Sunrise Yoga at the Beach

It was the annual Rayapalooza beach vacation in Port Aransas, TX, last weekend with the Cordovas. I look forward to it all year and especially at the beginning of August. This month has been by far the busiest month that I have had all year and really couldn't wait for the beachy getaway with some good friends. I can expect good food, some drinking, dogs playing, walks along the beach with JL (and not in a romantic way), and some exercise.

I was only sad that I had to leave a day earlier than planned, but it was worth it to watch my two friends get married.



Congrats to Dindi and Brian!

And since we always exercise, JL decided to do something different. A couple of weeks ago, she texted me that we were getting up early to do some yoga on the beach with the sun rising around us and our dogs playing. I planned to do a beach run on both of the days, because I LOVE running on the beach. However, I wasn't sure if my toe pain would allow running on both days or possibly not even on one day (more on that in a later post). So, the idea of doing yoga on one day and running on the next day was a much better plan. Then, she wrote to tell me that we would have an actual yoga instructor (Michelle Acebo) from the Yoga Studio of Corpus Christi out there teaching the class. I was even more pumped about my weekend getaway and couldn't wait to get there.

And then our alarms went off at 6:15 a.m. on that Friday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed for some sunrise yoga. I quickly realized that not only did I forget my skydiving rig, but I also forgot my yoga mat. Thankfully, JL had an extra mat for me to use (but no skydiving on the beach for me). The sun was peaking out and the temps were somewhat lower than the death heat and humidity we received days before and certainly on Saturday morning. I tied up Remington, because he wasn't used to all these people and had been really grouchy since he got there the night before. But he had front row center and sometimes he would get on the instructor's yoga mat to what I assume supervise the situation.

She started off by rubbing our shoulders with a little deep massage cream (the same one JL used on me before). If yogis started their classes out like this every day, they would have a lot more students.

I have to say that it was weird not being in the lotus pose for this part, but this is what she wanted.

These ladies got the best spot in my opinion.

Molly is doing her own version of downward dog.

I really enjoyed Michelle as an instructor.



And this right here is why we got up so early.

I forgot my darn bandana.

Zori was the only one to get the leg up all the way; I tried, but failed.

This picture cracks me up, because we were all falling and I was getting molested by Niko.

The exciting thing was that I stuck my headstand. I couldn't get my feet up (which is so weird, because as a child, I had no issues with this at all) without jumping to it. So, the instructor helped me out. And then she let me go only giving me minimal support. I swear I thought she was holding on to me a lot more until I saw the pictures. I held it for awhile and was pretty proud of myself. This has now become a new goal for me.

I'm so close, but I just do not have the control to lift myself up without jumping it.

She was the only one to get the headstand without assistance.

Initial help to get me started.

She's barely holding on to me.

After looking at this photograph, I felt like a rock star. Every time that I have attempted the headstand in yoga class, the instructors are holding on to me for dear life. I think the sand really helped me let go.

We did some final stretching and the corpse pose, which I love and then said our goodbyes to Michelle. JL's dogs were fully involved at this point.

Remington is supervising the instructor as the quality control department.

I've never had an instructor do an extra stretch for me in corpse pose. I liked it.

It was not the hardest yoga class I have ever taken, but we had a few ladies in the class who have never taken a yoga class before. And to be honest, it was just perfect for me. I haven't done any yoga in a couple of months and my foot was still bothersome, so I didn't think much of it. I will say that it was weird doing yoga on the sand, because the sand was all over my hands and feet and especially on my face when I went into a child's pose. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I highly recommend Michelle if you are ever needing a yogi in the Corpus area. It was by far my favorite part of the beach weekend...well, except for when my friend E caught a 5' shark on my last night.

My baby boy all tired from chasing flies in the sand and digging for leftover ribs.

That was a big boy and they had some good tacos that I missed.

Ray took these photos and they are just amazing. I had to include them. Actually, thanks to Ray for taking all of the yoga pictures (except for 2-3 when we couldn't find Ray and Michelle had to take them).