We had been looking forward to this event ever since our friend Stephanie mentioned about it in August. We booked our hotel in Las Vegas for 2 nights and was ready to go until we got really really really sick for 7 days leading up to the weekend. The entire Baum-kuchen household was sick like we had never been sick. Multiple doctor's visits, Satchi taking the entire week off from school (except Friday when she was happy to go back to her school) and having so many chicken soup for days.
On Friday morning, Frido and I went back and fourth... trying to decide if we should leave LA to head to Las Vegas with still under the weather Coco and myself. (Thankfully Satchi was close to clear off from her flu and Frido dodged the bullet all together). Can we pull off the 6 hours drive with kids? Are we going to be able to sleep in a hotel room that we are not familiar with? Doubts were everywhere but we decided that life was just too short to sit by. We packed our car in the morning and started driving. I remember writing on my journal... "hoping for wind to rise".
Somehow the wind did rise and we managed to get to Las Vegas without completely falling apart and collapsed on our hotel room bed at 8pm. It felt like a magic when we woke up next morning, we felt little better than the night before. Our body ached less... and we were so excited for the night to arrive.
Our friend Angie joined us from Los Angeles with a great smile and her amazing sense of humor. Before we knew it, we were in the car heading to the mojave desert along with the desert sunset.
Truly... the experience of being there was nothing like I have ever felt. Many people wrote wishes, dreams and something to let go on their lanterns. One of our lantern was dedicated to Shep. Angie dedicated her lantern for her father. I wished for "future... and moving forward". When 9pm finally arrived (and girls were totally ready to fall in sleep on a dusty desert ground), the announcement of the unison release came. The adrenalin rush to launch the very first lantern... being surrounded by 20,000 more lanterns to rise together. And the moment of the launch. It gave me a chill on my spine. It was a great reminder that we need to get out there and experience the world everyday because magic does happen.
I think I will let the visual do the justice for the rest of my RISE story.
RISE Festival / 10.10.2015 from Baum-Kuchen on Vimeo.
