Cognitive Awakening

Cognitive Awakening was awesome! It did not, however, go as planned. I was super excited about participating in all the yoga and meditating and workshops and such, but it was really freaking hot and we ended up meeting some awesome people and making a camp we just didn’t want to leave. In the end I decided making new friends was a perfectly reasonable compromise. Kind of a cool “coincidence” happened right at the beginning… we ended up camping next to and ultimately creating an awesome camp with a couple we met at the Bounce a few weeks ago! Our new friend Christie was there with her parents and their RV, and we spent the scorching days hanging out with Christie, her boyfriend Travis, her parents Molly and Dave, and a constant stream of their friends from Tahoe, including the besties, Samantha and Michael. At night we walked at least a hundred miles to the main stage and rocked out (excuse me, RAGED) to some awesome music. Christie, or Crispylicious, played a super dance-worthy set out in the sun on Sunday, and brought the lounging crowd to their feet despite the blazing temperatures. Michael Heltebrake is also an amazing artist who we’ve been admiring for several festivals and finally got to meet! Check out his work here: www.michaelheltebrake.com – seriously, this guy is phenomenal.

“Bee”- This Bee, the ultimate giver of life, flying down through the clouds to pollinate our existence.  He is unaware of thetrap he is flying into.  Acrylic on stretched canvas.    8’ tall by 6’ wide

  

Overall, a great weekend! Afterwards we headed to Petaluma to see my friend Richie, who ended up having to work the whole time to get ready for a 3:00 am flight. We got to check out Taps, a trendy beer bar with fantastic cheese fries, and had dinner at Dempsey’s Brewery. The next day I had a great time getting to know his super cute daughter Pascale, who took me to Della Fattoria for a delicious Italian lunch. Finished the day off thrift shopping around town and headed to
Napa, CA.

We just left Napa yesterday, and really had a great time! We parked in the driveway of Sam’s Uncle Bill and his wife Lauren, who are the sweetest people, and had several days of wine country adventures. More to come!