People always set high expectations for a new year. There’s new year’s resolutions, the artificial feeling of a lifestyle restart, and this time there’s a high hope that 2020 remains at the top the “worst year” list forever. It was a brutal year and there’s still a lot to do and keep doing to make sure 2021 makes room to turn things around and get things around the world back to normal. As just a short recap for the holiday time, it was pretty uneventful. Lots of dog walks and exploring the local area, trying to heal constant back problems, and I even had a random 2-week period of vertigo right before Christmas. If you’ve never experience vertigo before, good. It’s awful. The brain, the senses, and the body all become disjointed from each other and there’s nausea and I was unable to see straight or move for days. There’s no relief, it’s like being spun around at a 100 mph for hours on end. Anyways, I’m just glad that it’s over and still wondering what triggered it.

Moving on.

On a positive note, I made a purchase for a used bike: a gravel bike, while taking the time off work over the holiday to sell off items carried over from boat life and to make space but also to get some money to validate a purchase. I’ll make a post about the bike separately.

I took a day trip with mask covering and Finn to San Luis Obispo for Christmas, it felt good to see some people and knowing that we were outside, masked, and distanced. It rained heavy for a day here and it exposed that the roof leak we paid people to repair last year still leaks, so we’re forced to invest in major roof work. I’m really excited that I received a couple of good household items (shop vac, miter saw) that will enable me to do more stuff myself.

That’s it!

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A park just a few minutes away from the house offers wide open space (for LA standards) and sweeping views from downtown LA to Dana Point to Catalina Island… when the smog clears.

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Fun fact: the houses at the bottom of the picture and the buildings at the top are the same city, but it could take 2 hours to get from one to the other because LA is LA.

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A few posts ago I uploaded some photos of my friend, Connor’s, Mariner 32 ketch sailing north from Long Beach to Ventura. He had to move it back south to Marina Del Rey and I offered to help crew. The plan was to leave Safe Harbor in Ventura early Saturday, get to Paradise Cove in Malibu in the afternoon to anchor for the night, and arrive at Marina Del Rey Sunday afternoon. Connor’s girlfriend also conveniently lives on her sailboat in Ventura and was also moving back to MDR, so we were essentially buddy-boating the trip. All that was left to do to assure the trip could happen was make sure everyone was negative for the virus: check.

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I was secretly looking forward to the change of comfort and tap into the sailboat days again. I opted to sleep in my sleeping bag outside Friday night and Saturday night. It was so damp outside that before I set up my area Connor offered to hose down the cushions so my sleeping bag wouldn’t pick up any of the dirt. Because hosing them down would leave them just as wet as they already were, only cleaner. Haha. I thought it was funny. Anyway.

We got up at dawn Saturday, finalized some packing of his truck and shifting some items from his boat to Courtney’s sailboat to accommodate space. Courtney’s boat was a much newer 40ft sailboat with a ton of extra room and she was sailing just by herself and her dog.

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For some background, Connor used to work at SpaceX, then he sailed his boat (2 previous boats ago) south through Mexico and across to the South Pacific until the boat wasn’t really structurally safe anymore. He sold it, bought a more seaworthy single-handling sailboat and made it all the way to Australia and then sold that one. He came back to the US and was about to crew on a 55’ catamaran from Mexico to the South Pacific when Covid broke out, so they pivoted and went to Hawaii instead. He returned again to California and got a job for one of the largest Covid testing companies, bought the Mariner 32, and is now starting a different job which is partially the reason for the relocation.

This is all to say that he takes a few things very seriously: Covid safety, sailing, and rocket launches.

Conveniently, SpaceX was launching a rocket just north of where we were sailing away from and just about 2 hours after we left the dock, so we got good views of it and felt the sonic boom. The rocket booster went up, let go of the payload, and fell back down to land safely. And all within 15 minutes, most of it in plain sight.

As you can tell from the photos, it was very calm, light wind and small swell, so we motorsailed the entire time. While going down the coast from Ventura to Oxnard to Malibu, we saw a lot of dolphins and even a whale, that surfaced about 30 feet away from us out of nowhere, not more than 10 minutes after Connor thought out loud, “I wonder when whales start showing up?” “I don’t think until January” I incorrectly said back.

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We anchored in Paradise Cove which had a slight swell roll, deployed a flopper-stopper which helped but didn’t stop the motion entirely. With about an hour left of sunlight we launched a sailing dinghy from Connor’s boat and one from Courtney’s boat (she anchored next to us) and had a competitive regatta where the target to sail around was actually a powerboat that up and left during the race, and the other rule was that we had to each chug about 3 beers. Stupid, but totally appropriate.

That night I slept outside again and woke up about every 15 minutes, sometimes to gusty offshore wind, sometimes to the dinghy hitting the boat because it was so calm, sometimes to sea animals surfacing for air a few feet away, but most of the time because of rolling swell.

By sunrise on Sunday I was feeling exhausted and slightly hungover or motion sick, couldn’t tell. But I definitely was approaching the limit of getting my fill for sailing life again, so it was a successful endeavor.

We motorsailed about 4 more hours to Marina Del Rey straight to the guest docks where Courtney would have to tie up to for a short while. We help her get tied down and then got Oblivion over to its new slip.

The trip went off without any problems and was a memorable weekend.

Mia and I, plus Finn, took a quick opportunity too see my family for Andy’s 4th birthday and to overall just take a chance to see everyone at one time outside and safely. They were able to reserve the private playground at the children’s school in Sausalito and we could all hang out for a few hours, have cake, and let the kids play.

In other news, it was Finn’s longest car ride with us and although she didn’t get car sick, she was pretty restless. She also chose to hold it for about 7 hours even though we stopped several times to let her roam around and drink water.

In other news, my car went in for an oil change and came out with a new mechatronic unit which is a several-thousand dollar computer for the transmission. As I drove away from the dealership, the transmission was stuttering. Turns out it also needed an entirely new transmission as well. As of this drive to the bay area it was during the waiting period for the transmission and I was admittedly a bit nervous the car was going to strand us somewhere. Luck was on our side!

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On the departure day from Yosemite we drove East over the Sierras on highway 120 (Tioga Pass) and I was looking forward to taking a dip in a mountain lake more than anything else that day.

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So we pulled over at Tenaya Lake alongside the road and went it for a swim. I had in my mind that we would stop at various lakes including either June or Mammoth that day, so we didn’t spend a ton of time here although the emtpiness combined with the weather made it feel perfect. I later regretted that decision

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Tioga Pass is considered one of the most scenic drives in California. It might have been the perfect warm weather or the fact that no cars were around, but it was a really beautiful cruise through the mountains and trees. At one point we were driving through the controlled fire seen in my previous pictures, and then we went through Tuolumne Meadows and decided to keep trucking to try to make it to a different lake in the Eastern Sierras before our planned overnight stop at Alabama Hills.

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Tioga Pass grade in the Eastern Sierras. This was a seriously steep and impressive road. My photos of it didn’t do it justice but I think the one Mia took gets the vibe across: 80 degrees in the mountains, windows down and drying off from a swim in a lake. Ah, I miss it.

So here’s when I started to regret not staying up in the mountains at Tenaya or Tioga lake. This is after coming down the east of the Sierras onto highway 395. This is looking towards the area of other lakes I wanted to jump in today, where the air quality was 555… dangerously unhealthy from the Creek fire.

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We abandoned the lakes and asthma and headed straight to Alabama Hills. It was Mia’s first time and honestly I was starting the feel like the smoke and ad hoc car camping plan wasn’t going to be much fun, we explored a little of the area, climbed up some rocks and had a beer while soaking in the silence of the area.

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We scrapped the car camping plan for the second to last day and headed all the way back to LA and picked up Finn from the dog hotel. Given the heat wave, the weekday off from work, and that dogs are allowed at this small beach in Laguna during off-season, I was able to take another swim on vacation but in the ocean instead if a lake. It was a great way to treat the last day as a staycation and cap off a great road trip.

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For day 3 at Yosemite we, with tired legs from the day before, parked near Yosemite Village and walked a short loop past lower Yosemite Falls and back, bought some snacks and a poster from the store, and then drove up to Glacier Point.

From Glacier Point we could see the trails we hiked the day before and it helped provide scale to the valley. We drove back to a trailhead which took us to Taft Point (the rock sticking out that Mia stands on) and then we hiked to Sentinel Dome for sunset. This area looks higher than anywhere else so you have incredible views looking down on the valley and on Half Dome. It was awesome! It was also basically empty everywhere.

The next post is when we take Tioga Pass out of Yosemite and have to change our plans.

It’s been a few years of hoping to go back to Yosemite and take Mia there for the first time. The pandemic has sucked for a million reasons. Sigh…it has been really bad. It feels guilty to be in a position to even talk about silver linings, however I think it’s important to enjoy them if they exist. Yosemite shutdown during the shutdown, then it opened strategically by reservation-only.

So early in the morning on September 1st I was able to reserve a date to arrive for any day in October. I chose October 10th. Why? It’s a Saturday..yeah.. but it was also supposed to be our wedding day (before Covid). It’s fall, off-season, could have interesting weather for photos, etc etc.

Turns out in September the entire state became on fire and especially the Sierra Nevadas, which carried into our trip. Hey, with everything else going wrong in the world and that could go wrong nowadays, a little smoke was the least of our worries. My concerns were things like if I sufficiently wiped my hands and the gas station pump enough with clorox wipes before getting back in my car, some clean (compared to LA) mountain- fire smoke was something I could endure. Luckily for us, the smoke situation and AQI actually improved each day we were in Yosemite, and assisted in making some purple-red sunset lighting.

We arrived around 4pm on Saturday to check in to the park, cruised the valley loop, hiked around mirror lake, and I was excited to see Mias reaction to the awe of it all throughout the afternoon. We stopped at tunnel view lookout for sunset and for about 5 minutes the smokey sky glowed bright pink and it was a great start to the trip.

We stayed at an airbnb in Bootjack/Oakhurst about a 1-hour drive from the hwy 140 entrance. Each night we had oven bake pizzas or easy pasta, packed sandwiches, snacks and a few beers as picnic supplies for the park, and basically made spontaneous and stress-free decisions for exploring the park for 3 days.

The second day we did a hike up the Mist trail around Vernal and Nevada fall, then down the John Muir Trail. Almost 10 miles, 2,600 ft elevation and about 4 hours, all with striking views and almost nobody on the trail (past Vernal fall). We got back as the sun went behind the valley walls and stopped by a well-known Merced river photo spot for sunset.

Day 3 will be another post.

As is appropriate, because of Covid and quarantine, there’s not a lot of news to report and I pretty much haven’t been taking photos or going anywhere. There’s a couple things, though.

On April 1, Mia and I adopted a dog from a rescue foundation. The back story is that the dog was found lost and brought to the Bakersfield animal shelter. This rescue foundation based in LA seems to go to overcrowded shelters and probably picks the most rescue-able animals and then resells them. The story is that after the vet check she was a german shepherd or husky mix puppy around 3-4 months and the photos and videos were cute so we went for it. A few days later we brought her to a vet ourselves and the vet here said that she’s actually got all of her adult teeth and is likely full-grown at 8-9 months. This also meant that she wasn’t the breed we were under the impression of, and must have some small breed mix. We’ve done a lot of research and there’s nothing definitive, so she is whatever she is. We’ve been busy training and going on walks and trying to socialize a dog during social distanced times (not easy). Every day, though, we’re lucky to have the time to take her on at least one long walk

In May and June my primary house project was the backyard. After a quote of more than $4,000 for a simple fence that wasn’t even the design/fence we wanted. So I decided to see if I could build one myself - I got to digging holes for poles, 10 in total. Poured cement, stained posts and wood boards, and painted 5ft high wire fence with black rubber coating. Then we got 14,000 lbs of decomposed granite (fine rock) dumped in the driveway and I spent 2 days moving it to the backyard and a couple weeks tamping, grading, laying edging… the whole deal. It looks pretty good now with the finalized fence, a rolling gate, and the nice flat durable low-maintenance dirt.

In July we stayed home and washed fireworks across south LA from the backyard (photo above), and as one week leads to the next and one month rolls to the next month, things are in a routine of dog walks, exploring the neighborhood trails on foot and bike, long work days, and busy housework-filled weekends.

Also in the photos is my friend Connor’s new sailboat. He’s the one who was my liveaboard neighbor in Redondo and he sailed his old Hunter across the Pacific and then a different boat (the Hunter took a beating) to Australia. Now that he’s back in the states I heard him say he’s done with boats, and about 3 weeks later he got a Mariner 31 (ketch rigged, cutter) and these photos are from early August when he sailed it from Cabrillo to Ventura past me with my camera in Palos Verdes. I was hoping to join for the trip but it started on a Friday when I was working and I was dog sitting solo so had to stay home.

Finally, I’m going to publish this here so that I’m personally accountable: I will take more photos to make this more interesting.

In “Stay at Home” orders in California. It’s been a weird week. Fortunately I’ve been really busy working and keeping my mind occupied with work and house things. It’s been raining a lot, which is unusual but definitely welcome (now that I think I fixed a roof leak).

I picked up my camera so here’s a couple pano’s: One of the rain rolling in on Thursday evening over Catalina Island. The other of the snow-capped LA mountains taken from the bedroom door.

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Time has really been flying by with the new year, I can’t really believe it’s March. We have gradually accumulated a normal amount of house furniture, browing craigslist and other selling apps for good deals on must-have items, and waiting for holiday sales to get anything new. I’ve had multiple battles with the thin and wavy drywall in this house, broken no less than 4 Philips-head screwdriver tips, and successfully diagnosed and fix our screeching garage door. I still have not been down to the mystery hut on our property. It’s seeing all these freaky unfamiliar spider species (coming from a boat, with not bugs) that kind of has me mentally scared. We’ve had family and friends over which I think has been the best part - sharing the space - and I think we’ve only bought take-out food 2 or 3 times. That’s a huge change from living on the boat. I can stand here and write this with the windows open, looking at a lizard sun bathing in partial shade from a palm tree across a rock in the backyard, and flinching frequently to the loud noises coming from the neighbor having a fence installed between our property.

Aside from house life, I traveled to San Francisco and Denver for work already this year, came back sick for 2 weeks - this is a scary time to be sick with anything or traveling, I know - and I’ve been going to see Journey, the horse either with Mia or also by myself when Mia can’t go certain days. I think he recognizes my jacket I always wear and knows that I should have carrots for him. Here’s some pictures from early this morning, I went with Mia over to the horse.

7 years living on my 30 foot sailboat and I finally reached my tolerance of the marina lifestyle. I love living on a sailboat, I love being on the water, I love the proximity to my recreational activities and trying to live a life with minimal impact on my surroundings. It was everything else that was slowly getting on my nerves. It was 7 years of accepting the bad with enjoying the good, but the bad variables outweighed the rest and we had our sights on moving onto land.

Rent in LA can be about $3000-$5000 a month, so it was a waiting game to save just enough to own a house on land, no way I was going to go from sweet inexpensive boat life to lining the pockets of a landlord. Fortunately that time came and some houses were for sale. Long story short: we moved into a house in the Southbay, on the boarder of San Pedro and Palos Verdes. This location shortened the amount of time for Mia’s commute, gave me the opportunity to finally work from home, and welcomes us to the next phase of our lives - pretty exciting!

The house is a 4-bed, 3-bath, remodeled (flipped, actually), with some really cool potential. It’s going to involve many weekend projects and for the first month it’s provided more than enough headaches, but it's all worth it as an investment. Anyways, the sailboat is up for sale now and I’m confident sailing will still be something I do, whether that be on the dinghy or if a trailerable day-sailer is in my future.

The process of buying a house sucks, I’ll say that much. But we’ve been hard at work and frugal about how to furnish it, build things, customize rooms, and design the landscape a little. After signing the papers is when the fun starts. Here are some photos from just 1 month living on land.