Breakfast of Toast w/hummus and sauteed potatoes and veggie sausage
Snack: Crackers and hummus
Iced coffee with soy milk - shared with Neil
Cashew snacks
Purchased his and hers travel mugs
Pink Potato Salad (beet-potato salad with mustard-horseradish dressing)
Kika
BBQ Party!
Peanutty Napa Shells
Last night started what I hope to be a tradition of dinner and a movie with our friend Laura. We have been talking for months (years?) about watching the Bourne Trilogy because Laura is obsessed and neither Neil or I have seen them. We finally made a dinner and a movie date and watched the first one last night. Laura cooked spaghetti and provided the wine, I brought the salad and the Hubz brought the chocolate. We had a wonderful night of chatting, eating and movie watching. Now we have to set the date to watch the 2nd movie!
Laura Cooking Up a Storm
Salad with creamy pesto dressing
My Plate - YUM
Laura's Cat...this is as close to Neil as she would get- the he tried to touch her...not recommended
Bah! I have been so crazy busy lately between a weekend of backpacking, then trying to get all my work in line before heading off to Wanderlust for the weekend; now I’m back and trying to get myself back on track.
I'm in the middle near the poles- if you look really hard you can find me- Photo By: Arthur Shim
Our weekend was absolutely amazing even though it rained 98% of the time. I started Thursday off with a Kundalini yoga class with Kia Miller; it was really amazing! It was the first Kundalini class I have ever taken and it was hard but so much fun. After my Kundalini class I was starving and took a rainy walk down to the vegan cafe that was onsite for a delicious lunch of Indian curry, rice and salad and a piece of cashew cheese cake that I split with Neil. Unfortunately do to my extreme hunger I downed the food so fast I didn’t get a photo and heads up no photo of any other food #fail. In the afternoon I took a workshop with Desiree Rumbaugh on knees, lower back and hips. Desiree has so much energy and she is absolutely hilarious! I loved her class so much and learned a lot about alignment and ways to relieve pains in the lower back, knees and hips. Thursday night Neil and I had veggie burgers and a beer at one of the restaurants on site and ended up in bed early because we were so exhausted from traveling down, camping out Wednesday night and yogaing all day.
Desiree Rumbaugh Class
On Friday I started the morning off with an early yoga class with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman- I died a little bit when I saw Rodney Yee. This was the one class I was looking forward to most after years of doing Rodney Yee yoga videos at home I was finally sitting in his presence. The class was amazing! Colleen and Rodney took turns leading the class. To my delight (I died a little more) Rodney Yee adjusted me in a pose- MADE MY DAY haha; I’m totally geeking out as I write this so you can just imagine what I was feeling during this class. After my yoga class I went to a SpeakEasy with Majora Carter who is known for her greening efforts in the South Bronx. I took a break after this and headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit and enjoyed hummus wraps with Neil for lunch. After lunch I had my second yoga class of the day and second class with Desiree Rumbaugh this time a workshop for neck and shoulders. Again I loved this class! Desiree easily became my favorite teacher of the weekend. I learned so much in the class but was sad when it was over so fast. Friday night we met up with our friend Catherine and went to dinner at a restaurant onsite and then spent the remainder of the night working on blog posts and articles; the work never ends.
Stealth photo of Rodney Yee
Saturday was the busiest day of all and the best because I got to take two classes with my husband! It was so nice because our first class of the morning was with Desiree Rumbaugh and it was a playful flow class. In the class we did a lot of partner work and it was so nice to be able to practice with Neil. I even did a handstand with support of Neil. After our class we went to the worst SpeakEasy ever with the author of The Athlete’s Plate; honestly the lecture could have been over in 5 minutes because the guy just kept repeating himself over and over and over. For lunch we had mini Lara bars, tastings of Honest Tea and humus wraps that we made in our room. In the afternoon Neil and I took one of John Friend’s classes which was such a great experience; it started off a little slow but we learned a lot and had a great time. After the class I went to a SpeakEasy featuring the founders of Wanderlust and Neil was lucky and took one of Sean Corne’s classes- he loved it- colour me jealous.
Wanderlust Founders
We ended up leaving early on Sunday due to a few things that came up and I missed out on what I imagined was an amazing class with Brian Kest and one with Schuyler Grant. Oh well there is always next year.
Summary/Wanderlust in Numbers:
Wanderlust Photos:
Interview with Marketing Manager Heather Williams of Manduka
During my visit to Wanderlust Vermont I had the opportunity to speak with Heather Williams of Manduka about what Manduka is doing to green their products as well as their role at Wanderlust and Heathers take on the events. Enjoy!
Q:How did you guys get involved with Wanderlust?
So just because we are such a big part of the yoga community so whenever Wanderlustcame around it just seemed like the perfect fit. Manduka is just into greening thecompany and is so eco-conscious and eco-friendly and Wanderlust has that entireside to it themselves and so it made sense that they were getting a community of yogistogether that cared about those sort of things to celebrate yoga it made sense thatManduka would be involved.
Q:What types of things is Manduka doing to green the company?
So a lot of it is just the products themselves and the materials that go into the productsand some of it is actually the manufacturing process as well. We have one line of matsthat is our eco line of mats that has zero foot print within the land fills and is made out ofnatural tree rubber, so it’s meant to biodegrade. So our other lines of mats are based onthat same idea, they are all made out of recycled material.
Q:What has been your experience here at Wanderlust?
It’s just this fascinating, vibrant community, the energy is fantastic and I feel that evenwith the rain it’s very natural but kind of tends to have people shift in a couple differentways. And so things have gone a couple of ways here at Wanderlust with where thingsare placed, where our sponsorship is and the experience has been great as far as thepeople go. Everybody has been just so glowing about it even though things are kind ofchaos and things are getting shifted around. Everybody has been just really flexible andit’s really beautiful to see that.
Q:So, What kinds of things are you (Manduka) doing here (Wanderlust)?
[Manduka is] sponsoring registration is one of the ways which means we have some signage up forpeople so that they can take photos, free henna and free feather hairs. Once the raintops there is a rig outside that is an aerial rig and there is also a retail space.
Henna at Wanderlust (photo from Manduka Facebook)
Hope you all are doing well! I know I have been MIA lately but I am busy getting my yoga on at Wanderlust Vermont in addition to attending lectures, performing interviews and attempting to find time to sleep here. I just wanted to do a big shout out to Hyde Yoga who sent me one of their really amazing Off The Mat halter tops to test out. I am absolutely in love with this top and what better time to write about it than today- the day off the Yoga Aid Challenge for Off The Mat, Into The World.
“Off the Mat, Into the World uses the power of yoga to inspire conscious activism and ignite grassroots social change. Founded by Seane Corn, this organization encourages yogi’s and yoginis alike to take their practice ‘off the mat’ and into the global community. Join the movement by sporting our latest halter designed in collaboration with OTM, knowing that 10% of the proceeds of your purchase benefit this incredible organization Slits on the sideseams allow for movement while still covering your booty . Fits just like the Taryn, but with five inches of added length. 92% organic cotton, 8% spandex” (source for photo and quote: Hyde Yoga Website)
I wore this tank all day today and it was seriously one of the most comfortable tops I have ever worn for yoga. It is made out of organic cotton and I love the length of it. If there is one thing I hate about workout tops its that they aren’t long enough especially when I am trying to do downward dog or handstands like I tried out today (first time in a yoga class!). In addition to wearing this wonderful top I also did an interview for Ecorazzi with Sean Corne and Suzanne Sterling of Off The Mat, Into The World. Both of them were super sweet and you can read/view more about the interview soon on Ecorazzi.
Other highlights from today:
This post is coming via iPhone so bear with me. I just wanted to go a quick thank you post to all of you who participated in the auction and raffle; our team raised a total of $365 for Off The Mat, Into The World. Congrats to the winners!
Now it’s time to make breakfast in the rain.
Miles Hiked: 9.2
Summits Reached: 1
Fire Tower Stairs Climbed: 20 ….okay 10 each
Moose Dropping Piles Seen: 500; okay probably less but they were everywhere but no moose to be seen
Coffees Drank: 3 (we split them)
Rounds of Cards Played: 5 and Neil won in the end (but only by a little)
Hours Spent Reading: 3 glorious hours
Minutes Spent Attempting to Do Yoga On A Slanted Rock: 5
Saturday morning Neil and I headed out to Eden’s Crossing at the Long Trail where we had ended our last long hike; you can read about it here. We signed in and started the 3 mile hike the summit of Belvidere Mountain. This hike was a different one for us because I was carrying an additional 17 pounds on my back and Neil around 25 pounds on his back because this trip we were staying the night. Unfortunately the night before it had rained so everything was wet and there were some real mucky spots. We also hit an area that was all rocks so we put our game faces on and got up them anyway we could; sometimes that meant hands and knees.
Neil getting his hike on
We finally made it to the summit of Belvidere Mountain and to the Fire Tower after about 3 hours of hiking up a challenging rock terrain.
Views From the Summit
The Fire Tower
After spending a little time at the summit relaxing without our packs on and refueling with some crackers and water we finally packed up and headed on our way. We still had 3.2 miles to hike before we finally reached our destination. Over the next 3.2 miles we encountered load after load of moose droppings, tons of slippery rocks, muddy sink holes and then thunder. When we started out on our adventure we knew that a thunderstorm was as possibility but we figured we could make it to the cabin before it started. Well the thunder started rolling in and so we started to book it ….not a good idea when you haven’t had lunch and probably needed more water. I was feeling pretty nauseous by the end and it felt like it was taking forever to get there. Finally we made it to the beaver pond which Neil had read was right near the camp and 10 minutes later we were there, our glorious accommodations for the night.
Our Cabin
We took our packs off and settled in and took of our wet shoes, socks and changed our clothes.
After we settled in and decided to make some Backpackers Pantry Pad Thai for lunch and to my surprise the peanut butter in the pad thai was Justin’s!
Pad Thai ....soup? (not photogenic)
We thought the pad thai had good flavor but could have used more time (our fault) “cooking” and less water so it wasn’t so much like a soup.
We also enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and relaxed outside looking out at our view.
View
Via!
The remainder of the night we spent doing yoga (well attempting to on rocks), reading, playing cards and just soaking up the sun.
For dinner we had the Backpackers Pantry Katmandu Curry. It was actually really delicious! We both loved the flavor and the addition of the lentils. We will be buying this one again.
