian's who
lived here and how they lived off the land. They used
grinded acorns to make flour, they used bulbs to make glue,
hairbrushes (from fibers), and smashed them and threw
them in the river to stun fish and catch them easier.
The wood from trees was used for weapons, baskets,
and canoes.
It reminded me of the book 'My side of the mountain"
where a 15 year old boy learns to live in the wilderness
Reese and I loved that book.

There is tons of Cottonwood trees here, some of them
are just covered in thick cobweb type fiber. It looks
like a spooky scene from Harry Potter. I had never seen
it before and had to ask the ranger, what is that stuff in
the trees?? Like Reese telling me.. mommy there is
a motorhome driving on the lake! when he saw his first
houseboat.

Luc was in heaven here, he met a 13 year old girl and her
8 year old brother who took turns playing with him and
swimming with him in the lake, he could not have
ordered up better entertainment. Mommy continues to
be absorbed in the book, it is really good!

8/11/07 Blue Lake

8/11/07
Heading South, we stopped for 2 days at Blue Lake,
lots of boys to play Lego's with, horseshoes, and
of course swimming in the lake. It's so easy to make
friends at the campgrounds, we just pull out the
big box of Legos and the lightsabers and the game
is on. Everyone was happy today, the boys played in
the lake all day, mommy read Harry Potter, and
Daddy installed a beautiful new floor in the RV.

Someone asked me at the homeschool park day, so
how are you doing this traveling thing?? do you have
savings? No we don't, we rented our house, trying
to sell it but no offers yet. Daddy will be consulting PT
from the road.
I bought the RV for $4800 (that was the exact amount
of the security deposit I got for renting the house)
and we've been fixing it up a bit at a time for the
last 6 months. I took lots of
3-4 day trips and as symptoms showed up, I had
them fixed. First new tires and brakes, then repairs
on fuel and exhaust leaks, toilet fixed, fuel filter
replaced, 20 yr old carpet out and awesome new
floor in, and now solar panels up to provide power
in lieu of the generator. I took out the old brown
curtains and hung up bright orange beautiful
material in its place.
The old gal is looking really good!!

8/10/07 Humbolt Redwoods State Park

The Redwoods are pretty unique, average age 800-1500 years, some as old as 2000-2500 years old, as high as 380 feet high, and there are millions of them, they stretch from Big Sur to the Oregon coast. These are called Ancient Forests because they have not been logged and you feel something very special walking throug a Redwood Grove. We walked through 10 or so, dense, dark quiet, staring up at the sky made me feel part of life in a brand new way. I was almost near tears a few times, the
beauty and majesty is well undeniable, truly nature's cathedral.

The boys had a ball climbing on the trees, looking for lizards and running along the paths. We made wishes in the wishing well, went into a real tree house that the Indians used origionally and saw a tree so big that a car can drive through.

8/9/07 Humboldt County Fair

The homeschoolers in Arcata told us to hit the County Fair so we did, of course we spent the first 2 hours watching the boys
ride the rides, Luc's favorite was the Dragon Ride and the big long slide (which he went on 15 or so times). Reese prefers the rides that make you go upside down and hold you there for a few seconds, pass! I remember that stage of life when i felt wonderful to be shaken from head to toe over and over again, i've discovered that you grow out of it.

We saw a great comedian/juggler/ show and a high dive show, the highlight being that he lit himself on fire and then dove into the pool, now that's entertainment. I loved the animals, i stared into the amazing eyes of a sheep for 10 minutes or so, we had a connection, really we saw the true divinity of each other, it was memorable. They had the most beautiful chickens i've ever seen, so many varieties of colors and they had baby ducks for sale for $2. I suggested we take one and raise it in our bathtub in the RV, Reese thought that was a great idea!

The craftwork was inspiring, the quilts were amazing and we got to see a lady with a spinning wheel spining cat and dog hair (we throw that away at our house).

7/9/07 Patrick's Point and Trinidad

Just North of Arcada is Trinidad State Beach, park by
the lighthouse and hike down the 250 stairs to arrive at
a deserted beach in a protected cove with lots of giant
rocks in the ocean (inhabited with several seals who
had quite a bit to say by the way), 50 or so boats mored
in the bay an 80 foot high rock in the beach that we
climbed, and to top it off the whole bay was fogged in
and it was fast moving fog, very mysterious looking,
awesome!

Moving on to Patrick's Point, I heard this place was
very beautiful from some HSC moms who had camped
there and boy it was. The perfect trails for us, short, lots
of boulder jumping at the beach, strange algae plants
on the rocks that we had never seen before, cliffs,
lots of adventure.

We also enjoyed the reconstructed Yurok Indian
Village with dug out tree canoe, underground
houses and sweat lodge.

The biggest excitement were the banana slugs we
discovered along the trails, about 2 inches long and
one inch wide. We also saw 2 of them attempting to
mate, ewew slimy, we tried not to disturb them!

7/8/07 Nothing much coming out..

7/8/07

telling the story, waking up from the story, telling the story..

It seems sometimes that writing this blog is contrary to the
awareness that is more and more realizing what it is and
what it is not. There is less identification with this whole
story of this "me" who is doing this and that, less thinking,
less concern about most everything, less talking, less
efforting, less and less.

It starts out as this massive deconditioning, I'm not this role,
I'm not this career or this relationship, and then upon
further inquiry, I'm not. This me that i thought i was is not.
Yes, there is this body and this mind and this
personality but they are not "mine" they are an expression
of the one life, existence, spirit, God, reality.

When this awareness is very clear suddenly the interest in
writing stories seems to wane, either that or maybe it's
just about being 100 pages into book 7 in the Harry
Potter series.

7/7/07 Samoa Cookhouse

7/7/07

Just south of Arcata is the Samoa Peninsula, home to the
Samoa Cookhouse, a museum and dining room that served
the loggers from the late 1800's until the 1950's. The loggers
worked 6 days a week like the miners, 12 hours a day and they
make $1 a day minus 40 cents for food, that's $3 a week, but
they ate really well. 3 meals a day with meat in each meal,
and it was all you could eat! The cook was a very important
guy when it came to maintaining morale at the logging camp
and apparently if they were well fed, they were happy!

The food was great, and we enjoyed looking at all the antiques
in the museum from the 1800's, explaining to the kids what they
were.

8/6/07 Trinity River off Hwy 299 & Arcata

Wow, driving Hwy 299 alongside the Trinity River was magnificent! Watching the river rafters all along the way brought back so
many memories of the 9 years or so that i rafted every summer, I actually took Reese down the Kern 2 years ago on a kayak, that was great. There is nothing better than driving a highway that follows a river, every turn takes your breath away, especially watching the sun glisten off the water. But the super hot weather turned as a approach Arcata, huge fog and it got really cold (70).

Thanks to the yahoo group i joined for families who travel or live in their RV's I got in touch with the local homeschool group in Arcata. They meet on Tuesdays at Redwood Park, beautiful park and what a cool group! The park sits in the middle of Redwood Forest with hiking paths going in all directions. The first gal i met Laura used to live in Redondo Beach and knew my friends Maia and Loren, such a small world. She lives now on 6 acres backing up to the Arcata Community Forest, with her 3 kids, lama, horse, and chickens. They have a well and so take 2 minute showers but they love where they are, so much so that her hubby commutes 3 days a week and works in Carson at Dominguez College teaching Geology!

The big news this week was that Odean was weaning her calf (who was 2) and there was an abundance of organic awesome milk, so the "milk sluts" were standing in line. Several of the moms had farm animals and everyone i heard from just loved living where they were so immersed in nature. I don't think i ever laughed so hard at a park day or felt more comfortable or at home with these moms, what a treat!

Reese played Frisbee with 5 or so college age kids for 2+ hours, what fun watching him playing with the big boys!

Arcata, home to Humboldt State University is a very cool town, great shops, food, town center, and relaxed pace.

8/5/07 Mount Shasta

We got amazing views of Mt Shasta a very cute little town with lots of music and cultural events on schedule. Steve actually rode his mountain bike down this mountain and only fell once, he got some great bruises and scrapes to remember the ride by. I love seeing snow in August!

8/5/07 Lake Shasta

Once again from quiet and serene Stewart Mineral Springs to wild party at Lake Shasta. Our site overlooked the Lake and the
Freeway, the kids loved the pool, game room, and karokee party at night, Reese sang Animals by Nickelback, so cute! He is
fearless that kid. I did laundry most of the day, only do it once a week now, kids can wear the same clothes for days when you
are camping. Lake Shasta is huge, and lots of city folks come out in the summer with boats galore. Reese was watching the show and he said, "mom, there is a motorhome driving on the lake!" his first view of a houseboat i guess, got me laughing!

8/4/07 Stewart Mineral Springs

8/4/07

Mommy... yes Luc... which is stronger, metal or fire?
I don't know what do you think?

(one minute pause)

Mommy... yes Luc... i think fire is stronger.. Oh

Mommy... yes Luc... I love you!
I love you too Luc

We are at Stewart Mineral Springs in the Dry Sauna.
It is heated by a wood burning stove and Luc is
mesmerized staring at the flames in the window of
the stove.

We arrived late last night and the boys came with me
on my mineral bath. I learned the difference between
hot springs (more relaxing, less therapeutic, but you
can usually soak in these as much as you like) and
mineral springs (very therapeutic, limited here to
one hour a day because they say the minerals are
very strong. They run bath for you, and you climb in
and just sit for 10-15 minutes, then get out and go to
the sauna for 10 minutes and then cold dip in the river
then back to the mineral bath, repeat this for an hour
or so.

My boys looked so cute, wrapped in their little sheets
and swimming naked in the river, they got right into the
routine and they were even able to keep relatively
quiet in the sauna, so nice.

Such a shift, yesterday we were at a Lake with 150
people at a big full campground and the kids were
running around like packs of dogs wild. Today we
are in major relaxation and chill mode at the mineral
springs, relatively alone, the boys are playing all on
their own. I really am enjoying this diversity, quiet
alone contemplative time in the forest, no cell or
internet service, time to just sit, breathe, stare at the
trees, the creek, the kids. And i like the music festivals
too, the campgrounds, meeting folks, but mostly i like
waking up each day and seeing different scenery.
I feel really alive, i look forward to each day, and
there is a sweet vibrant presence.. it's very good.

8/2/07 Britton Lake at Burney Falls

8/2/07

Morning bike ride with the boys and a quality day of
relaxation at the beach on Lake Britton, i love lakes,
they have beach, shade from trees and a forest view,
there are eagles and osprey flying overhead and fresh
water!

I am noticing deeper and more pervasive
relaxation and often quieter commentary from the mind.
Just 'being' , just sitting, just watching, all the while enjoying.
Just listening to the birds call to each other, watching
the water and listening. Everything slows down and
blends in a way, there is just watching, listening,
enjoying, not an I, the sense of seperateness is not. it's
lovely.

All part of the journey of discovering what I'm not, not
that home or community or role at all, I am not that
person, that story, that past, so what am I?

Silence
_____________

Luc is the master sandcastle builder, he will dig, sculpt,
plan, and build his sand city complete with moats and
rivers with his friends for hours and hours. I can sit and
watch him for hours and hours too, I am so
entertained listening to him and watching his plans
come to life.

Reese's favorite game is King of the Hill, they play on a
queen size air mattress and seem to never tire of pulling
their friends off and climbing back on.

8/1/07 Lassen Park & Subway Cave

8/1/07

From our campground at Summit Lake i did a morning run
(about 3.5miles) to Echo Lake, it was so gorgeous!
Mt. Lassen at my back with snowy spots for color, i ran
through the forest, chipmunks and lizards crossing my
path. I only saw one other person on the path and i
smiled and continued to dance/run to the tunes on my
ipod (how did i ever live with out my ipod -such a source
of fun for music and inspiration for the spiritual satsangs
i listen to daily).

At last through the trees i saw blue water, tree lined lake,
sun glistening on the water, peaceful and calm. I took a few
deep breaths, stretched for a bit, was flooded with feelings
of appreciation for this incredible beauty and took it all in,
then i ran back. I love trail running, i remember running
down the trail several years ago at Upper Yosemite Falls.
Steve and I ran 3.5 miles down, 3500 foot elevation descend,
what a rush!

At the other end of the Park is the Loomis Museum,
Loomis is the guy who was standing with a camera
in 1914 when Mt Lassen erupted, he took 6 photographs
of the event and eventually had this museum erected to
provide education about the volcanic activity there.

Reese and I did the Junior Ranger program there, it was
great, we attended a one hour Ranger talk all about
Bears. Wow, they sleep for 6 months (without eating
or going potty), if pregnant they wake
up after 2.5 mos and give birth to a .5lb baby bear
that is blind and can't walk and go back to sleep for
2.5 mos (that sounds slightly different than the first 2 mos
after my boys were born). The babies go from .5lb at
birth to 200 lbs at 2 yrs old, and before hybernation,
the bears eat 20,000 calories a day, mostly of insects.

Did i mention how much i am learning as we are
homeschooling, and i am so much more interested
than i was at 10yrs old. To complete the Junior Ranger
Program Reese drew a sign to illustrate the Preserve
and Protect logo for the park, it was very cool with a
volcano, arrowheads, and boulders rolling down the
mountain. He got his badge and promptly gave it to
Luc who wore it beaming with pride!

As we left Lassen Park, we passed Subway Cave
a lava tube with a self guided tour you can walk
through in 15 minutes or so. We grabbed our
flashlights and longsleeve shirts and
ventured down the 2 flights of stairs to the cave.
About 100 feet into the cave it gets completely dark
and very exciting, the folks leaving as we walked in
said the saw a bear so we had fun with that but Luc
was a little scared. The tour (via signs) tells all about
how the lava moved through the tube and we had
a great time stumbling around in the dark and looking
for cracks in the floor and marks on the walls.

It's a little how i feel today, like this life knows
where it's going, but i sure don't. I can only see
a little way ahead and i am quite sure that i am
not driving the boat (or the life). things happen
constantly that i can't predict or direct and however
i react to it, there is the calm awareness always
present. This knowing that it is exactly right ( no
matter how it looks) and unfolding perfectly.
The feeling has never been stronger, all is
exceedingly well! Even if you don't know
where you are going, or what is happening
exactly.

So... I thought we were headed to Big Bend
Hot springs, actually i was really looking forward
to it. I love camping (yes it's still camping in an RV)
and nature but i also really love bathing, soaking,
water therapy i call it, I average 2 baths a day at home.
Well campgrounds don't have baths so we go to
hot springs.. well not this time, it was closed for
refurbishing, so.. we look in the california camping
book and find McArthur-Burney Falls State Park,
and what a find. Rated a 9 on the scenic scale,
Burney Falls has it all. Awesome waterfall, trails,
great lake with swimbeach and boat rentals, ranger
led talks and walks, street bike and off road bike
trails ( yes, we did both, Reese is now a real pro
shifting gears with his 12 speed bike) and best of all
tons of kids. Reese made so many friends he had
3 different families feeding him smores every night.
Always working the angles that Reese man!

7/31/07 Lassen Volcanic Natl Park

7/31/07

Just arrived at Summit Lake, 6700 feet elevation
right in the middle of Lasson Volcanic National Park,
breathtaking, uncrowded, dense forests,
soothing to the soul.

We drove up from Chico early this morning, since it
was 85 degrees or so, we stopped every hour or so
and jumped in deer creek, the road crossed the creek
several times, the view up was spectacular. We had the
creek all to ourselves, it was clean and refreshing.

To drive through the forest for hours and hours
was revitalizing, there is the feeling of immense life,
everywhere, this silence descended upon me,
i felt whole, home, peaceful. I remember
reading Celestine Prophecy 10 years ago and
them talking about how we recharge in the forest,
the trees breathe new life energy into us.

We took the trail to Bumpass Hell, named after
the white guy who first saw it, at the base we
saw hissing fumaroles (pools), boiling springs,
and active mud pots, evidence of the active
magma below. It made me think of of what
is underneath the surface that you can't see
that is so dynamic and vital, don't believe that
what is see is what is really going on. Awareness
of reality underneath the appearance, the one
true source of all.

The best part of the hike was the purple wildflowers
that covered the meadows and the snow that was
still very much on the towering mountains above.

Hopefully my kids will learn to love hiking, right
now there are at the whine and complain
stage. i suppose i could sing and try better
to entertain them or get them involved
in a game, but i just like to walk quietly, oh well.

So we end the day with a swim in the lake, a
bike ride around the camp and building a big
fire and then mommy gets to sit and write her blog.

Oh i almost forgot, Luc almost got hit by a truck
that was speeding through the campground.
The guy did not even stop (despite my screams)
and i watched him drive around the corner and
park. Of course Luc was unphased, he ran off
to swim with daddy but mommy was quite shaken.
In my mind i heard, "Asshole, he could have at
least stopped and said sorry". As i approached
out of my mouth came "that really scared me, you
almost hit my son". He sincerely apologized, he
told me that he was shaken too, he was not thinking
straight, he was exhausted, and short of breath
from the elevation and then he said that he had
been hit by a car when he was a small boy.
I told him that i really appreciated his apology
and i hoped he had a good night and i walked away
full of love and cried as i walked back to my
campsite. I was overwhelmed with love for my
son and for this man and i was appreciative for
the opportunity to feel at this depth and i
enjoyed a good cry.

7/29/07 scott's flat lake

7/29/07

After a week of vegetarian food at Ananda
(great food by the way, Michael the chef was
very impressive and i ate way too much!) we
headed for Kentucky Fried Chicken and ran into
a family there that was at Ananda. They were
enroute to Scott's Flat Lake (just 20 minutes
away from Grass Valley)to camp for a week,
we followed and spent 2 days
camping next to them, instant friends.

7/28/07 last day at Ananda

7/28/07

We left Ananda, great time had by all!
I loved the day at Lake Francis, 2 days we
spent playing in the Yuba River, canoeing,
rope swings, meditating in the gardens
and the awesome talent show we had our
last night.

Our theme was One World, One
Family and the last morning each family
gave a presentation on this topic for
the whole group. Our family and Alexis's
family made Mandalas thanks to Ronnie
her mom who teaches art to kids. Reese
got up in front of the group by himself and
told about his art work. I sang a song ..

"I behold the Christ in you,
I behold the Christ in me,
I behold the Christ in everyone,
we are One, we are One."

Oh and i sang at the talent show too.

Reese hula hooped, Steve showed
off with his hackysac and Kaia did
gymnastics. For the finale, Reese
stood up on Steve's feet (he was lying
on his back with legs in the air) and
balanced then he started hula hooping
and the crowd went wild!