Immediately following the San Diego event, the crew and I headed up to beautiful Big Bear Lake. It was a few hours drive northeast, at about 2 hours east of LA. The drive was outstanding. On my way, I stopped in La Jolla to drop off a few things at the Kashi home office, and what a lovely office - Kashi products everywhere, smiling employees on the walls, an excellent choice of healthy cook books and the bathroom was fully stocked with foot spray, organic soap, organic hand lotion and body lotion, body spray, aloe for the sun, you name it. What a caring place to work. As for the rest of the drive, after heading off the freeway on to CA-330 and CA-18 for about 35 miles, I was stunned at how gorgeous California really is. I was literally driving on the side of mountains in San Bernadino National Forest. Absolutely breathtaking. I couldn't get enough.
I rented a house for 2 nights for the crew, and we spent those 2 days together as a group. It was really pleasant. I was the last to arrive, but the crew saved me the master bedroom. Giovanna cooked a lovely dinner, as is becoming a usual event. Then, unfortunately, I spent several hours of my first night in the ER waiting room for Kerri, the Yoga teacher, because she injured her tail bone a week back, and it hadn't seemed to be getting any better. Everything turned out alright, but I felt terrible for her - I've been there, with my own tail bone issues having had a pilonidal cystectomy a couple years back. Her case wasn't as severe, but she was certainly in a lot of pain and was especially nervous because the internal bleeding is at the base of her spine. (She's home and getting well now.)
The next day, Lexi and I went hiking up Cougar Crest trail. We reached the Pacific Crest, about 2 miles up and took in the views of the lake and mountains, which were incredible. Again, another lovely dinner made by Giovanna with a little help from the rest of us.
Wednesday, Kerri and I drove into Los Angeles for a Yoga class and a raw lunch at Juliano's Raw Restaurant, my favorite restaurant in LA. Fabulous Yoga and meal. Couldn't have done it better in LA.
Heading to the next event, I drove us along the Pacific Coast Highway-1 to drive beside the sea. It was, yet again, stunning, soothing and delicious. The sunset was filled with every color of the rainbow and the vineyards by the freeway were rich with deep-green and choloclate-brown tones and lots of blooming grapes. Full of life. I felt like I was looking at a reflection of myself. :)
We ended the night by driving into Bradley, CA camp grounds (4 and a half hours north) to pick up Kerri's things and headed to Salinas (2 hours north) to spend the night with Camille, our caterer, who offered to bring Kerri to Oakland, CA to fly to St Louis for her week off. We decided to send Kerri home for the week in hopes for her to heal faster. She was willing to take her vacation week then, rather than camp with an infected tail bone. Good choice, I think.
The next morning, I drove to Whole Foods in Monterey, the closest in the area, where I witnessed a 9 car accident on the PCH (so California - so over crowded with cars and people), bought out the entire store for the event and then spent the next 3 hours heading back into Bradley, CA toward the camp grounds. Again, the views on the road were breathtaking. I was laughing and singing with my sunroof and windows wide open. I drove past huge Organic farms, including Earthbound Organics, and scooted up and down the hills into another forest where the trees looked like they were reaching down to lift up the road, drooping onto the earth, and the lakes were dark grey masses. A little eerie, having no cell phone service and therefore, no connection to my company, family and friends. But refreshing, too. No distractions. Just overwhelmingly happy me, the crisp road and the thick earth.
The 4 crew members left spent 3 nights camping at Lake San Antonio. We had a great time listening to the birds, wild animals, and thousands of campers getting ready for the triathlon. I am not so good at sleeping on the ground at first, but I got used to it - probably because I just got more and more exhausted with sleepless nights. I was awakened by the animals sniffing out our food and muching on a bag of chips. A deer walked through the campsite in broad day light, literally 20 feet away from us. The birds came by, pecking at our dishes and stove. We had a fire every night, drank a few beers, Jason broke out his guitar a couple times, and had several visitors from Power Bar at night. I could sense the envy toward Kashi. The last night we had our local temp staff camp with us since they had no where else to go. We were really in the middle of deep forest; the closest hotel was an hour away. Giovanna opted for her final night in a hotel; she couldn't take being outside anymore. And Camille slept our last night in my tent, which helped me relax a little. (I dfeinitely prefer camping with a fellow camper in my tent.) Camille and I told crazy stories from events past and laughed like crazy for hours before we drifted into sleep. I've known Camille for 3 years now, ever since my first Kashi tour. She's catered a few events in the past, and this year she bid on the entire first half and got it. She's basically on tour with us too, just doesn't get reimbursed the way we do. So, we've been seeing a lot of her lately. I'm glad to say.
The event was pretty slow, a lot of the same people day after day, and the sun was strong. But the consumers kept coming by to stretch and eat a bowl of cereal. Triathletes are really into Kashi. And, gosh, it was really amazing to look at the bodies at this event. I was teaching Yoga most of the weekend, filling in for Kerri, and I got to cool down many of the athletes after they finished the triathlon. What an impressive sport. The racers were of all ages, 7 - 75. I was extremely impressed with the patience they took to train and the stamina to compete in one race for 4-6 hours. Wowsers! The last day of the triathlon was actually part of the Olympic trials, which was a nice surprise. I hadn't realized how serious and big this specific event was until I was in it.
After tearing down, and getting the heck outta dodge, I drove up to San Francisco to spend my first night, after 3 nights of camping in a big, huge hotel bed. Ahh...
Did I say I love my job?
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