Tuesday, 7/19/11 Hippiedom @ Harbin Hot Springs

Ah the hippies in Northern California, I had forgotten all about them.   Friday My mother  & I headed up to Walnut Creek to rendevouz with Justin & Mia at their friends place.  He was on a 'working vacation' there.  We played ping pong, Wi tennis & bowling, BBQ'ed, had a campfire, and took Mia shopping.  Then we headed north to Petaluma and Sebastopol for some antique shopping.  We stumbled upon an actual 'fire' sale, and scored a few interesting pieces of pottery, a mid century mirror, and an art glass vase.  Then onto Herbeth & Linley's house for a visit.  I dropped Ma off, and headed to Harbin to meet Cynthia.    Had I known in advance it was a naked retreat, not sure I would have moved forward alone, but being with Cynthia helped me embrace it.  Our plan was to camp or sleep on the deck, we ended up on the deck.  After soaking for several hours,  we wandered into town after eating some hash chocolate, and got some wine & provisions, and ended up in the communal kitchen with the hippies.  I was back in the land of Santa Cruz types...long hair, lots of hair, short hair, earthy types, all talking the talk, walking the walk.  The kitchen filled with strangers cooking together their separate meals.  Cyn hooked up with a guy named "Heaven", and I moved to another table.  Somehow the name Heaven on a guy just didn't work for me, nor did his dour drolling hippy conversation about energy fill me with joy either.  I cooked up some gluten free quesadillas with avocado and tomato, and a salad, and watched the show.  There was an 'uber' hippy, who Cyn & I had encountered in the space ship steam room, he had felt the need to stand in the room in the middle, and spun himself in a circle, his sweat splattering us as he moved about.  I was comletely disgusted, but stayed.    Anyhoo, after that this guy was EVERYWHERE WE WENT.   He was in the hot plunge, the cold plunge, the kitchen, the deck...couldn't get away from him.    Finally Cyn left Heaven and joined me, and we were soon joined by a charismatic child named Stormy John Adams, an adorable 10 yr. old and his mother, and they were sweet and generous, and shared their strawberries & cream with us.  I told Cyn I felt we were at a dinner party down the street with neighbors at a pot luck.    We then drifted into the trippy night of hot tubbing, but at nightfall at Harbin some strange fairy underground sex scene seemed to be going on around us.  We floated around pool to pool, plunge to plunge, the meditation pool to the heart shaped pool, to the space ship steam room, to the dry sauna.  Everytime I got into the meditation pool, I felt I was being 'cruised' as I drifted by all the naked people.    It was a total trip!  Being completely dehydrated added to the trippy headspace.  Finally I had to go to bed.  Sleeping on the deck was nice, and the moon shown on us the whole night, and in the morning, up at 645am, I did the pool rounds, plunges, meditation pool, and it was so great that early in the morning, with only 6 people, and my HIPPY FRIEND, of course, up at that hour... very mysterious, but also freeing, and really cool.  What a trippy experience up there in the woods.  Wierd!!!