Big Sur: After finding more about Big Sur when trying to go to Sand Dollar beach but ended up at Manresa beach, I decided to go to Big Sur on Tuesday. I had originally planned to do a lot of studying at the Rosicrucian Library but had difficulty setting up appointments, so I just let it go. It allowed me some more spare time in my schedule and I think the universe was saying go out and see the world and not be cooped up in a library surrounded by books. AND I am so glad I did. Big Sur blew my mind away as well as worries – more than books did; how could you think of your worries when you could be driving a long a big ass mountain edge? Or standing in front of ‘majestic-as-fuck’ redwood trees? and be standing in a sea of aromas and energy?? Seriously!? I did an earth meditation while in the redwood forest and really felt them grounding me and the energy surging through me. I wish I had more time to walk some of the longer trails of Big Sur, but I wanted to go to Jade Cove and a beach there. But I found out that Jade Cove had a 30 ft drop that is only achievable by a rope and I had difficulties finding it. The signs only faced one way so I missed it on the way down and had to spend more time driving – I didn’t mind, it was a beautiful drive and I love driving. I talked to someone who was climbing up from that cove and asked about it and they said that you’d had to be pretty fit in order to go down to the cove. Disappointed. I wanted to pick up some jade!! Oh well. At least I had been to the spot. It was a drive, and definitely a day trip, but totally worth it if you’re into nature and dramatic scenery. Another thing that was disappointing was that the wind was ripping when I was there, so on the turnouts it was difficult to stop and get out and take pictures. At one turnout the wind was so rapid that it could’ve ripped the door off my car if it was older. Definitely a must see if you’re willing to do the drive.

San Jose Flea Market: I had heard about the San Jose Flea Market a while back as a must do while in San Jose, or the Bay Area. Unfortunately this market is only open later in the week, and the best times to go were the weekend which I couldn’t do. So I scheduled to go on a Wednesday. So disappointing!! Only 300 vendors were out and it didn’t have the same vibe – totally deserted and a ghost-town. I did stop by a makeup/jewelry vendor and got a great deal on nail polishes; 6 for $5 and I bought a flower clip for $1. But it totally wasn’t what I was expecting. If I’m ever back in California, I definitely need to go back there and get the full experience! It was cool to see the produce vendors and some of the household vendors, but there wasn’t anything too interesting. There was a decent shoe vendor that had flats for sale for $10, but the size I’m normally it was a tad too small, so that was unfortunate. I think I came back to Santa Cruz early that day. (Left photo Cred: Flea Market Facebook Page)

 

 

Glow Candle Lounge:  Since this was a spiritual retreat, I wanted to schedule in an artistic expression, so I was looking for some art things to do and came across a more sophisticated model of the ‘Plaster Fun Time’ studio model – where you go in pay a flat fee and pay for the product you’ll be decorating and come out with a finished product. I had scheduled to do Petroglyph which is a spin off of this but their picked up time was a day more than Glow Candle’s. So I only could to glow candle. Since I was also celebrating mabon at the same time I decided it’d be fun to do a fall themed candle and then I also created a candle to go into my studio – eventually. Glow Candle Lounge I’d definitely do again and was the right activity for the idea I was going for. I wanted to release any unwanted energy… and this totally did the trick!

The process is this; you go in and they greet you and tell you the steps; choosing the mold, then the color wax, and shapes called pips, and then finally the scent and/or glitter if you want it. For the fall candle I did a hexagonal shape and for my studio candle I did the star. Then you start breaking up the wax into small pieces – which is the time consuming process. The smaller the pieces the more colors comes through – difficult to remember especially if you are on a time constraint. The only issue was, that yeah it was a bit pricey… a whopping total of $42 for two candles in the $10-20 range… but it was special and I had budgeted it into my spending there. If money isn’t a problem for you, and want to do a fun activity for the reason I had, go for it! They do have smaller candles that cost less, but they do have a $9 studio fee, which covers more than one candle. So at that price, you kinda want to take advantage of your time there.

San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles: After picking up my Candles on Thursday I went over and did the San Jose Museum of Quilt and Textiles. This is a very small museum that can easily be done in an hour or less. It is literally one gallery room and a conference room that had quilts. The quilts though were amazing from a design perspective. I don’t know much about the quilting aspect of it, but I went to get some inspiration for geometric and pattern designs and this definitely was the right thing to go to! I also got to use my ‘student discount’ here as well. At the end they had a pretty impressive gift shop, I just wished they had more quilt items – like designs of the quilts on postcards. I ended up buying their 25 pack of postcards for their anniversary. I just wished I had some money left over to buy a quilt. But the one I liked was over $300 dollars. Oh well, if I ever come back, I’ll have to purchase one or maybe I can do so online or something. If you’re into design or textiles this museum is definitely worth checking out.

 

Land of Medicine Buddha: Keep in mind this trip was planned intuitively for over 6 months. With the help of another psychic who was from the area and my own intuition and card reading abilities, I picked things as they came to me and while speaking with that psychic (who is my friend Gwen). We asked questions and collaborated about what to do and while planning I wanted to put in a retreat center, but since the retreat center closed at 5 pm, it was difficult to get to later in the day which is when I had planned to go several times during the week. My times were a bit off so this was another thing that didn’t go exactly as planned – which was fine by me. Going on the last day created the same effect as going at the end of the day several times. Land of Medicine Buddha is nestled in a redwood forest on a mountain. I didn’t know much about the sites there upon arrival, but did know what Land of Medicine Buddha was. Since the whole point of this trip to California was to relieve some anger, pain, negative thoughts, and worries I picked places that were peaceful, spiritual and healing. Little did I know there was a Buddhist figure called Ksitigarbha. His main intentions were to dispel negative or troublesome thoughts. I thought to myself, how perfect for the intention of this trip! And upon meditating in front of his statue, he did have an affect on me. I’ll go into the spiritual effects in the Spiritualism section of this series.

 

 

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