Truckee, Lake Tahoe, Nevada City, CA – 10/9-14/10

Visiting my brother Al and his family in Truckee, CA rounded off our “brothers visits”, having visited all of our brothers on this cross-country trip. It’s been a joy to hang with my nieces Mia and Talia, as well as Al and Nancy in their beautiful log home in ski country near Lake Tahoe.

Our first day we did some bumpy 4-wheeling through Tahoe National Forest to Crystal Peak to pick quartz crystals. It was a treasure place for the girls, and for me, I must admit. A beautiful view and picnic as well.

The next day Kule and I ventured into the forest exploring back-country roads, an old railroad bed, and Boca Lake.

Lake Tahoe was our destination the third day. We drove around the lake and enjoyed the views of Emerald Bay and Eagle Falls.

Sunsets are always beautiful at L. Tahoe.

Al took us on a hike at Donner Lake, where I took in a very quick swim in the cool water, and Kule did some rope swing. We had the place to ourselves; we refrain from posting photos of our birthday suits.

Thanks, Al, Nancy, Mia, and Talia for a great time! We will probably be your neighbors soon, someplace out on this beautiful west coast.

On our way to Santa Cruz we wanted to see Nevada City; it has a good climate and deciduous trees, reminiscent of some old mill towns in New England. This was a big mining town during the gold rush. Al suggested checking out Malakoff Diggins, home of hydraulic mining for gold, that was eventually shut down because it destroyed downstream farmlands. I felt the emotion of seeing the earth destroyed and cheering the court decision to shut it down.

Malakoff Diggins

Hydraulic Monitor

Kule got gold fever and panned in the creek where gold still exists today. He did find gold, fool’s gold (pyrite)!

When the mines shut down N Bloomfield became a ghost town; it is a museum today, and we got to  explore the general store and stay in an old cabin for the night. We took a spooky moonlit walk through the woods, making noise to alert the bear, and visiting the old school house, church, and the diggings.

Our haunted cabin

N Bloomfield ghost town today

Another gold mine in Nevada City is Ananda Village, a 800 acre village dedicated to the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda. We had a short tour and wonderful meditation here, and hope to return soon to explore this village and the community more later. Thanks to our tour host Krishna Das for the opportunities to exchange powerful blessings. We also heard more about Grass Valley, a neighboring town, as a potential place to live in spiritual community. More to explore....

Crater Lake, Ashland, Mt Shasta, Lassen Volcano – 10/7-9/10

Leaving Lost Valley, Oregon, we drove through beautiful Willamette National Forest (“oh, we can ski near Lost Valley”). Our destination was more natural beauty, to two places I’d wanted to visit for some time – Crater Lake, Oregon, and Mt. Shasta, California.

Crater Lake was stunning. It was a meditation being with the deep blue colors of the lake. It was windy and chilly that day, and as we drove around the lake we ended up in cloud-covered peaks, at moments wondering where the edge of the road (and the shear cliffs) might be.  The Pinnacles at Crater Lake is a fascinating area, with hollow tubes that are solidified remains of steam vents created from volcanic activity.

We drove that evening to Ashland, Oregon, home of new age authors Neal Donald Walsh and James Twyman. It is a charming small town with a 800 acre forested park and sweet hills. The food co-op tells of a cool community dedicated to sustainability. We had a short time here, enough for a morning walk after breakfast and a mid-day nap at the lake before heading to Mt Shasta, but we definitely want to check this town out more for potential living situation.

Lake in Ashland

Mt. Shasta is seen 50-100 miles away, so we got to hang with the mountain from various vantage points.  Arriving at 4 PM, we chose the Panther Meadows trail, a place of sacred ritual by the indigenous and new age visitors. This is truly a sacred mountain. Kule and I had special meditations here at the headwaters; I wrote about my experience connecting with Jason, and being with his flying eagle energy, in “Merging with Jason” at www.jasonmichellefoster.blogspot.com

Mt Shata Meditation at the headwaters

Lassen Volcano

En route to Truckee, CA to visit my brother Al’s family, we got a tour of the Shasta Lake dam and its osprey inhabitants, and drove through Lassen volcano national forest.

We are digging the west, and celebrating making it to the last west coast state in our journey across our nation, California!



Oregon - Portland, Eugene, Lost Valley IC - 9/27-10/6/10

Oregon is awesome. We have been enjoying the tail end of the sunnier months here, before the overcast rainy season starts and goes until June.  I can understand why locals deal with less sun, when the tradeoff is lush magical rain forest, fertile valleys, and abundant waterways.

We started out our journey in Oregon in the cities of Portland and Eugene.  We were immediately impressed with the great public transportation, bicycle use/paths and bike-friendliness, and other awareness of sustainable practices.  We stayed with friends we met through our culture network that we met in Seattle the first weekend of our  arrival in the northwest.

It was great to hang out with Ross and Joanna in Portland and to check out some of the funkier artsier neighborhoods as well as the beautiful oriental gardens. Coming from Orcas Island, the high city energy was a bit much for us, and we gravitated toward hanging out in the beautiful Japanese garden on our arrival.

The gardens were extensive, peaceful, and very zen. Again, we were impressed with the city’s attention to green space and good energy. We got a great view of Mt. Hood!

Dining in Portland is fantastic, and we got entertained along the way with some creative art, including a decorated vehicle on Mississippi Avenue.

Our second day, after orienting ourselves to the city and doing some needed errands, we gravitated toward the Chinese garden. It was like walking through paintings, the place was exquisitely and authentically designed to be a piece of art. We also enjoyed a traditional and timeless (i.e. long and relaxed) tea ceremony, sampling different teas from China.

 

 

 

We visited the Baghadad cinema, where they filmed “What the Bleep, Down the Rabbit Hole” (above).

In Portland we visited the intentional community of Tryon, a permaculture education center with a sweet children’s school and some agile goats and friendly bees.

Oregon is home to creative building of small structures, such as the icosa hut (icosahedrons – 10-sided domes) that can be raised easily and inexpensively for singles and families.

Maitreya intentonal community, Eugene

We moved on to Eugene, where we stayed with our friends Bodhi and Cordy in their home that invites healing workshops. It reminded us of our home in Ipswich, only bigger and older (classic Eugene). Bodhi gave us some great tours of the university and the surrounding areas. We visited the intentional communities of Maitreya, Hearticulture, and Maya’s small community with icosa huts.  We shared pancake breakfast and music jams with Reba and other friends at Hearticulture and made friends with the pigs.

Our Eugene friend Bodhi

Our Eugene friend Tara at her husband David's restaurant - great food and great nusicians!

We attended an art walk where we got to see some great galleries and Kule’s friend from 30+ yrs ago Sufi Abode community, Tara, and her husband David play in their Accordions Anonymous band (video below). They also have a folk band called Red Pajamas where they perform their own compositions. We enjoyed our music and dining connections with them!

We also enjoyed the great street food and awesome young street musicians; my son Jason would have enjoyed meeting these creative young people.  The Saturday market is the biggest and best organic produce and creative crafts market I’ve ever experienced; it was a joy to taste the food and hear the highly talented street musicians (including a young man playing the marimba like Jason used to do).

We got a chance, finally, in nearby quaint and hip town of Corvallis to meet Lawrence Cole (associated with new culture and the Port Townsend Ecovillage) who does a wonderful song concert, where participants weave in and out, connecting with each other on the floor singing different parts.  We thought of our friend Michael O'leary in Gloucester, MA leading wonderful songs.

We could see living in Eugene with the comfortable-size city, creativity, sustainability awareness, and cool friendly people. It’s a town of young and old hippies and “cultural creatives”, and we felt right at home.

Lost Valley Permaculture Educational Center

Lost Valley Madrone Trail

It was hard to leave our friends in Eugene, and it made it easier to move into Lost Valley, where we stayed with our friend Melanie, who we met through Bodhi. Melanie is working on bringing more spiritual community to Lost Valley, and she invited us to offer a Non-Violent Communication (NVC) mini-workshop (by Kule), a Zegg Forum demonstration, and a sound healing circle. The facilities at Lost Valley are wonderful, and the land is magical. I wrote about a spiritual connection I had there on my other blog www.jasonmichellefoster.blogspot.com

We got tours of the gardens, the trails, the creek and swimming hole, and the educational and lodging facilities at Lost Valley. We also sat in on one of their regular community meetings, a sacred circle with a forum for open communication. We plan to return to Lost Valley in Nov-Dec to spend more time on this precious land, practice being in community and sharing our gifts with them, and learning more about permaculture.

Orcas Island, Washington - Magic and Music, 9/20-26/10

Our time has been full of blessings; we are finally getting to post our Orcas photos, and Portland and Eugene are next, along with our current journey at the intentional community of Lost River Valley, Oregon.

Sunset from Turtleback Mountain, Orcas Island

Orcas Island is magical. Surrounded by water, it has mountain and lake energy as well as expansive skies and beautiful sunsets. The island charm is enhanced by the alternative sustainability-minded locals. This place isout of the Bambi video, visited by so many deer and rabbits, along with local herd of sheep and adorable alpaca.

We met the mystical water creatures that are the namesake of this island - we were Orca-abundant that day, with 3 pods and probably 90 orca around our boat

This is a place that inspires creativity and music. Hanging with Ben, Samara, Noah and their friends would of course inspire this. It was a joy to be playing music with Ben again at the open-mike in hippy-spa Doe Bay after a soothing hot tub and refreshing (friggin freezin) dip in the ocean. We introduced the audience to the water phone and met the daughter of the guy who invented it to call whales! We of course had an awesome powerful sound healing circle. When our homebound ferry was filled up, the 3 hour wait for the next one became a great opportunity to do more music on the dock, with an audience that included a professional photographer we had met the day before at Mt. Constitution.

View of Mt Baker from Mt Constitution, Orcas Island

We had a blast staying at Ben's and Noah's home in the woods and then Samara's in town, eating great home cooking, getting silly, reminiscing old times with Jason (a bit of sadness but joyful  energy), hanging with wild fun island artists and musicians, and being in community with loving friends. We enjoyed a magical sunset kayak with the colorful starfish and wise cliff rocks. The Saturday market was an awesome community gathering with great food, conversation, and cultural sharings.

Our friends want us to move to Orcas, and that is enticing. It was hard to leave the peaceful island to get back to the busier mainland, and are enjoying further exploration of the northwest and sustainable community.

We had a short visit in Port Townsend and enjoyed the tour of the Port Townsend Ecovillage; a sweet small farm that has a few plots of land left. Lawrence Cole, a songweaver who we finally got to meet in Corvallis near Eugene a week later, is associated with Port Townsend.



Port Townsend Ecovillage


We are continuing our exploration of ecovillages in the Eugene, Oregon area and Lost Valley permaculture educational center. Loving the energy here!