Invited by talented artist Chrisann Brennan, Sachi and I visited a local health sanctuary touching on spirituality as a means of catalyzing the healing process. Sachi and I were very impressed by the center. It is a beautiful retreat that we both wished we could stay at for a few weeks or months.

The institute is situated on Skyline boulevard, in the forests of the mountains separating the San Francisco peninsula valley from the ocean. It’s a beautiful area, and a beautiful drive up (though the mountain roads require as much time to travel as from Palo Alto to San Francisco, almost). Intended for educational purposes as well as healing, it focuses on alternative healing methods. The center has many rooms with twin double beds in simple, elegant rooms:

Surrounding the main building are the “treehouses,” buildings on stilts with two apartment rooms per structure (one above the other), surrounded by the trees (alive with birds!). Imagine waking up here in the morning:

You can see what I mean by wanting to stay there for weeks on end: the facility is solidly built, casual yet luxurious. It doesn’t cater to whims as much as it simply lets you relax, unimpeded, unpressured. There is a spa with message rooms, meditation rooms, and a saline pool:

Upstairs is the “Great Room,” with wonderful hand-blown glass chandeliers and a very comfortable, no-shoes, lodge-type feeling.

Sachi and I envisioned this as a potential tie-in with her desire to teach Reiki healing. She would get together with friends involved in Zen healing and hypnotherapy, or other like alternative healing philosophies, and offer a week-long seminar that would cover everyone’s room fees for the center, using the week to educate their clients in the various arts they have to offer. The fees are not cheap, but for people wishing the best environment in which to learn such things, I couldn’t think of a better location.

That’s the very large quartz crystal at the foyer, by the way. Some local bird life from the few minutes I had to whip out the zoom lens: