The Yoga Journal Conference, San Fran style

I was tickled pink at the thought of showing my husband one of my favourite world cities …. San Francisco is such a treat to behold. Can’t stop grinning at the environmentally forwardness of this metropolis. Composting, recycling, enviro green awareness. I live for this kind of earth friendly welcoming when arriving in a new city. Perhaps this is why I feel so at home in California (northern, to be specific)?  After figuring out the parking situation (we resorted to parking at the Oakland airport for the duration of our stay …. who needs a vehicle when public transit rocks?), we weaved and meandered our way down to the Hyatt Regency: home of the 2010 Yoga Journal Conference here in San Fran. The are 4 YJ conferences this year. We hope to hit at least 2 in 2010, the next one being in Boston this April. Fingers crossed that we make it as volunteers. That’s the intention.

We arrived at the Hotel early, with the hopes of: 1) checking in re volunteer status, to see if any more bodies were needed last minute, and 2) registering for Jenny and Jason‘s acro yoga workshop (limited space was open to the public last minute), which unfortunately for our sake, turned out to be full. At least we’d show up for the free AcroYogis interactive lunch time demos, and learn whatever tidbits we could absorb from the ‘masters’.  This left us with a free morning until the lunch time freebies. So wander around we did, checking out Chinatown and the local Lululemon store. Promotion, promotion, promotion!

After absorbing the acro yoga flight experience during the lunch time rush (and with both of us being flown by acro yoga certified instructors), we wandered around the Yoga Marketplace, looking for interesting leads and experiences. Whilst I was filling out a ballot form for a free yoga draw, much to my delight and surprise, I ran into our yoga mentor Mary-Jo Fetterly’s daughter. As it so happened, MJ was there at the conference!!!! What an amazing reunion! Not knowing that we would cross paths in California, we spent some time between workshops to catch up, with a promise to meet for a meal before their departure on Sunday. This encounter made our whole conference all the more worthwhile. After meeting many wonderful people and flying a whole bunch of the Lululemon girls, we made our way back to Kevin’s via the BART, and enjoyed an evening in of 3D movies, a home-cooked meal and great conversation.