How To Live Free…and Eat Well

Serenading dolphins

What an awesome and eventful past few days! From the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach, to the Smackfest volleyball tournament in Hermosa, to sunset yoga on the beach in Laguna, we are feeling vibrant and refreshed from the great vibes and positive energy around us. The LUNA bars and LUNA Elixir couldn’t have been more well received at these events and it was so exciting to be a part of it and provide healthy snacks for everyone’s activities at the beach.

Sunset yoga in Laguna Beach produced a magical ending to our Los Angeles/Orange County portion of the tour. We rolled out our mats on Main Beach in Laguna with the ocean, mountains and sun serving as the decorations to our “studio.” We began the class by setting our intentions to the ocean—and it responded! Midway into the class, a school of dolphins swam right up the shoreline and hung out there for a good twenty minutes! We celebrated by doing dolphin poses just as the sun was setting over the hills. Then to top it off, we got to witness a young man get down on his knee and propose to his girlfriend right in front of our class. It took everyone by surprise, and the whole beach started cheering! It was a magical evening.

Now, it’s already our final week in San Diego. We can’t believe how quickly this summer has gone by (although still not over). Come catch us while you still can!

Get your ballet on

We’ve moved on to the OC, but not after letting loose with lululemon ambassador Gillian Clark’s “Yoga Booty Ballet” in Beverly Hills. After a brief seminar on how to “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” and live more sustainably, Gillian turned up the music and led us in a fusion of yoga, ballet, and some modern dance. She encouraged us to not worry about how we looked, but rather to just “let go” in a unique form of self expression and celebration. It was invigorating and liberating and a great way to start off the day.

The next few days should be fun in the heart of Southern California where sun, surf, and beach volleyball shape the OC landscape.

Venice is a town in California, too

From the crazy and infamous Venice Beach to the shores of Santa Monica, we were there. Three days well spent, we prowled the Venice boardwalk where vendors of all sorts were selling souvenirs for your kids and souvenirs for your grandma, paintings for your wall or paintings for your body (henna), doodads, whatchyamacallits, thingamajigs and so on. You name it, it was there. We fit in quite nicely. In fact, someone mentioned that through all the chaos, the yoga team provided a sort of tranquility, a bubble that was easily recognized and respected.

The Promenade in Santa Monica was popping as always, with street performers and farmers markets—we were there through it all. Shoppers, movie-goers, singers, workers…everyone got to try a LUNA bar. We leave our impressions lingering behind and head for Orange County next where the US Surf Open will be taking place. And, reluctantly, yet uncontrollably, I have to say it…surf’s up!

Under the sun

Yoga hip hop dance classes at the Calabasas Farmers’ market and cardio workouts at the infamous Rose Bowl in Pasadena kept us busy our first weekend in Los Angeles. The California summer sun kept people reaching for the Pomegranate Berry LUNA Elixir in between squats, sprints, vinyasa and partner twists.

We won’t miss the inland heat though (that made it feel more like Bikram yoga) as we head for costal Santa Monica for the next few days! We’ll be prowling the Promenade and the beach so keep an eye out for us!

Transitions

We had some great events take place in Santa Barbara. The ones to particularly highlight occurred on Friday when we took over State Street and Canon Perdido. Six instructors joined a group of us for a yoga class. The drums kept a solid beat and we encouraged passersby to participate in the class as well as raise awareness on the yoga event happening that night at Yoga Soup. It was an important event benefiting the Transition House, a local organization aimed at curbing homelessness in Santa Barbara.

The walls of Yoga Soup were decorated with pictures drawn by the children participating in the Transition House program. The children were asked to draw what “Live Free Eat Well” meant to them (this is the name of our tour), and in turn the pictures were put up in a silent auction at the event on Friday night with all the proceeds being given to the Transition House organization. Some pictures were of strawberries, raspberries, and watermelon; others were of the artist on top of a mountain, or at the ocean. It was a beautiful display and an incredible event to be a part of. Makes us wonder what our response would be when asked to draw “Live Free Eat Well.”

We took off for Los Angeles later that night with the images of the day and night still lingering in our heads. Santa Barbara was indeed a great transition into Southern California.

Southern California…here we come!

A few good days gone by and we’re already headed to Southern California. The Bay Area has proven to be a fantastic stop for us and we can only walk away smiling from our experiences here. From rolling out our yoga mats at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, to being chased down at Fisherman’s Wharf for more LUNA Elixir, to watching fireworks over the city from Potrero Hill, it has been a great two weeks.

We temporarily took over Washington Park in Burlingame this weekend with Bazzel’s Bootcamp. It proved to be a great success as we had close to fifty people show up, ready to get worked by Bazzel himself and then cool down with a thirty minute yoga session. With LUNA bars and LUNA Elixir to energize the morning, everyone was in perfect form.

Santa Barbara will start off the Southern California leg of our journey. A UCSB alumna myself, I can’t wait to get back to the palm tree-lined streets of my college town. This time around though, no notebooks involved, only yoga mats and messenger bags full of LUNA bars and Elixir.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Fourth of July! We’ve had a great few days here, spending our holiday hiking at Muir Woods and barbequing with friends. But that was all after our rockin’ Monday in San Francisco.

Starting off at The Ferry Building, we sprawled our yoga mats out on the ground and, using the palm trees as our shade, did some eagle poses. We even had a passerby on her lunch break participate and two Portuguese girls promised us they were going to bring back the Live Free Eat Well story to their home country!

At Fisherman’s Wharf, Elizabeth and Hilary did acro-yoga for the first time together and made quite an impression out there in front of hundreds of people. I think we heard “That’s cool!” in about eight different languages as visitors from all over the world watched in wide-eyed admiration. These same folks were loving the Orange Passionfruit Elixir we were serving out of our rocket pack. People were tracking Gina down trying to be the next to try our tasty drink.

We hope everyone is enjoying this rare and beautiful weather we’re so lucky to be having here. Sun salutations anyone?

And all that jazz…

It’s been a crazy fun and festive past few days in the Bay Area with music, spirit, and a lot of sunshine. All of us here on the tour decided to take advantage!

Friday was hopping in Sausalito! Tourists from all over the world came to check out the immaculate view of the San Francisco skyline on an utterly perfect day. In the evening, hundreds of locals and visitors gathered in the park next to the ferry building to celebrate a night of jazz!

People sprawled themselves out on the lawn with their finest wines, cheeses and breads, but once the music began, almost everyone was up on their feet, including us! Before the lawn got too packed, we chatted with some people and had them try our LUNA bars and LUNA elixir. A few of them got down on the yoga mats and even joined in for some yoga! It was such a great vibe and everyone was in such great spirits! After all, it was a Friday evening in one of the most beautiful places in the country. We felt lucky to be around for such a great experience.

Celebrating yoga, nutrition, and…celebrities!

Our team roamed Marin County this week, starting at the ferry landing and finishing up over in the town center.

To our (and mostly Melissa’s) surprise, we had an unexpected run-in with none other than Mrs. Doubtfire himself. Yes, Robin Williams gazed from afar (but not too far) as we did some yoga in front of the Mill Valley Depot, excusing his inflexibility for not joining in.

Some more highlights included Michelle Cardero’s yoga class in Willard Park in Berkeley. About forty people, both young and old, showed up and whipped out some of their favorite yoga poses while the rest of us gawked in admiration. It was as invigorating and as liberating as could be as Michelle urged us all to let go and flow to the rhythmic drums that accompanied the class.

A big one coming up this weekend in Crissy Field in San Francisco: Janet Stone will be teaching a free class at 11:30. Come one, come all. Just come!