We spent a week on a meditation retreat at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Located in Woodacre in Marin, we felt a calm happiness as we arrived at Spirit Rock.
We've been on half a dozen retreats at Spirit Rock, but it's been over three years since our last retreat here and it felt good to be back. One of the first signs on the road up to the retreat center is their unique yield sign. This was our first visit with construction on a new meditation hall in progress.
The new meditation hall won't be finished for awhile, but it’s clear that it will be a lovely, large building for all the day long programs at Spirit Rock.
This is the dorm that Kristina stayed in. It’s named Upekkha, which means equanimity in Pali.
Here’s the view from the meditation hall. The morning fog had not yet burned off.
And this is the retreat meditation hall.
Inside is spacious with lots of light.
The ceiling is lovely.
We practiced sitting meditation for about six hours a day. This is the view of the altar from where Kristina sat in the meditation hall. There is statue of the Buddha on the left and a Prajna Paramita on the right, the Mother of all Buddhas.
This large bell is hit with a striker to signal the end of a meditation period.
The grounds at Spirit Rock are lovely, and there are a number of bells, like this one outside the dining hall.
We each took a walk each day, and saw the dry, golden grasses on the hills that felt like summer. The morning fog causes lichen to grow on the trees and signs.
Just outside the meditation hall is a beautiful Tara sculpture. Tara is a manifestation of Prajna Paramita.
You can see the hiking trail zig-zagging along the ridge through the dry grasses.
The buckeye trees were in bloom.
There are plenty of benches at Spirit Rock, so we enjoyed sitting and taking in the views.
Here's a photo of Kristina at the end of the retreat. She's in front of the gratitude hut.
Inside there are photos of many teachers who have been important in bringing Vipassana meditation practice to the US, such as Mahasi Sayadaw, Munindra and Ajahn Chah, to name a few of the elder Burmese, Indian and Thai teachers.
We were happy that our friend Margaret was also at the retreat. We met in Burma at the Shwe Oo Mihn monastery in February. We had a lovely week on retreat.
We went back to Cynthia and Humberto’s house to stay for another month. We took care of their kids for a weekend while they went to Humberto’s best friend’s wedding. Pete went to Emilio’s baseball game. In this photo you can see Emilio about to hit the ball.
He hit a single, and his hit enabled another team mate to score, making the score 2-1. It was a fun coincidence that Emilio’s number is 13, as was the first base player on the other team.
Here Emilio is playing second base.
After the game we took the boys to Barneys for hamburgers. The oreo chocolate shakes topped with whipped cream were a hit!
We were able to cook some meals for Cynthia and Humberto, which was a treat for us. This is a Thai pork dish called laab. Pete learned to make it in Thailand.
We also got vegetables from Mariquita Farm, a favorite Community Support Agriculture (CSA) farm of ours. Kristina made oshitashi (Japanese spinach salad), sunomono (Japanese cucumber salad), and a Japanese-inspired kohlrabbi salad for lunch one day.
Cynthia works 9 hour days so she can take every other Friday off. On this Friday we had a late Japanese lunch together. Emilio also had the day off, and you can see him chilling out on the couch.
We went to the Oakland Art Murmur, which happens on the first Friday of each month. There was lots of live music, like this New Orleans-style jazz band.
The main draw of the event are the art galleries that stay open late. Our friend Frederick is with a Tiffany Schmierer sculpture at the Manna gallery.
Our friend Danielle owns Slate Contemporary. We loved the works by Carol Inez Charney, which are digital chromogenic photos printed on aluminum. This piece, entitled HIL 3, has such beautiful, vibrant colors.
In the background of this photo you can see Kristina who is dropping off a 6-pack of komboucha to her friend Marcelle. Marcelle's yard has a great variety of plants.
One weekend we helped our friend Chris and his daughter pack up their flat. After living there for almost 28 years, it was a big deal to move. Kristina made a ginger cake to fuel the packing, and Chris and Mira sported funny glasses for the photo.
Pete took a break with a ukulele. He couldn’t resist wearing the glasses too.
We visited our friends Lance and Laura for a BBQ. Here Lance is cooking onions with sage that will be mixed into polenta.
Lance and Laura adore their beautiful cat Katya.
Pete made bresaola wrapped around arugula and pecorino cheese as an appetizer.
The main event was incredible smoked pork ribs.
Lance has perfected his method of smoking them for five hours.
Pete cut the ribs apart.
And we devoured them with smoked sweet potato puree, salad and polenta. What a delightful meal!
With all the food we’ve been enjoying, it’s a good thing we’ve had time to ride our new tandem! Here we are near the Chabot Reservoir.
Riding in the Oakland hills is fun!
We took our bike to the peninsula to ride one of our favorite Palo Alto loops. Pete is in front of the Portola Valley Library on a beautiful Sunday.
We saw eight other tandems on this ride! This couple was participating in the Tour de Cure ride for diabetes.
There were so many people out cycling that Sunday. This woman had her dog Frankie along for the ride.
We continued down the peninsula to our friends Scott and Melia’s house near Santa Cruz. The fog came in along the coast, but we still enjoyed walking on the beach with them.
Then we went back to their home and watched basketball. It's the NBA Finals and Oakland's Warriors are in the finals for only the second time in their history. It's been great to be in the Bay Area during the playoffs, as there is so much enthusiasm for the Warriors. This clothing store near Cynthia and Humberto’s had made a dress of Warrior photos.
At Market Hall they had specials in honor of the Warriors players and coach, with Warrior logos on all the signs.
In San Francisco we spotted these blue and gold windows.
Pete is a big Warriors fan, and he believes they will win the NBA championship!
We feel fortunate that our dear friends Pat and Sarah invited us back to their place for dinner. Pat was inspired to make a Greek meal. We started with red pepper spread topped with leek flowers, whey-pickled carrots and daikon, hummus and tzatziki.
Pete and Paul are about to dig into the best moussaka we have ever had; Made of spiced ground lamb and veal with eggplant and potatoes, it is topped with a béchamel sauce.
We celebrated three birthdays with Pete's family. Here are Pete's Mom Csilla, nephew Spencer (who turned 21) and nephew Erich (who turned 16) blowing out their candles. The orange almond torte was delicious!
Pete wanted to try out his new tripod, so he set it up in the upstairs of his Mom's house. Clockwise from Pete are our niece Abby, nephews Jeremy, Spencer and Erich, and Pete's sister Denise.
Our final celebration in the Bay Area was at Cynthia and Humberto's. Kristina's friend Naresh and his sons Mayank and Ishaan joined us. It had been over a year since we had all been together in Tahoe.
Both Emilio and Julian adore Mayank, who is 16. Emilio photo-bombed this shot.
If you look at the root beer bottles, you can see that Mayank showed Julian how to cover up the "root".
We watched the Warriors beat the Cavaliers to go up 3-2 in the series. The Warriors are looking good to win the championship on Tuesday!
We had fun playing ping pong. As Kristina predicted, Naresh beat her, Pete, and Humberto several times.
Pete made Japanese yakitori, barbecued skewers of chicken, asparagus and onions.
And we celebrated Julian's birthday early, with homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Cynthia and Humberto wholeheartedly welcomed us into their home and gave us our own studio apartment for our stay; We feel so fortunate that we had this time together, and that we get along so well! We are sad to leave our dear friends, but the road is calling so we're heading out for a seven week road trip. We'll be as far north as Jasper, Alberta, Canada.
We've been on half a dozen retreats at Spirit Rock, but it's been over three years since our last retreat here and it felt good to be back. One of the first signs on the road up to the retreat center is their unique yield sign. This was our first visit with construction on a new meditation hall in progress.
The new meditation hall won't be finished for awhile, but it’s clear that it will be a lovely, large building for all the day long programs at Spirit Rock.
This is the dorm that Kristina stayed in. It’s named Upekkha, which means equanimity in Pali.
Here’s the view from the meditation hall. The morning fog had not yet burned off.
And this is the retreat meditation hall.
Inside is spacious with lots of light.
The ceiling is lovely.
We practiced sitting meditation for about six hours a day. This is the view of the altar from where Kristina sat in the meditation hall. There is statue of the Buddha on the left and a Prajna Paramita on the right, the Mother of all Buddhas.
This large bell is hit with a striker to signal the end of a meditation period.
The grounds at Spirit Rock are lovely, and there are a number of bells, like this one outside the dining hall.
We each took a walk each day, and saw the dry, golden grasses on the hills that felt like summer. The morning fog causes lichen to grow on the trees and signs.
Just outside the meditation hall is a beautiful Tara sculpture. Tara is a manifestation of Prajna Paramita.
You can see the hiking trail zig-zagging along the ridge through the dry grasses.
The buckeye trees were in bloom.
There are plenty of benches at Spirit Rock, so we enjoyed sitting and taking in the views.
Here's a photo of Kristina at the end of the retreat. She's in front of the gratitude hut.
Inside there are photos of many teachers who have been important in bringing Vipassana meditation practice to the US, such as Mahasi Sayadaw, Munindra and Ajahn Chah, to name a few of the elder Burmese, Indian and Thai teachers.
We were happy that our friend Margaret was also at the retreat. We met in Burma at the Shwe Oo Mihn monastery in February. We had a lovely week on retreat.
We went back to Cynthia and Humberto’s house to stay for another month. We took care of their kids for a weekend while they went to Humberto’s best friend’s wedding. Pete went to Emilio’s baseball game. In this photo you can see Emilio about to hit the ball.
He hit a single, and his hit enabled another team mate to score, making the score 2-1. It was a fun coincidence that Emilio’s number is 13, as was the first base player on the other team.
Here Emilio is playing second base.
After the game we took the boys to Barneys for hamburgers. The oreo chocolate shakes topped with whipped cream were a hit!
We were able to cook some meals for Cynthia and Humberto, which was a treat for us. This is a Thai pork dish called laab. Pete learned to make it in Thailand.
We also got vegetables from Mariquita Farm, a favorite Community Support Agriculture (CSA) farm of ours. Kristina made oshitashi (Japanese spinach salad), sunomono (Japanese cucumber salad), and a Japanese-inspired kohlrabbi salad for lunch one day.
Cynthia works 9 hour days so she can take every other Friday off. On this Friday we had a late Japanese lunch together. Emilio also had the day off, and you can see him chilling out on the couch.
We went to the Oakland Art Murmur, which happens on the first Friday of each month. There was lots of live music, like this New Orleans-style jazz band.
The main draw of the event are the art galleries that stay open late. Our friend Frederick is with a Tiffany Schmierer sculpture at the Manna gallery.
Our friend Danielle owns Slate Contemporary. We loved the works by Carol Inez Charney, which are digital chromogenic photos printed on aluminum. This piece, entitled HIL 3, has such beautiful, vibrant colors.
In the background of this photo you can see Kristina who is dropping off a 6-pack of komboucha to her friend Marcelle. Marcelle's yard has a great variety of plants.
One weekend we helped our friend Chris and his daughter pack up their flat. After living there for almost 28 years, it was a big deal to move. Kristina made a ginger cake to fuel the packing, and Chris and Mira sported funny glasses for the photo.
Pete took a break with a ukulele. He couldn’t resist wearing the glasses too.
We visited our friends Lance and Laura for a BBQ. Here Lance is cooking onions with sage that will be mixed into polenta.
Lance and Laura adore their beautiful cat Katya.
Pete made bresaola wrapped around arugula and pecorino cheese as an appetizer.
The main event was incredible smoked pork ribs.
Lance has perfected his method of smoking them for five hours.
Pete cut the ribs apart.
And we devoured them with smoked sweet potato puree, salad and polenta. What a delightful meal!
With all the food we’ve been enjoying, it’s a good thing we’ve had time to ride our new tandem! Here we are near the Chabot Reservoir.
Riding in the Oakland hills is fun!
We took our bike to the peninsula to ride one of our favorite Palo Alto loops. Pete is in front of the Portola Valley Library on a beautiful Sunday.
We saw eight other tandems on this ride! This couple was participating in the Tour de Cure ride for diabetes.
There were so many people out cycling that Sunday. This woman had her dog Frankie along for the ride.
We continued down the peninsula to our friends Scott and Melia’s house near Santa Cruz. The fog came in along the coast, but we still enjoyed walking on the beach with them.
Then we went back to their home and watched basketball. It's the NBA Finals and Oakland's Warriors are in the finals for only the second time in their history. It's been great to be in the Bay Area during the playoffs, as there is so much enthusiasm for the Warriors. This clothing store near Cynthia and Humberto’s had made a dress of Warrior photos.
At Market Hall they had specials in honor of the Warriors players and coach, with Warrior logos on all the signs.
In San Francisco we spotted these blue and gold windows.
Pete is a big Warriors fan, and he believes they will win the NBA championship!
We feel fortunate that our dear friends Pat and Sarah invited us back to their place for dinner. Pat was inspired to make a Greek meal. We started with red pepper spread topped with leek flowers, whey-pickled carrots and daikon, hummus and tzatziki.
Pete and Paul are about to dig into the best moussaka we have ever had; Made of spiced ground lamb and veal with eggplant and potatoes, it is topped with a béchamel sauce.
We celebrated three birthdays with Pete's family. Here are Pete's Mom Csilla, nephew Spencer (who turned 21) and nephew Erich (who turned 16) blowing out their candles. The orange almond torte was delicious!
Pete wanted to try out his new tripod, so he set it up in the upstairs of his Mom's house. Clockwise from Pete are our niece Abby, nephews Jeremy, Spencer and Erich, and Pete's sister Denise.
Our final celebration in the Bay Area was at Cynthia and Humberto's. Kristina's friend Naresh and his sons Mayank and Ishaan joined us. It had been over a year since we had all been together in Tahoe.
Both Emilio and Julian adore Mayank, who is 16. Emilio photo-bombed this shot.
If you look at the root beer bottles, you can see that Mayank showed Julian how to cover up the "root".
We watched the Warriors beat the Cavaliers to go up 3-2 in the series. The Warriors are looking good to win the championship on Tuesday!
We had fun playing ping pong. As Kristina predicted, Naresh beat her, Pete, and Humberto several times.
Pete made Japanese yakitori, barbecued skewers of chicken, asparagus and onions.
And we celebrated Julian's birthday early, with homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Cynthia and Humberto wholeheartedly welcomed us into their home and gave us our own studio apartment for our stay; We feel so fortunate that we had this time together, and that we get along so well! We are sad to leave our dear friends, but the road is calling so we're heading out for a seven week road trip. We'll be as far north as Jasper, Alberta, Canada.
