Part Nine; Travel
We traveled a few times this past year, twice to the San Francisco Bay area to give Galexis workshops, once back to Florida in May to pick up our RV, and one time to Hawaii where we attended two Lazaris workshops back-to-back.
Bay Area Visits
With good friends in the Bay Area, and a wonderful group of Galexis friends, we found the excuse to hold two Galexis workshops there and socialize before and after them. I find that channeling a longer workshop, a Friday night and a whole Saturday and Sunday weekend, really gets me flying and flowing, energetically. So once the workshop is over, I am ready to socialize and be active. So we gather with friends and take walks when we can. A special place is Deer Park, a wild semi-island in Novato near the RV park where we camped while on the road in the 2006 and 2007. Once our RV is fixed, we may travel leisurely up to the Bay Area and camp there again while doing the workshops and enjoy more time seeing the beautiful Bay area. These pictures are from when we were there in April.
The Florida visit and return journey
The late-May trip to Florida via plane was quite a trip! We needed supplies for over a month on the RV, so I overpacked and at the airport, overpaid too. In Florida, we gave a Galexis workshop, “Healing Your Relationship with Your Family” and had a good attendance. We spent time getting the RV back in shape and entertaining visitors there. I got in my last appointments with my favorite health practitioners, and we walked up and down Hollywood Beach for the last time.
We also visited with good friends Suki and Irwin, and partied with them, Pierre and Arlene. The last night out I had a “girl’s night out” with dear gal friends Kathryn, Kristy, Theresa and Barbara.
The trip back through the country was done almost all the way on Interstate 10. We picked it up in northern Florida, drove west awhile, and then took a side-trip along I-20 through Dallas where we gave another Galexis workshop. We returned to I-10 and traveled all the way to its end in Santa Monica, 20 minutes from our house. We visited friends on the way, celebrating the closure of Florida and the new life in California.
Although we had planned to travel leisurely, we chose not to tarry anywhere. The temperatures were extremely hot, and the long stretch through western Texas, New Mexico, and eastern California was brutal, boring, and scary. The interstate was so deserted in places, that if we broke down, it could be a long wait for help, even if there was cell phone access. After our previous RV trips, I was worried that the tires wouldn’t handle the over-100 degree heat. I prayed for the tires and talked encouragingly to them hour after hour. We made it through a couple of days earlier than planned, and the weather in California was delightful.
Upon returning to our California home in August, we were shocked to discover a major crack in the RV’s frame that could be dangerous if it broke while we were on the road. So we have our big RV (“Shungo”) parked in storage nearby. Soon, we’ll have the crack welded, and then we will be able to get back on the road this summer - extended weekends or even full weeks to explore interesting west coast places. We have an invitation from friends in the wilds in Oregon who have RV hookups on their acreage! For now, we are focusing mostly on building the Galexis business in LA, so we don’t anticipate much RV travel for awhile.
Hawaii
We were hardly back from Florida and settled before we left California once again for our first ever visit to Hawaii in September. Lazaris gave two workshops back to back in Maui at one of the older hotels, near the end of the road on the S.E. coast. The weather was perfect for me the whole time, much like Florida in the winter, and we only got chilly when we went up the Haleakala volcano to the top above the clouds, around 10,000 feet. We learned a lot about Hawaiian geology and the role of the volcanos and how Hawaii keeps migrating across the Pacific. We also had a great time trying to pronounce and remember all the Hawaiian names and towns.
Daniel and I were prepared to totally fall in love with Hawaii. Hawaii looks a lot like Florida, but with mountains and without as many bugs and mosquitoes. To our shock and horror, the same beautiful landscape plants are there, supplanting all the native vegetation. With all the same horrid pest weeds, like Drymaria among others, I knew way too much about the local ecological destruction. We drove along a picturesque highway that everyone had raved about, only to see miles of exotic bamboo forest where nothing else could grow. Of course, it had its exotic beauty, but I knew it was also a horrible damage to whatever had been there before. And a lot of creatures had been made homeless or destroyed altogether. By the beaches and through the extensive farmlands, there was no native Hawaii left!
All through the countryside, exotic landscape plants from Asia, South America and South Africa were growing wild, escaped from their gardens. This disheartened me until I cleared it emotionally, knowing that if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy what beauty was there. Searching for some "original" Hawaiian ecosystem, we finally got to see a little of it on the top of Haleakala, mostly barren and cold. The few native people there were warm and delightful. Thankfully, we didn’t run into any of the many native Hawaiians who I’d heard resented us light-skinned mainlanders.
While we were there, we attended two Lazaris workshops that were amazingly magical and profound. In between the two workshops, Daniel and I had a chance to explore the island, attend a wedding (surprise!) and socialize with friends. My inner changes were immense and the lovely landscaping and perfect temperatures supported some deep body relaxation and healing.
click on thumbnails below to view pictures
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