Pagosa Folk 'N Bluegrass

A random list of my very favorite things about my new very favorite festival:

• Best restaurant in Del Norte: the Peace of Art Cafe. We'll always always make it work to stop here on our way to and from this part of the state. Delicious and healthy food made from local and organic ingredients, a zebra friend for Sadie, an interesting and artistic building and atmosphere, but must mostly just one of those places you feel nourishes your soul. You walk out feeling a bit more connected somehow. Lovely.
• The drive to Pagosa Springs is just perfect. Long enough to make you feel like you're really getting away, but not too long that travelers young and old start losing their patience and their minds. And Wolf Creek Pass is one of the most gorgeous places on earth in my opinion.
  
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• It was our first camping trip of the season and it felt SO GOOD to be sleeping, eating, and peeing outdoors! Yeah! Sadie did so well...she slept soundly every night bundled up in her sleeping bag and really embraced the concept of "camping and hiking and hot springs".
• The camping situation at this festival could not be more different from what we're used to at the festivals we attend every year. We had a very private campsite, with other festival goers far enough away that you really couldn't hear them at all. We were in a big meadow with plenty of room for Sadie to run around. We were a short walk from the main festival grounds, but not too far that it was hard to walk back and forth to camp a few times a day (and the hill to the festival, and my ever-present 25-lb (2 year old) load helped burn off the calories from those festival beers!). And we could have a campfire! Yeah! Nothing better than that after a long day. Oh, and none of this schlepping your massive amounts of festival gear 50 yards or more from your car to your campsite and then parking miles away. You camp with your car which makes unpacking and repacking a breeze!
• Hot springs! Every morning! Need I say more??
• Camping with new friends and other kids! What fun it was for Sadie to have a new friend to go berserk with, and what a treat for us to get to know some new friends better. And parenting alongside another couple dealing with similar joys and challenges inherent in taking young children to a festival was comforting and inspiring at times.
• The weather could not have been more perfect. Can't count on that every year, I know, (and I've heard this festival property turns into a somewhat miserable muddy pit during rainy years), but I think the pros will outweigh that issue in the future.
• Sadie finally figuring out that dirt is fun and that getting dirty is what being a kid is all about.
• The music! Of course! Favorites included Finnders and Youngberg, Crooked Still, Grant Farm, and Town Mountain.
• Spending the weekend with my wonderful husband and lovely daughter doing what I love to do more than mostly anything else in the world. Doesn't get any better.