sarea | Lots of pictures

So Esalen was a blast. I learned a lot from my workshop, which was all about body balance and natural posture. Its tenets are based on studies of people around the world who carry heavy loads regularly, but don't have any back/knee problems that seem to afflict so many Americans. Even Americans were in balance until about the 1950s, when our posture went all out of whack, and now our young people look like old people with their curved backs and slouching figures. I'm a terrible offender myself. So now I'm using their guidelines to try and improve my posture and hopefully get my body back in balance, but it's the sort of thing that's going to take a lifetime of working at it.

The day we got there, it was pouring rain. Which is not fun on the best of days, but since we were also traversing mountain curves it was even more iffy. We got there safely, however, and starting the next day it was completely clear and gorgeous the rest of our time there.

My mom and aunt were afraid that we wouldn't have enough to eat during our stay, because K. had told us that the food at Esalen is from their own gardens, etc., so they'd brought all these snacks. It turned out that we were stuffed to the brim every single day. The food was awesome, served cafeteria style, with as much as you could eat, and a fresh/changing salad bar (indeed filled with fresh veggies from the Esalen garden) every day. The night we got there, there was oven-roasted turkey (so tender and juicy), mashed potatoes, etc. Breakfast consisted of 5 different kinds of hot cereal, including a savory quinoa, soft and hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit, and the bread bar. Lunch was usually consisted of a 'lighter' main course, such as a BLT (or the vegetarian option -- Esalen is very vegan/vegetarian friendly), along with a selection of soups. Dinner is heavier, with fare such as BBQ tri-tip steak, hand-caught local halibut, etc. And the beverage bar as well as the bread bar are open all day -- this consists of all kinds of bread that they bake themselves, butter, four kinds of jam, organic peanut butter they make themselves (that was sooooo good), fresh juice, lemonade, milk, coffee, tea, etc.

Far from starving, we rarely even felt HUNGRY during our stay, because we were basically eating all day. Start out with breakfast, followed by class, followed by lunch, followed by a break then class, then dinner, then class, then sleep. I felt full almost all the time.

After lunch I would usually go to the baths, which are situated right near the water, fill up a private tub in the "silent" section (as opposed to the "quiet" room next door or the upper tub, which has no noise restriction), and read the first Temeraire book, His Majesty's Dragon. I LOVED the book, even though I find the stilted formal language a bit off putting (even as I admire Naomi Novik for being able to write it), it went very quickly. It's not nearly as dense as A Song of Ice and Fire. I'm glad I have the other books in the series on hand. Anyway, from the baths you have a view of the ocean, and a lot of people get massages there. It was the only place at Esalen that was clothing optional (and co-ed).

I took a TON of pictures, and these are probably the best of them. You can see larger versions if you click on them, then select "all sizes" and choose "large."

Here are a few shots of the garden where a lot of the veggies are grown:

Here's the lodge, which is the dining area. People can bring their laptops here and use the wireless Internet connection if it's not during mealtimes.

Here's my set up, with my new pink Netbook, which I just love.

These weren't our cabins, but you get a sense for what the housing facilities were like. Esalen is like 70 years old or something, so the rooms are decent, but kind of old and far from state of the art.

Lots of different flowers/plants that I found there. I got the nice people at

gardening to ID them for me, as I don't know plant names beyond the very common, basic ones.

A rock rose/cistaceae. I love how the leaves are all crinkly and look like paper.

Lantana:

Aeonium:

Here's one of the baths I was talking about. This one is not a private tub, obviously, and is located on the upper level, where there isn't noise restriction. I couldn't really get shots of the other rooms because there were always people there and I don't think they'd appreciate me taking pictures of their naked selves.

The view from that bath:

A shot of the hot showers by the baths. You're supposed to take a shower before you get into one of the communal baths, and a shower after using one, if you like. I always used the shower closest to the end, because -- hello, ocean view!

The baths from afar. You can see someone sunning themselves on one of the massage tables. That's the "quiet side" -- there are baths there too, though I don't think you can see them in this photo.

More flora pictures... here's a random tree trunk I found:

Callistemon/Bottlebrush:

Crassula:

On the right side of this photo, you'll see a pathway, which is the one you take to go down to the baths:

On the pathway to my workshop class:

Some photos of the sun setting at Esalen:

This is the area right outside the dining area/front office... people would go here to read/sit/play frisbee/etc.

More sunset photos:

I love how round and clearly outlined the sun is here:

This one is cool because the tip of the sun can barely be seen; what's there is mostly the reflection of it in the water.

Even more flora...

Citronella Geranium:

Felicia Geranium:

Mexican Salvia:

View from our classroom on a misty morning:

Same view later in the day:

Oh, avert your face now if you're like Ron and can't stand spiders. Here's a really cool-looking white one that someone found in the dining hall and was bringing outside to set it free: