Post sound bath at the Integraton
Listening to my daughters wake up after I haven’t seen them in three days is like Christmas, even though it’s not even 6am and I inexplicably woke up before them. The symphony of coos and quiet wails, whisper-shouted “words” only two people in this world can understand. I want to go in there, but I have to wait until they are truly awake.
I just got back from my first baby-free girls’ trip since my twins were born 20 months ago: two nights in Palm Desert with my good friends L and V. We’ve been taking girls’ trips at least annually since 2007. Our very first trip was to Big Sur on the California Coast. Since then we’ve been to Sea Ranch, Palm Springs, Yachats on the coast of Oregon, Whidbey Island, Seattle, rural southern Vermont, Kauai, Austin, LA, San Francisco, and I’m forgetting a few.
Joslyn, Vanessa, Leslie
We generally don’t invite anyone else on these trips, because we have a dynamic too perfect to mess with. For starters, I don’t know too many other women our age who enjoy sitting around inside on our respective laptops for hours on end with creepy Korean facial masques on. We truly find this relaxing. It’s how we bond.
Also, trying to organize a get-together with more than three women is a goddamn nightmare. Women are difficult to make plans with. Luckily, these two are planners.
V + L + I have a tendency to do super woo-woo things that we then later make fun of. It takes a very particular type of person to enjoy this. You have to 1) first enjoy taking part in woo-woo nonsense and 2) then love to make ruthless fun of it. (See Recovering Yogi, the website we founded six years ago.)
Inside the Integratron
This recent trip was no exception. One day, we drove way out into the Mojave Desert to experience a “sound bath” at the locally famous Integraton, a groovy white dome built by a protégé of Howard Hughes in 1959. George Van Tassel was a “UFOoligist” and was allegedly instructed by aliens as to exactly how and why to build this place. It was envisioned as an anti-aging vessel just outside of Joshua Tree.
This is the legend, but the concrete reality is that the Integraton is an acoustically perfect dome constructed entirely of wood, without the use of metal—no nails, no bolts. It’s gorgeous and funky, and you can pay for the pleasure of lying on the floor of the dome’s loft for an hour-long sound bath, wherein a channeler (I have no idea what this dude is called, but that seems like an apt word) plays crystal singing bowls in such as a way as to stimulate your chakra system through vibration.
So that happened.
Pappy + Harriet’s
I did feel really great that day. Partly because of the singing crystal bowls, partly because of the ten consecutive hours of sleep the night before, and partly because of the time spent with girlfriends, who feed the soul. We followed up the sound bath with Micheladas and nachos at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown.
I’m busy reminiscing about my wonderful weekend at sea level, but I’m also so happy to be back with my daughters here at altitude.
