The Temple of My Consciousness

This past weekend, Sam and I attended the music festival Lightning in a Bottle. While it is certainly a music festival, boasting some of the biggest names in Electronic music, it is also an experience of intense community and love. I spent most of my days at the Temple of Consciousness, listening to speakers further on their journey than I am, and participating in meditation and other workshops along with highly conscious people. It was located at the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful lake. At night, of course, we danced!

 

 

By the end of the weekend, I had three very clear take-aways, which I plan to incorporate into my Real Life. They aren’t new ideas to me, but the importance of them was stressed this weekend. This feels like a very personal thing to be putting out on the internet, but here goes.

I will find the point on my arrow.

Dream Rockwell, the woman who had the original vision for Lightning in a Bottle, had a chance to speak to us at the end of the weekend. She started out repeating the general beliefs of the crowd, about love and light and higher consciousness, and then stopped herself. “My guides just told me I’m telling you yesterday’s news,” she said. She sat there for a minute or so, and decided to throw her notes out and speak from the heart. She said many things in that next hour that I really connected with. One of these was a story of arriving at Burning Man a decade ago and having someone walk up on the first day and insist: “What are you doing with your life?” It jostled her to the core, and started her on a journey to figure out the “point on her arrow,” as the man put it. This wake-up call set her on the path to creating Lightning in a Bottle, an event now attended by 15,000 people in love.

It’s a scary thing to ask the divine for the Point on My Arrow. What if it’s different than the plans I already have for my life? What if it’s too big and I’m afraid? I know that having a purpose and living life within that purpose is the most fulfilling a life can be, and the time has come to reject that negativity and open myself up to discovering what I’m here for. Wish me luck!

I will be conscious of what I put into my body.

Another thing Dream said that shook me a bit was about eating meat. She said, as I already believed, that while there was definitely a time when eating meat was done within a symbiotic relationship, what we have turned it into is a complete disgrace and devastating our planet. Then she said something I hadn’t thought of before: if we as humanity are trying to evolve toward vibrating at a higher level, why on earth would we put something in our bodies that has that extreme level of negative energy attached to it? I already knew it was unhealthy to consume meat the way we do, but I had never considered it from the level of energy.

I grew up hearing that your body is a temple, but that really hit me in a new way. The Temple of My Consciousness. I simply cannot continue destroying it in this way. It’s not just about meat, either… the whole thing just really made me think about the energy involved in everything I eat. I also don’t intend to never eat meat, but just not at restaurants where I’m quite certain how it was raised and slaughtered. Free-range, organic meat is much more expensive, so I’m learning how to better cook with tofu and beans and other meat alternatives. And I definitely plan on partaking of my dad’s venison burgers when I’m back in Dallas. :) It’s been about four days without meat, and it hasn’t been as difficult as I was afraid it would be. The more I read, the more I feel strongly that this is the right choice for me right now.

I will see every person as a radiant, divine being on a journey.

I have a tendency to be a very judgmental person. And I don’t necessarily mean judging that something or someone is good or bad (although I’m sure I do my share of that as well), but just… pre-judging people based on what they look like or maybe the way that they talk, or something they enjoy doing. I’ve definitely been working on it the last few years, but I finally heard it put in a way that I think I can be successful with.

So, what I’ve been working on is viewing every person I come in contact with, whether I talk to or interact with them  or not, as a light on a journey. I have no idea what they’ve been through, but I do know that we are both divine creatures with a world of things in common, and I’m committing myself to love them regardless of anything else.

This type of festival is going on, to a lesser extent, all over California all through the summer, and I’ve pretty much decided I’m ok to scrap our previous plans and spend the next couple of months basking in community and music. And thanks to Sam for getting me to this festival, and making our Summer of Consciousness possible. I'm sure he has more to say about it, as he had different experiences than I did, and he got some good pictures as well. <3

The Colorado Exodus: Moab and Flagstaff

Pretty much everywhere we went in Colorado, people told us to go to Moab. We only got to be there for a couple of days, but I will definitely be back!! Sam had to work the one full day we were there, but I took the day off and went for a hike. I’m really starting to realize, or possibly remember, that beauty comes in so many different forms. When someone says a place is beautiful, I tend to image trees and water, but this place was breathtaking! The national park I was in is called Arches because of the many natural rock formations displaying such.

 

 

After our day in Moab, we drove straight to Flagstaff, a seven hour trip, where we spent a full week in a beautiful park surrounded by trees. Or, I did. Sam actually had to leave for a few days on a business trip, so we had a fun weekend with a new friend from the interwebs, and then he had to take off. I found a great yoga studio in town that offered many different types of yoga, and I ended up going every day that week. I forgot how much I miss it! I spent the time he was gone in sort of a spiritual retreat, which has begun a journey that I'm not quite ready to share with the general public. I am super excited! 

We spent a day in Sedona after he got back, which is one of my favorite places, and spent the afternoon hiking around Red Rock State Park, which actually looked similar to the pictures above, except we were hiking among trees. So beautiful! We finished the day off with this dinner at Elote that there are barely words for. Started off with a beet juice margarita, and finished off with a smoked duck breast in green chili sauce that was so tender I couldn't tell the meat from the fat! I wish I had a picture of that one, but I always forget to take it before I chow down. :) Sam had some incredible smoked chicken enchiladas, and I took all of the leftover sauces home and made some chicken enchiladas of my own! Not as good as the restaurant, but better than my usual cooking.

Oh, and we went to a super fun electronic show in town - Gramatik and GRiZ. I'm so glad I'm finally learning how to dance! Which leads me to our next great adventure: Lightning in a Bottle! Check it out: www.lightninginabottle.org. We've been heading west all these months to get to this music festival - five days of all day electronic performances. I don't care so much about the music, but I'm REALLY excited about this space called the Temple of Consciousness, where all day they will be having speakers and workshops about all kinds of spiritual topics, as well as things like health and gardening and all kinds of stuff! And yoga all day! And dance-time at night! I'm really excited, and can't wait to tell you all about it. I'll do my best to get Sam to blog about that one as well.

Welp, that is quite enough blogging for one day. Talk to you soon!

The Colorado Saga Continues

BOULDER (MAY 2-4)

Boulder is a tiny college town about 45 minutes from Denver, and most people highly recommended we go there. We had some good experiences, but overall the place was kind of a letdown. Just too small for us, I suppose. A few good notes:  Twisted Pine Brewery was actually pretty decent. They have 5, 10 or 15 sampler trays, and we went with the 10. Most of them were really good, and the Greek Pizza I had was fantastic! Standouts included the Honey Brown and the Razzy Xpress, which was described as a “Raspberry and Espresso Stout Truffle.” Avery Brewing Company is the one everyone we met in Denver told us we had to go to, and they were completely right! There is some seriously crazy good beer here. Everything we had was delicious, but the one we had to buy a bottle of to take home was The Reverend, a Belgian Quadrupel Ale. Seriously people, go find this beer! Atlas Purveyors was a cute little coffee shop with free wifi. I had an amazing veggie burger and roasted beet soup at Salt, which was part of this outdoor mall, where I also found a fantastic toy store that easily rivals Toy Joy in Austin! There are also lots of Tibetan stores that smell like incense and sell Buddha statues and awesome clothes, and street performers every block or so. That evening we stopped by Redstone Meadery for free samples of at least ten different meads, and I realized when I arrived that they make the mead we drink at the Renaissance Festival! We had dinner and another taster round at Mountain Sun Brewery, which made some decent beers and even better food. At about 8:00p, when all the breweries closed, we realized there was absolutely nothing else to do in this little town.

FORT COLLINS (MAY 4-6)

Fort Collins was actually pretty awesome! Another, slightly larger, college town north of Denver. We hit up four more breweries here: Pateros Creek, Equinox, Coopersmith’s and New Belgium. They all had some solid beers, but New Belgium (the guys who make Fat Tire) was the best! They had something like 20 beers on tap that were small batches I’ve never seen in stores. We bought a growler of this one called Cocoa Mole that tasted like Mexican hot chocolate. Oh, man. We later made Cocoa Mole Floats, which seemed like the correct move. I also finally found a bar that I would totally hang out at: The Astoria. They had a beer on tap that was made specially for them by the Pateros Creek brewery that tasted like vanilla! The Forge Publick was also extraordinary… super hidden with amazing beer choices. Seriously.

So the other big event in Fort Collins was that I sliced my finger open really bad while cooking… definitely the worst injury I’ve had in recent memory. This was about three weeks ago, and in retrospect, there definitely should have been stitches involved! It finally sealed up after a couple of weeks, but it’s still super tender, and I can see where there’s going to be a massive scar. Lame!

ESTES PARK (MAY 6-7)

I went to Estes Park once with my family, and it was a gorgeous little town with cute, esoteric shops and an amazing view of the mountains. On the day we went, however, it started drizzling right away, you couldn’t see the mountains, and it was a Sunday so all the shops closed at 6:00p. Whoops! We managed to make lemonade by finally seeing the Avengers, which was SO GROOD!

BRECKENRIDGE (MAY 7-9)

Wow, was this place beautiful! Unfortunately, we arrived during “mud season,” which is in between ski season and the summer tourist season, so almost everything was closed. Oh well! We had the view of the mountains I had hoped for in Estes Park, along with perfect weather. We’ll just have to go back! 

Ok, since it’s been so long, and there’s so much to talk about, I’m going to break this up into a few separate blog posts. Up next: MOAB! With pictures!

The Great Sand Dunes

I misplaced the cable needed to get my photos off my camera, so I’ve been putting off talking about the Great Sand Dunes, but the time has come! There’s actually not a ton to say, so much as pictures to look at, and don't forget you can click on the pictures to see larger versions. 

The water in this first picture created a barrier between the car and climbing on the sand dunes, which was unacceptable...

So, we ended up playing this game of hopping from one dry-ish spot to the next to get across. It was much more difficult than it sounds! It probably took us 30 minutes and lots of backtracking and figuring out alternate routes, all with the goal of not soaking our feet in the cold weather. It was so much fun! On the way back we ended up losing the game, finally having to splash through a puddle to get across. Sand Dunes: 1, Us: 0.

We started climbing the dunes, with a vague idea that it would be cool to get to the top, but it didn't seem feasible. It turned out not to be too difficult to get to the highest peak we could see, and when we got to the top we discovered that all the dunes we could see were just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. We climbed up one edge, but the dunes went on for miles beyond that! It was incredible!

We’ve officially left Colorado, having most recently gone through Boulder, Fort Collins, Estes Park, Breckenridge, and Moab, UT, all of which I still intend to blog about. Today we’re heading to Flagstaff before Sam has to take off for a three-day business trip on Sunday. Yay Flagstaff!

Denver Reviews

RESTAURANTS AND COFFEE

Zengo

We went here for a happy hour, which I’ve decided is the best way to sample expensive food. Fantastic and creative sushi rolls, adequate ceviche (although too sweet for my taste), and the stand out: Crispy Peking Duck. This dish was comprised of small rounds of thinly sliced daikon radish to use as a tortilla, a pile of duck confit, a “curried apple salad,” which was apple sliced into matchsticks and seasoned, and an orange coriander sauce. Seriously, it was one of the better things I’ve ever eaten. The service and ambiance are also stellar.

Root Down

Another happy hour spot, with decent cocktails and excellent food. We had the duck confit slider and this edamame hummus that was delicious. 

 

Row 14 Bistro and Wine Bar

We showed up here late after a Nuggets game, and they didn’t have the first three wines I asked for. I understand having a rotating wine list, but at least cross them off when you run out. They more than redeemed themselves, however, with the Duck Confit Tacos on the late-night menu. They were simply incredible.

Charcoal Restaurant

Part of our self-declared Foodie Day! Chicken romesco and bacon-wrapped dates, which were to die for! Also had the Peirano Estate Chardonnay, which was described as “lemon meringue pie and vanilla.” Be still my heart! 

Freshcraft

I’m not sure whether to put this with restaurants or bars, because it’s definitely both, but we went there for dinner so I can vouch for the food. Besides the ridiculous basket of fried things that Sam ordered, which is pretty difficult to mess up, I had to order the Schnitzel, which consisted of a fried pork chop with sour kraut and small cubes of potatoes, smothered in a mustard cream sauce with capers. I could seriously eat that every day! I also tried a saison, which is a style of Belgian beer, which was great. I’m learning, however, that most saisons are much lighter and boring than the one I had at Freshcraft, so I’m starting to steer clear.

Rooster and Moon Coffee Pub

There are a ton of coffee shops in Denver, yet this is the one I keep coming back to. You can get coffee, snacks or alcohol any time of day, which makes for an easy transition into Happy Hour. :) Lots of space for laptops and really nice bartenders. This would definitely be my spot if I lived in Denver. Much better than the other highly-rated spot, Crema, which is apparently too cool even for me. And I'm pretty cool.

BREWERIES AND BARS

Great Divide Brewing Co.

After trying out nine breweries in Denver, this one is by far my favorite. It has that yummy brewery smell when you walk in, and every beer sounds like it’s going to be amazing, and almost all of them were. (If I didn’t think it was amazing, it was probably an IPA, but I certainly can’t hold that against them.) They make what is possibly my new favorite beer – the Claymore Scotch Ale, but the Collette (saison) and Yeti (porter, with variations such as Belgian-style and chocolate) are really remarkable as well.

Breckenridge Brewery and BBQ

I was the very most excited to go to this brewery, as the Vanilla Porter has been my favorite beer for the last couple of years. The Porter was so much better fresh and on tap, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with any of their other beers. They’re ribs, however, were to die for! So it makes the list.

Coors Brewery

I don’t drink Coors, but I was interested in seeing a large-scale brewery, and the self-guided audio tour did not disappoint. You also get three free samples at the end, and they were probably 8 oz. each, which is a fair amount of free beer. I didn’t know Coors made Killians Irish Red, which I do like, and I’ve always been a fan of Blue Moon, so I guess they’re not so bad.

Strange Brewing Co.

Great crowd, great bartenders, great beer. Definitely check this one out!

Pints Pub

This is where I started to recognize a pattern: I really love Scotch ales! They’re dark and malty, but not as heavy as porters and stouts. Pints makes a great one, as well as their E.S.B. and brown ale, but what was really impressive was the Scotch and whiskey collection… 16 pages of options! Really awesome bartender as well, and we were able to use a half-off ScoutMob promotion.

Cheeky Monk (not a brewery)

An entire bar that serves exclusively Belgian beers!! Not only that, but they had La Chouffe, our favorite beer in Amsterdam, ON TAP! We walked in right at last call, and they had no problem chatting with us while we finished our beers, probably 15 min. after closing. The one downside is they are incredibly expensive… it might would have to be a once-a-month kind of place.

Home Sweet City

Alright, I suppose I have to stop putting this off. It’s one of those situations where the longer it goes, the more there is to write, so I put it off, and on and on. You know.

We’ve been in Denver for about a week, and I gotta say, it is so nice to be back in a city! I’ve been falling in love with small Colorado towns along the way, but there was something about my first day here, reading in a coffee shop surrounded by young people on laptops and a latte in my hand that makes me go Ah, that’s better! Denver is completely fantastic, and a real contender in the Quest for a New Home. It’s got all of the elements: the coffee, the weather, the food, the music, and plenty of the must-have hipsters on bikes. Oh, and the sweet, sweet microbrews. :)

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Colorado was for the beer. They have more microbreweries per capita than any other state, and my goal has been to try as many of them as possible, sampling as many different kinds as I can get my hands on. I’m up to seven breweries. Pagosa Springs has an awesome brewery! Their taster tray included all of their beers (usually you have to choose just a few), and all the beers were solid. But the reason it’s getting special mention was their Alaskan Salmon Fish and Chips. We made it to Durango for two days, but it’s not quite “the season,” so all the outdoor activities were pretty much unavailable. But they have four breweries! Dinner and tasting at one, then on to another taster tray at one of the others, two nights in a row. We ended up preferring the Carver Brewing Company, which had some really fantastic specialty beers. Dark Belgians and Cask ales are quickly becoming my and Sam’s favorites. (My and Sam’s? Sam and I’s? Where are the grammar nazis when you need them?)

In Denver, so far, we’ve only made it to Wynkoop and Great Divide. Wynkoop was ok… nothing to write home about, although I hear the food is really good. Great Divide, however, is awesome! They specialize in high-flavor, high-alcohol beers, and I didn’t have a single one I didn’t like. Colette, Hades and Wild Raspberry Ale are perfect for a spring or summer day. The Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti is seriously something special. Sam had a couple of IPA’s he was excited about. Not to mention the whole thing smells like a brewery, which just adds to the experience, and the bar tenders and patrons are really cool as well. Saturday will be my very favorite, Breckenridge Brewery, and it looks like there are about 17 more. Clearly we will not get to all of them.

So other than beer tasting, I went to an Earth Day fair, we’ve been to a Nuggets vs. Clippers game, a Rusko/DJ Shadow/Paper Diamond show on 420, and mostly have otherwise been hiking around parks and eating at some of Denver’s top restaurants (subsequent review blog to follow). I’ve also gotten to spend some time with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Denny, and their family of eight kids, plus a son-in-law and new granddaughter. It’s quite the zoo! Oh, and I didn’t do anything for three days besides read the Hunger Games trilogy. I’m totally on the bandwagon... I saw the movie and had to know what happened next! I’ve been only in the mood to read novels lately… I finished American Gods before that, and am anxious to get started on the next Sword of Truth book, if I can even remember what was happening! Anybody have any good fiction book suggestions?

So that’s about it for now. Voltron seems to be holding up, at least since we got here. Fingers crossed. I’m sorry to everyone I need to call… you know who you are. I love you guys, and everyone back home and I hope you’re doing awesomesauce!

Hiking and the Perfect Storm

The Tale of the Lone Hike

 

It's a still, quiet morning, and the forest is calling to me. Bear Wallow Loop. The trail seems harmless enough. In the right season, it's the most popular hike in Santa Fe - a modest 4 mile day hike on the outskirts of the Hyde Memorial State Park. I arrive at the deserted parking lot at the head of the trail, and as I check my phone to write down the numbers of the three trails that intersect to create this loop, I find I have no signal. Oh well, I’m sure it’s labeled. Despite the hype, the trail looks more ominous than expected, but I advance onto the shaded trail, where patches of snow still remain from the icy winter. I head a few feet into the forest, and hear the unmistakable crunch of footsteps in the snow. A brief glance around confirms that no other people are present, leading to the obvious conclusion that an animal is near. Being in an actual forest on the side of a mountain, I am well aware of what sort of animals lurk in the shadows, and the decision is made to turn around, sprint back to the car, and drive away.

The End.

So that day pretty much confirmed what a wimp I am! I ended up going to a different trail which supposedly had a waterfall about half a mile up. I found a creek, but no waterfall, and the whole time all I could think about was what kind of animals were surely stalking me! It was not a long hike.I convinced Sam to do the Bear Wallow with me last weekend, and I didn’t think about the animals once! It was a fantastic trail… every 30 minutes the forest would transform. There were parts of hiking through snow, parts that felt like a dry desert in the woods (like Texas trails, I would imagine); we had to cross a couple of creeks, and a good chunk of the hike was as close to a faerie forest I’ve ever been in! I never feel more alive and myself when I’m in the woods. With someone else, apparently. :)

We were planning to leave Santa Fe on Monday (after already deciding to stay through the weekend so we could receive a mail shipment), but Sam realized he hadn’t spent nearly enough time with his cousin Kira (certainly not as much time as I had), so the decision was made to spend one more night and take her to dinner. We ended up at this place called La Boca that had AMAZING Spanish tapas. For reelz. I also finally got to give him his anniversary gift – Kira introduced me to the Kakawa Chocolate House, which serves chocolate “elixirs,” rich, chocolate drinks infused with a wide variety of spices and herbs and different milks and such. I went a little nuts and got Sam two of the powdered elixirs you can make at home, as well as two of the tiny mugs they serve them in at the shop, a box of their unique truffles, and a giant slab of chocolate cake. CHOCOLEXTRAVEGANZA!

This is unrelated, but I’ve talked about her enough that I want to add a picture of Kira and Manu, the Cutest Baby Ever. Seriously. I spent weeks with this kid, and haven’t heard him really cry the whole time. This was at her daughter Oona’s faerie birthday party! Kira is seriously an amazing person, and I'm so glad I got to know her on this trip. :)

 So when we got up to leave on Tuesday, we found to our dismay that many of the roads were closed due to the last few days of snow, and even if they weren’t, we didn’t feel like it was a good idea to try our luck on icy roads. It had taken us a couple of hours to get ready to leave, and we ended up turning around and taking our spot right back. Man, and we thought Texas was hard to get out of... Santa Fe was holding us hostage! But despite the irritation at the hold up, the snow was so beautiful! These are pics of our campground!

Ok, finally we arrive at yesterday, which I will title the Perfect Storm. When we got ready to leave Santa Fe yesterday morning, there was really no way to get out of our “pull-through” site without backing up. We had already attached the Tracker to the back, which is kind of a pain, and we were thinking it was possible to back up with the tow vehicle, which turned out to be totally incorrect. (If that is totally obvious, I do NOT want to hear it.) It just pushed the car backward into the dirt and bent the towing equipment attached to the Tracker. Despite the bend, it seemed to still be attached just fine and everything went back into place after we managed to get it unhooked from the RV, get out of our spot, and reattach everything. So we carried on.

We finally, FINALLY make it out of Santa Fe, for about 30 minutes when I notice that anytime I hit the brakes, besides the normal loud squealing (bad, I know), now the steering wheel is also shaking violently. This can’t be good. We happen to be in the tiny town of Espanola, so we pull into the first auto shop we see – a tire and brake repair place. They have some experience with RVs, and say that they think it’s the rotors, but they can take a look and find out. I immediately head for somewhere I can get a margarita laced with a Chill Pill, and we get the call that it is, in fact, the rotors and the brake pads and it’s going to cost $600 to replace them. Sigh. “Another margarita, please!” They finish up around the time the shop closed, and it was nearing dark, so we only made it about halfway to our destination goal of Pagosa Springs, CO.

We pull in after hours to a little RV park in Chama, NM, and pick a spot. During the process of getting to said spot, we notice in the rear-view camera that something is weird with the Tracker hookup. Turns out the stupid towing thing was weakened enough when we bent it that it had just totally come off of the car. I’m just grateful that didn’t happen on the highway! So that was the end of our No Good Horrible Very Bad day, and today we’re going to drive the vehicles separately to Pagosa Springs and hopefully find someone who can reattach our towing stuff.  Ah, the joys of home ownership!