Sedona Trip for My Birthday

I had the most fabulous birthday trip to Sedona AZ this past weekend. I wanted to do something extra special to celebrate my 30th, and I decided doing a weekend trip to an awesome place in AZ would be the perfect thing, and it really was! The biggest challenge was trying to plan this trip in less than two weeks. I didn't get serious about making plans until Christmas day, but somehow all my friends were able to arrange to come and there were openings for lodging and activities!

We departed from Mesa pretty early to catch our 10:00 AM Yoga Hiking Vortex Tour. We met up with "Yogi Blair" at Chapel Trailhead and did a short but gorgeous hike to a flat spot overlooking the amazing rock formations of Sedona. We took off our shoes, laid out our yoga mats, and started off with some partner visualization exercises with the aid of essential oils. I really enjoyed visualizing love and joy radiating from my heart center. Then it was yoga time! It was a great practice, with plenty of balance and vinyasa. Even some qigong exercises were incorporated which I found pretty interesting since I've never done it before. Also lots of visualization promptings were given. I loved it and was really sore the next day from the workout (I am pretty out of shape though)!

Check out that howling coyote rock formation in the background.

One interesting thing about our time with Yogi Blair was his explanations about the vortexes and what makes Sedona so special. He explained that Sedona was an "intention amplifier" so I really tried to visualize my dreams and aspirations for this year during the hike and yoga practice. I also brought some crystals to get charged up by all the Sedona energy!

Our guest house was rented via Air BNB and it was soooo freakin cool. I loved it so much, it was perfect for a group like ours. The views from the balconies were just fabulous and walking distance to some great shopping and dining.

Our evening activity was a vineyard tour at Page Springs Vineyard! I've never done a winery or vineyard tour before, but I think this one was great. It was recommended by our Air BNB host, and I'm so glad we did it. We got to sample a bunch of wines and our guide took us to several of the vineyard sites around the valley. The grape plants are all dormant this time of year, but it was still strangely beautiful to see these plants in their withdrawal state (much like my own)!

The highlight was a picnic of bread, meats, and cheeses with more delicious wine. But my favorite part was the grand finally, were our guide took us to the wine cellar where hundreds of barrels of wine were resting and served us an exclusive wine directly from the barrel! Now that's something you don't get to try every day!

Picnic in the dormant but beautiful Page Springs Vineyard

Here I am caressing one of the wine barrels in the bottling facility ;)

The yoga/vortex/hiking tour and the vineyard tour were both super great. Also, it was cool to do something wholesome before drinking a bunch of wine. The the rest of the time was filled with chilling at hour rental house and enjoying one another's company. I can't think of a better way to do my birthday!

John and I owe the success of this awesome trip to my amazing inlaws, who took care of our kids while we were gone. We could not have pulled this off otherwise and we are so lucky to have them!

Cheers to 30 years!