Hood River, OR

Hello Friends and Family and Yogin- in an effort to streamline my life and let go of extra pieces that I no longer need I have decided to combine my travel blog (formerly Live. Love. Travel.) with this Yoga Blog.  On the mat we often explore letting go of things we don't need to allow ourselves to live in the present moment, and, as with most parts of our practice, this applies to our life on the mat as well as off.    You may also see the occasional cooking or urban homesteading post here.  For the last few years I have kept these blogs separate but they are all, like yoga, a hugely important part of my life and I found so much overlap it stopped making sense to separate them.  Enjoy :)

Another side note- I seem to be consistently running a few weeks behind on this blog, it isn't intentional I promise.

Rarely does it happen that we have a weekend off- no visitors, no commitments, nothing on the schedule.  So when it does we try to take advantage.  There is so much to explore within a short drive of Portland, the ocean is less than 2 hours away and the rivers and scenery to the east are equally stunning.  Our most recent adventure took us out to Hood River.  A super cute little town with delicious food, beer and lots of outdoor activities.  It was a perfect day, raining in Portland but 80 once you left town.  We were lucky enough to be in town the same day as a kiteboarding competition- miles and miles of boarders using the wind to carry them gracefully along the river.  It was beautiful to see.

Every single person we chatted with in town suggested we head to Double Mountain for some pizza and beer for lunch.  It was worth every moment of the wait.  The brick oven pizza was charred just perfectly and the ingredients were local and full of flavor.  We ordered a pizza between the 2 of us, thinking we would have leftovers to take home...  it never even made it to the 'to go' box before we ate it.

Time away from home, even just a day, without email, phones or the usual 'to do' list running through my mind is the best medicine to let go of stress and burnout.  It can seem a challenge, or seem like too much driving, or feel like there is too much to do- there is always a reason but there is a time and place to set those reasons aside and just get out of town.  Even just a few hours on a river, near a waterfall, at the ocean, or in the mountains- whatever it is that feeds you and brings you back into yourself- it is always worth it.