Family Schwab

Burning Man Part II - Kt arrives

We had taken that lovely Michigan vacation, so I couldn't take a lot more time off from work to drive with Ian to Burning Man. I also stayed home to help get Odin oriented to Kindergarten, but was leaving the day before his official first day of school. The other part to the story includes our friends getting married at Burning Man and I was getting there just before the scheduled wedding.

Ian had days with our campmates until I showed up. It was supposed to be 3 days. My direct flight from Seattle to Reno was cancelled due to mechanical problems on Wednesday. My charter flight from Reno to BRC(we land next to this camping city of 50k+ people in the big flat desert) was the last flight for the night. It was supposed to land about an hour before our friends were getting married ~2miles away from the "airport" on the Playa. I had to wait another entire day to get in, miss the wedding, but leave before Odin left for school...and there was no way to contact Ian directly about the change of plans. There is no cell phone service there. I sent a message through the charter flight company...it got "telephoned." It turns out that Ian got a garbled message scrawled on a torn corner of paper that told him I wasn't coming in, but nothing about when I WAS coming in or where I got stuck(Reno or Seattle) or how I was getting there. And when I did arrive, I couldn't just go find them...because their camp was not where it was planned to be before Ian left. AND Ian missed the wedding because he came to the airport with two bikes to pick me up the first time...and then had to leave with one rider. Not ideal for crossing ~2miles of desert. :(

So I got to give Odin a sleeping kiss on his first day of school. Then I flew in the next day on a not-so-direct flight to Reno(three connections), and flew into Black Rock City. I saw Ian waiting for me. I was so happy to be 'home'!

A video of my bell ringing and playa dust roll. I knew this was coming and loved it. Again...I was just happy to be there with a familiar face on the other side of this camera.

Hong Kong CORE project. Beautiful.

Scandinavian CORE - Denmark and Sweden.

Another view.

Another picture of me...happy to be present on the playa.

The Man...to be burned. Thus BURNING MAN. Don't get fooled. This is a 4 story structure under the man, who stands another 3 stories tall. Ian put the camera down on the ground to take this picture.

As we approach dusk: a view of Tendrillar Woods partially prepared for the burn that night. The CORE projects were burned on Thursday night...33 large structures in a 1200ft diameter ring around the MAN. It was a nice introduction to part of the burning man experience.

Getting our lights on for the night on the playa.
If you don't wear lights at night, you could get run over. The affectionate name for those that are not lit up is "darktard."

The last remaining upright portion of Tendrillar Woods was a cross of wood. This was an interesting twist to an otherwise not-so-classically-christian event.

Burning Man Part I

Ian drove down to Burning Man early with friends in our camp to help re-build the Seattle CORE(Circle of Regional Effigies) project on the playa - they built it here in Seattle and designed it to come apart, travel, and reassemble in Black Rock City(BRC - the name of the created city of 50,000+ people camping in the middle of the desert). Ian contributed to the structural building part of this project. He spent countless hours and weekends helping put together this 20ft x 20ft x 20ft structure to represent Seattle at Burning Man. It was kind of a big deal and he was really proud of their work.

He was excited to be there. They arrived at 2am.

Ian ringing the "virgin bell."

A "welcome home" roll in the dust of the Playa (beach in spanish - knickname for the dusty floor of the camp).

Setting up Tendrillar Woods. For a view from the top of Tendrillar Woods, visit: http://michaelholden.com/view-tendrillar-woods-360-panorama.

This was Ian's favorite Art Car. Yes, this is a moving vehicle. You could 'stoop' while being on the move. The backside of the porch was a kitchen handing out delectable treats.

This is a view down the promenade towards the Temple at dawn.

A view off into the playa.

Part of our great camp! Yeah Playapuss! Ian was gifted his outfit for this night. The dress didn't fit its original owner. The coat became comfortable at night when the temperatures dropped to the 40s.

The pendants around everyone's neck are their Happy Gems - a lit 'gem' that blinks in a specific color pattern until it is 'mated' with another Happy Gem through people hugging. When the Happy Gems get into contact, they unite their color patterns through WiFi communication and create a new shared pattern. There were 100 of them on the Playa and our camp had ~10 of them. We found some others while roaming around and it was great fun to hug and 'mate' our Happy Gems.

Dune rides at Mac Dune Rides in Silver Lake, MI.

The back seat: Danielle(with Harlow), Olivia, Kennedy, and Michelle.
The way back: Dan, Andy, and Poppa.

The row of adventurers.

Enjoying the hills with arms in the air! Soren, Danika, Odin, and Nonna.

A little piece of real time dune ride. It hasn't changed much in 30 years.

The Varda and their extensions -
Front row: Danika, Soren, Odin, Kennedy and Olivia
Back Row: Michelle, Andy, Darryl, Jane, Ian(kind of in the front row), Danielle (with Harlow), and Dan
I was back at the house enjoying a day at the beach with my friend, Sheila and family.

Nonna and Poppa with their ambulating grandchildren (sans Harlow). Silver Lake is in the background. We used to camp on Silver Lake growing up with our parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. I was potty trained on one of those trips because it was "an event" to go to the bathroom.
This was another awesome addition to good times on Lake Michigan and its neighboring lakes.