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.

Sunshine Returns

We've spent plenty of time in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area in the past 6 years...the headquarters for Cold Stone Creamery is there, and Sara and her family work with CSC. But we always love to go there regardless! The weather is GORGEOUS most every day, and there is plenty to do.

This time around, we were going to spend time with our extended family and also new friends that we had met in Portland...Jessamyn and her sweet family.

First, we had to find a place to camp. And in Phoenix, being that it's a retirement community, 90% of the parks are 55 and older parks. If you do find a camp that will take families, a lot of time they aren't the kind of places we want to hang out at if you know what I mean. There were also several horse, dog, and who knows what kind of shows in town...and most of the RV parks were full. We finally found a park, The Deserts Edge RV Village, and it turned out to be a fantastic place!

We were able to snag a sweet spot directly connected to the playground, so it became our own little "super site". And bonus...there was even an orange and a grapefruit trees AT our campsite! How fun is that? Bella was going nuts climbing the trees and picking them. There were several other families living in the park, including a family from Canada who were traveling for a year. The pool and hot tub were AWESOME and the laundry facilities were great too. And best of all, the owners ROCKED. Great customer service, friendly, and efficient.

Matt's extended family came to visit us on a nice sunny afternoon and we had a great time chatting about life, kiddos, and our family reunion coming up this summer. Woo! This is the parents and sister of Jessica, who we visited in Sandpoint, Idaho.

We also spent quite a bit of time with Jessmyn, Josh, Asher, and Journey. The kids played and played, the girls talked, and the daddies enjoyed hanging out too.


We shared a yummy meal with them...homemade salsa, and the best fajitas ever.

On another day, Jessamyn came up with the kids to swim at the park and see the RV.

Jessamyn is a fellow photographer...it's always fun to connect with someone who gets my obsession!

Jessamyn has become a dear friend to me in such a short time. Another blog friend turned "real life" friend :) We corresponded back in 2008 via email, and to meet her now...it's all just so much fun. This is one of the many reasons why we love traveling. The people we meet are forever etched into our hearts.

Photos from Phoenix here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.

Desert Boondocking

Last summer, we learned about an "event" in the desert that brings tens of thousands of RV'ers each year...the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV Show. Basically, it's a BUNCH of retired RV'ers boondocking and selling stuff. For several months. In the desert. I think I saw only a handful of people our same age, but it was still fun!

We didn't care about the show as much as we did just hanging out with our friends Kevin and Angie. Kev and Ang have been on the road full time for several years and we met them through mutual friends and their website, NuRVers. NuRVers is a group of younger RV'ers who are working full time on the road or taking a sabbatical from their "normal" life. We have connected with them several times around the country and we love hanging out with them. They are the most laid back, sweet couple...and Bella ADORES them.

We enjoyed sharing many meals and campfires and just sharing life in general. It's so much fun to park your house right next to your friend's house. Instant community.

The allure of Quartzsite for us was also the CHEAP camping. It's $40 to camp for 2 weeks on BLM land. After you pay, you just go pick a spot anywhere in the great wide open. They do provide a way to fill up your tanks and dump, but this is hard core boondocking (for those of you who don't know, boondocking is camping without hook ups). Many of the rigs there have a nice solar set up. We got by with just running the generator a couple times a day to charge up our batteries and then being very conservative on running lights/water.

One of the other fun things about Quartzsite is the rallies. Many different groups get together because it's such a large open space. For example, we were able to go over to the Alpine rally and meet a bunch of other Alpine Coach owners. They had over 100 coaches there! Same goes for pretty much any brand of RV's...Wanderlodge, Monoco, Airstreams, Prevosts...they all had rallies too.

We wandered around the flea market on several different occasions and had fun checking out all of the goods people were selling. I was super surprised (and pleased) to find a gourmet veggie burger stand...amidst all the BBQ. :) After that, we took our super healthy selves down to the hot chocolate chip cookie stand. Yum. After we had those cookies the first time, they became a hard sought after commodity. Even though we tried 3 times to catch them open again, they were always closed.

Aunt Edmoe's Chocolate Chip Cookie stand...where did you go!?

Kev found a sweet bike that he liked.

The guys liked looking at spare parts.

Bella baked Angie some muffins.

Kev and Angie cooked us some falafels.

Angie and Bella had fun painting rocks.

Remember our friend Monica from our Portland and Eugene stops? She was back on the road with her kids coming from Texas and she was headed through Quartzsite. So of course, we said "Stay with us!".

They stopped and we had a fun slumber party. We love having friends over...these are memories we will cherish forever.

We followed them to Blythe for a goodbye coffee and sent them on their way...back to Oregon.

Not too long after that, we said goodbye to Kevin and Angie and headed to Phoenix. We were sad to leave them, but we will be reunited in Texas. For now...the road calls!

Photos from Quartzsite here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.