Tree of Life

Five years ago, I became very interested in the raw food diet and one of the first books that I bought was Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine by Gabriel Cousens. After reading his book, I KNEW that someday...I would visit the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center.

Fast forward to last year when I watched the documentary Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days. It's filmed at Tree of Life and is an incredibly inspiring film. Definitely worth seeing. Add to that, the fact that I had been reading the blog of one of the staff at Tree of Life, Courtney Pool...and it was ABOUT TIME we went there! (side note: you can find more information about my love of raw vegan foods on my blog, Happy Foody).

What is the Tree of Life? According to their website...

The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center is the world’s leading spiritual, vegan raw and live food retreat center. It was founded in 1993 to promote spiritual awakening and to support an inspiring, healthy and “alive” lifestyle through education and first-hand experience. The Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center serves as an oasis for the realization of whole-person, whole-planet healing. It is a place where people of all ages, nationalities, and religious and spiritual paths come to experience physical, mental, emotional and spiritual renewal and well being.

We offer expertise and support in spiritual juice fasting and detoxification, live-food nutrition, spiritual living, sustainable living, and authentic and purposeful living through more than 40 different yet integrated programs, including our global peace initiatives and Culture of Life Community. People from more than 93 nations come to The Tree of Life for inspiration, a relaxing vegan vacation, or to regain health and vitality from a variety of diseases. It is here under the shade of our tree that they are rediscovering a life of meaning. We welcome you and are delighted to serve you in becoming the alive person and spirit that you truly are.

Our friends, James and Jennie, were really excited to go there as well...so we decided to all go together. We loaded the kids up in the minivan and headed one hour west to Patagonia, AZ.

You have to make reservations in advance...and the afternoon meal is $25 per person for the buffet. We arrived about 15 minutes early (lunch is served from 1-2pm), so we had a little time to explore. As the meal preparation was being finished, they gathered everyone who was there for a blessing. We all came together and held hands while the staff member spoke about peace within families (each day has a different focus).

After the blessing, we ran walked down to the kitchen and started filling our plates with raw food goodness. It was so heavenly. I wanted to just stand there for a moment and soak it all in. The colors, the people, the smells.

There was a salad bar with HUGE bowls of freshly picked greens and sprouts...4 different dressings, fruit + granola, nut/seed pates, spaghetti, "raw"violis with nut cheese between thinly sliced beets (this was the entree), sweet potatoes (my fav), two kinds of kale salad, and so much more! All of this food was 100% raw and organic. *swoon*

All of the seating is outside...with amazing views all around. Some people were sitting on the ground...others gathered at the tables, and some were praying/meditating off away from everyone else before they ate. We quickly realized that there were no high chairs at Tree of Life :) So, we took turns holding Lucy while the other ate. It was SO SUNNY and amazing outside...I could have sat there for several hours.

While we were sitting there, the lead chef at Tree of Life, Kosan, came over for a visit. Jennie and I talked with him for several minutes until Bella came back and booted him from her chair. Kosan is a master vegan raw food chef...he has been a chef, cafe owner, teacher of healthy cuisine and lifestyle for over 25 years. It was fun chatting with him.

After we ate, we walked around the grounds a little bit. They have several greenhouses where they grow all the food. If you've never tasted greens/salad that are freshly picked...you are missing out! So tender and soft...nothing like the greens that have been sitting on the grocery store shelves. We walked back to the teepee, which Bella thought was really cool. We've decided to add "sleeping in a teepee" to our list of things to do in our lifetime.

The babies were getting restless and it was time to head home...but not without a stop to the store/office to say hello to Courtney. I had meant to email her and let her know we were coming...but my forgetful mama brain won out. I knew I had to at least TRY to catch her before we left and tell her how much I enjoy her blog.

When we got to the office, I stepped inside and the first person I saw was Dr. Gabriel Cousens. Now there is a guy with a lot of letters behind his name!! I felt healthier just being in the same room with him :)

I walked back to the store and asked if Courtney was in, but was told that she had stepped out for a Q & A session. So, I browsed the store a bit and found a few items that I had been searching for at the last couple of Whole Foods with no luck...raw nori and green stevia. Yay!

Jennie came inside too and we had a nice chat with one of the staff members about cameras and dreads. Just as we were about to leave, Courtney walked in and we were able to meet and hug and chat briefly. Jump on over to her blog for some raw food inspiration!

It was a day that will remain in our hearts for a long time...so much inspiration and beauty. If you ever have a chance to visit the Tree of Life for a retreat...or even just a day...do it! You won't be sorry.

Here is a video that I made with some of the highlights of our day there. Many of you have expressed an interest in the Tree of Life, so I hope that you'll enjoy seeing it "in motion"!

Photos of our time at Tree of Life here.
All photos available for comment on Flickr here.

Crossing Paths

In December 2008, we sold one of our RV's to Kevin and Annmarie Gianni...they flew into Bozeman and we hung out for the day, teaching them a little about life on the road before they set out on their own nationwide tour.

Today, our paths crossed again...this time in Phoenix, AZ. It was so fun to reconnect, hear their stories from these past 15 months and to see our old RV again!

Kevin and Annmarie host The Renegade Health Show...which focuses mostly on natural living and raw foods, along with a few other fun things. The show is GREAT, and if you are interested in healthy living at all, you need to be watching their show. Matt and I love it. I also love Kevin's book, High Raw. If you've ever been curious about raw foods, but didn't know where to start, check it out. There is a free eBook version here.

Annmarie also just launched a new skin care line and she gave me some samples to try out. I am pretty skeptical when it comes to using "products"...but OH. MY. WORD. I am loving it. Such yummy stuff. Totally organic and natural. So natural that she said I could eat it if I so desired :) I'll be posting more about them on Walk Slowly soon...

It was strange to see our old RV with their stuff in it! :) Shout out to Johnny 5, the kitty cat. They are creating an indoor container garden in the living room area...can't wait to see it all "grown up". We get questions about how to do a garden on the road a lot, so here is one option.

I made a video with them as well...they shared with me their very favorite places in the U.S...along with tips for those who have dreams of a traveling lifestyle. Check it out!

Ocean Views

After leaving Santa Cruz, we headed up to San Francisco for a few days to see some of our favorite sites. Finding a reasonably priced campground in the Bay area is next to impossible. When we stayed here the first time around, we camped at Half Moon Bay for $25 a night with no hookups. They've now increased it to $50. So we figured for a few dollars extra, we'd get full hookups closer to the city at Pacifica's San Francisco RV Resort. It's certainly a humorous name for the park, because it's just a parking lot with electrical posts. However, it does happen to be right on the ocean...so they can call it whatever they want. Here is the view from the front of the RV:

We loved watching the waves and light change throughout the day. We would get up in the morning and just stand out there and stare into forever. God's creation is so awe-inspiring. How can you not just give praise to the Creator when you are surrounded by such beauty?

We only spent one day touring around the city but we packed a lot in! Our first stop was the Exploratorium...which just happened to be FREE on the day that we went. Yay! It was unbelievebly busy, but worth it. Bella had a blast...and so did we.

After that we headed over to a store I had seen numerous times on Apartment Therapy and I just had to go there...Rare Device. In their own words...it is "a place to promote designers, artists and artisans plus help them grow by taking on new projects and collaborations. Every object in the store has its own story, and has been chosen because it is either handmade, well-designed, useful, beautiful or all of the above." Now that's my kind of store. It was a fun surprise to see a friend's jewelry on display. Check her site out here...love love love her work!

Next, on to Cafe Gratitude, one of our very favorite raw restaurants. If you have never been there, Cafe Gratitude is all about the love. It's a wonderful, positive environment and the staff is always very laid back and helpful. The location we like the best, near the Golden Gate Park, was permanently closed...so we went to the Castro location. Matt had raw pizza, Bella has steamed red rice and raw "cheese" and I had the sushi bowl...a dish that I CRAVE! So good.

Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf were next on our list. It's SO touristy, but we love it and we really had our hearts set on seeing the sea lions again. We were so disappointed when they weren't there! Boo. But we had fun riding the carousel, gazing at Alcatraz & the big boats, and eating fudge.

To end the evening, we headed to our favorite Thai restaurant in the city...Marnee Thai. It's a tiny little restaurant and it's always busy. The food is PERFECTLY delicious. Probably one of the best Thai restaurants in the country. And believe me, we've been to enough of them to know. :) In case you haven't noticed, it's kind of "our thing".

One of our days in the Bay area was spent doing a photo session with a sweet family...and on our way back to the campground, our fuel pump went out. Luckily, Matt was able to pound on it good enough to get us back home. But we were unable to use our tow vehicle for a couple of weeks after that. We didn't end up fixing it until after we came back from Christmas in January (when Matt was able to get the part and do it himself).

It was a fun stay...but we were glad to head south. We were getting so excited to fly back home to the Midwest for Christmas!

Photos from San Francisco here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.