Mike and I went to Burning Man in 2002. We didn't plan on going together because we weren't dating at the time we purchased our tickets. Mike had been before, and in 2002 he was planning an art installation, The Quoting, Whirled. I had never been, but had known about it for years. Mike and I worked together, and I think one of the reasons he asked me out was because he found out that I was going to Burning Man.
We had been seeing each other for less than two months when he packed up his art project and journeyed with his friends to Black Rock City. I left a couple of days later with my friends and a walkie talkie tuned to channel Mike. Without cell phone reception, the plan was for me to radio him the minute I arrived and he would meet me at the location my friends and I had for our theme camp, Hamok Havok.
Without going into tons of detail about the five days we spent together in the desert, I do want to admit that it was a magical time and sealed our future together. During the trip we discussed love, marriage, and having children together, and not necessarily in that order. Days after coming back, I was learning about things like ovulation calendars and a little over a month later I was pregnant with our first child, our daughter Emily. We were married on November 16, two months after returning home from our Burning Man adventure.
Five years and two children later, we have decided to return to that place and space, knowing that our experience will be different because we now have children but hoping that it will be, in many ways, enhanced. One thing we're looking forward to is renewing our vows with our kids in attendance because Burning Man is where we fell in love and where they were conceived into being, if not physically then mentally.
We're excited! We can't think of an adventure better than this one.
Burning Man, here we come! This time with kids!
