A rousing game of texas hold’em and rounds of Mudslide Kahluas finishes off another fantastic day here at Red Mountain Spa! We all hiked all over Snow Canyon - lava flows and petrified sand dunes galore. Exhausting. Then gentle yoga. Healthy lunch. Every meal is healthy. Brooke and Cynthia headed off for a gealogy tour with Boma and "oh, okay" (drats). Rene golfed and shot down 2 martinis. Bernice met with the energy expert Carolyn Cooper. Alison and Suzanne got wonderful massages. We pulled off a quick shopping trip into town for fabulous beads at Need to Bead in Ancestors Square. What a long day.
Cynthia has a penchant for pink and it has led to all kinds of kidding and smart remarks from Rene, primarily, and due to his golfing injury, cautious links of pinkies rather than rapping of knuckles. Rene is holding up very well surrounded by so many women.
Connie departed for Salt Lake City - do write us Connie! Sherry (Detroit) and Laura (DC) disappeared into the heavy schedule. Lynn (SF) and Barbara ( Lake Tahoe) leave tomorrow. Brooke and Cynthia will spend all day tomorrow in Zion Canyon.The week is moving quickly to a close. Wonderful connections. Wonderful people. Next trip - must bring poker chips and plenty of rolls of nickels and late nite munchies!
A ski jump on one of San Francisco’s steepest hills? Brilliant! And what better way to celebrate Olympian Jonny Moseley’s 30th birthday! Co-sponsored by the Norwegian Consulate General, Icer Air 2005, though controversial with posh Pacific Heights neighbors, was awesome!!! 10 skiers and 10 snowboarders were invited to compete, and although temperatures shot up to a bizarre 85 degrees that day, snowboarder JJ Thomas and skier CR Johnson reigned supreme after 3 mind-boggling jumps. You gotta hit this next year!
Brooke here, surrounded by the beautiful mountains that are even more spectacular, enormous, and ‘redder’ than I had expected. In fact I can’t get over how amazing the terrain is, the people, and yes-the food! Today all the ‘Divas’ hiked near our resort, over red sand, black lava, into canyons, and through a dried up water bed-where low and behold I found a plastic pink Easter Egg nestled in the side of the bank!! Who would have thought. Afterwards it was time to get serious in the abs class using everything from yoga balls to some weird balck strap contraption that was an experience in itself. The pedicures are fabulous and well deserved after a long day on the trails, as is the plush bed I’m headed for right now!
We all here now- the tango diva adventure crew - and we are turning heads as we laugh and move thru the resort. We are growing as a group with every activity. Thiis mornings hike to Johnsons Arch was easier than yesterdays near trot thru the dry riverbed of Red Mountain itself. The names of the classes and the tools of excerise and meditation have evolved - but the serenity accomplished is essentially the same. Everyone has booked their special treats: massage, pedicures, iridology (check in with Bernice on this one). We have all traded our old and new sore spots. It is heaven folks. Wish you could have been here with us. True friendships are born. Old heartaches are released. Minds are cleared. Bodies are becoming more fluid. It’s regeneration. And the meditation guy is pretty cute.
Today I sent my introduction and a few chapters of FLY SOLO off to my editor at Penguin (Perigee imprint). I wrote about San Francisco, Reykjavik Iceland, Amsterdam, Crested Butte Colorado, and Vienna.
It’s nerve-racking sending that much content to an editor for the first time. Will she like what I’ve poured my heart into, will I have to rewrite it; does she get my humor? Oh my.
A week from now, I’ll be sitting in economy for 11 or so hours, on my way to London. Yes, even us Divas at Tango Diva have to fly economy sometimes! I’m looking forward to touring Europe, I hope the drama in France will settle down before I show up in Paris. I’m not into visiting places that have car-burning rioters.
I think I’ll go and visit my horse for a little while to clear my head from all the writing I’ve been doing. I have a handsome Arabian horse named Fortune’s Luck, but I call him Lucky. I’ll miss him when I’m gone. I’ll miss my time galloping across hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Writing and riding, these are my loves.
I schmoozed with mayor Gavin Newsome and bid on some incredible silent auction items (dinner at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch!) and lost at this fantastic party last month benefitting San Francisco’s Hamilton Family Center, an amazing organization dedicated to helping homeless families and children. Learn more at www.hamiltonfamilycenter.org.
Spent our first morning hiking along the Santa Clara riverbank - finding many petroglyphs in the high canyon walls. In January the river broke the banks and swept 22 homes away - carving new banks and destroying some of the trail. Guess this is only a once in a 100 years kind of thing. Great intro walk - great group of about 10 - including newlyweds from Indiana. Last nite we walked the spiritual spiral - lit only by a few torches and scattered moonlight. We burned sage and absorbed some of the rituals of the native indians. It was peaceful. We practiced mindful walking thoughout the spiral. Except for the gal behind me who was in some kind of hurry - it was very relaxing. The sun is shining and water aerobics begins soon. So happy to be back, with the red earth, blue sky and smells of the desert.
It’s Sunday afternoon and the past few days have been a blur. On Thursday I flew down to San Diego to do some FLY SOLO research and attend a fundraiser for Project Concern, an organization that helps save lives and builds healthy communities throughout the world. Check them out at www.ProjectConcern.com. Saturday morning we flew up to Sacramento to attend my cousin’s engagement party, then drove back down to San Francisco to celebrate my dear friend Anna Alioto’s 40th birthday. We got home at around 2:00 a.m. and I just dropped Tim (my husband) back at the airport. He’s got business on the east coast this week.
I’ll be spending the day researching for FLY SOLO and finishing up the chapters on San Diego and the Caribbean. On Tuesday I need to send my publisher my first 5 chapters and make sure we’re all on the same page.
This week is pretty crazy, and it’s the last week I have before I leave for my fantastic VIVA EUROPA trip. Heidi, my best friend and the genius behind the Tango Diva logo will be staying with me – which is awesome! She’s designed this amazing collection of gift wraps that are taking the world by storm. Check them out www.shopheidi.com. I’ll be attending the adventure travel show in San Francisco: www.adventureexpo.com and I still need to tighten up a few of my travel plans. I’m hitting 6 countries in 15 days and all my hotels and transport is booked, except for Brussels. Hotelopia is supposed to help me with that, so I’ll keep you posted.
I need to take a bath and get to writing. Thanks for joining me today!
I am pulling it all together - at the last moment as I usually do. I know will be up all night. At 3:00 am, I will give up and give in to sleep. Still - I will need to rise early to come back to the office in the morning to feed Tango - poor baby - how do you tell a kitty you will be gone for 7 days? I am really looking forward to the light, and the fresh air and the solace of scenery. Hitting Valley of Fire on the drive north from Las Vegas. A memorable place. We shot the R&B singer Pink in the canyons there several years back for an ad campaign. Quite an adventureous photshoot. But that is another story. I plan to hike in for a few hours and continue north to Hurricane. Will check in later.
My first stop will be the merry city of London. There, I’ll be attending the World Travel Market - the largest travel show on the planet. I’ll be scoping out the next "IT" destinations for us solo divas.
I’ll be dreaming at 51 Kensington Court, an early Victorian townhouse in the leafy and prestigious Kensington square. Fabulous shopping is pint’s throw away. I’ll be close enough to walk over and say "Hello" to the Queen at Kensington Palace and stroll through the Royal parks with my Harrod’s bag.
I’ll be living the life of a private resident for my few days in town. No ridiculously loud lobbies and rude tourists for me! I’m staying in a beautiful studio apartment with my own kitchenette – just in case I need a home-cooked meal.
