28 | October | 2013 | FindTheFords

Ok, anyone who knows about my fixation with yoga, or shares it (you know who you are) – this post is for you. Everyone else can just skip to the next post…

Let’s travel back in time to St. Pete where I had a (mostly) daily practice at some of my very favorite hot spots (quite literally) –
The Body Electric: http://thebodyelectricyoga.com/
and YogaBlue: http://www.yogablustudio.com/
and Yoga Energy: http://yogaenergy.me/
and YogaEtc: http://www.yogaetcstudio.com/
and Perfect Circle Yoga: http://www.perfectcircleyoga.com/.

Yes, this is a shameless shout-out to all my yogi friends in St. Pete. There are a lot of you…

In St. Pete, life was good, I felt balanced, and (mostly) calm.

Then we travel to NH for the summer and I get to see all my old friends at Moondala Yoga: http://www.moondalayoga.com/MOONDALA/casa.html in beautiful Wolfeboro. My NH friends are a hardy, cold-loving bunch, so the studio temperature hovers in the mid-70s. There’s some major schvitzing going on when the mercury hits 80. But, still, it’s all good.

Fast forward 6 weeks and many, many miles later to Seattle and I swear, Peter and the girls are just begging me to find a yoga class. The dogs aren’t beneath begging either. The cashier at Safeway is giving me funny looks. The guy at the gas station eyes me suspiciously. The lady in line in front of me at Subway (Summer’s favorite lunch establishment) seems anxious to get out of there. Even placated with my beloved Starbucks, I’m grouchy and irritable. I NEED yoga.

Enter Fusion Hot Yoga: http://www.fusionhotyoga.com/home.html in the lovely Seattle suburb of Bothell, and all is well in my world again. The studio was promoting a 30-day challenge, in which they challenge you to take 30 classes in 30 days. There were several people in class who had already completed the 30 classes (only 28 days in) and there were several who were on their second class of the day, trying to make up for a missed day. There was even one guy on his THIRD class of the day. I’m on my third this MONTH. It was humbling, but inspiring too.

Aside from the obvious benefits of yoga, one of the things I like so much about the practice is that you can feel at home in pretty much any studio, anywhere in the country. We have lots of miles left to travel before we head home, but I’m looking forward to checking out other studios along the way. And giving them a shameless shout-out.

So, we bought the Seattle CityPass which is “One ticket booklet that saves 44% on admission to the best 6 attractions in Seattle” (St. Pete, you should really consider doing this – Boston, Atlanta, NY, etc. all offer their own version!) We are busy working our way through all of the fun offerings.

Rachel and Summer got a bit more home-schooling with our “field trip” to the Museum of Flight. It’s a great museum with lots of NASA stuff, history of aviation, WWI & WWII stuff, and we even got to go inside the Concorde. That was pretty cool, the windows were tiny! As were the bathrooms.

We also enjoyed seeing a human-powered aircraft – the Gossamer Albatross, which made a flight across the English Channel. (sorry, I forgot to get a picture & stealing one off the internet would be photo plagiarism, but you can Google it) Summer & Rachel were curious as to what would happen when/if the person who was pedaling this aircraft (yes, it’s like a bicycle!) got tired… we did notice that the pedaling mannequin in the Gossamer Albatross on display was wearing a lifejacket.

The girls also got to try their hands at flying. No, not really. Just a simulator, but they enjoyed it…

The flight simulator room had its own control tower

Mayday! Mayday!

As tourists, we just had to go on a harbor cruise (ok, it was included in our CityPass). My friend Dyan who lives in Tacoma with her husband Bob & cute kids Marc & Sara joined us on the cruise. She’s lived here for 13 years and has never been on one. See, you have to be a tourist to do these touristy things. I don’t know why Peter was hiding in the picture.