Hippying out on the Summer Solstice

Yesterday, on the longest day of the year, Andrew, my mom, myself and a bunch of our friends decided to 'hippy-out' and head up to Grassi Lakes to watch the sun rise. Grassi Lakes used to be part of a trade route for the Native Americans as well as a 'Dreaming Place'. It is also sitting on a ley-line of energy that passes right through Canmore (and directly through the Rocky Mountain Bagel Company apparently!). We headed up at 5 in the morning to see the sun creep over the mountains on the other side of the valley and illuminate the ancient pictographs. The main pictograph depicts a man holding a giant orb that is said to represent the sun. Grassi Lakes has an amazing energy, especially at that point in the day. We proceeded to have a bit of a spiritual celebration, calling in the earth goddess and giving thought to our intentions for the next year while we allowed the growing light from the rising sun to infiltrate our bodies and our minds with positivity. Yes, okay, I did say that we hippied out.

Andrew and I with the Pictograph in the background at Grassi Lakes

Gathering energy from the rising sun.

After we headed home, I jumped back into bed for a quick attempt to get warm, then Andrew and I headed to the bustling metropolis of Okotoks, just south of Calgary. We had a big day of searching for bits and pieces for the van. We managed to find a really fantastic pot set that fits perfectly into our storage cupboard as well as new windshield wipers, collapsible strainer, some new tools as well as a couple other goodies. At the moment preparations for the trip are going slowly, but they are moving along. I know I could probably be more productive with the use of my time, but I am definitely working on it!

We have had quite a few questions of when we are leaving and what is the timeline and the route. Well to be honest we don't really have a solid answer to any of those questions, but the loose answers would be something like this:

Leaving: August 15...ish

Timeline: Six months to a year (broad I know, but leaning more towards the year side of things)

Route: North to Inuvik and Tuktoyuktuk, then heading into Alaska and exploring a bit of the southern areas, Ferry trip down the inside passage to Prince Rupert and from there pretty much straight down the west coast of North and South America until we hit Ushuaia. Of course there will be deviations from the coast line, but that is the basics of the trip.

We are both really looking forward to getting out on the open road, but we still have almost two months of prep (and work for Andrew) ahead of us, and lots to focus on and get ready before we leave!