Phil Skinner

Chapters

Christmas Catch Up

The holiday break was quick and busy. Starting with signing papers on a house (more on that in the next post), moving completely out of the storage unit and mostly out of the boat, then driving to SLO and the bay area.

Skip this paragraph if you don’t care, I’m just venting: I made the mistake of leaving the day after Christmas and a heavy rain + snowfall which closed every road but the 101 heading to LA. However, cross-referencing my traffic apps led me wrong… I went all the way to the Grapevine because a passage around the 5 closure was open, then it was closed when I got there, so I went towards Bakersfield to a road still open, except that it was flooded and closed, so I gave up and drove north 3 hours to try to make it to Paso Robles… along with thousands of other travelers in stopped traffic, idling, running out of fuel. Then got word that the pass back in Bakersfield is opening again, so I turned around and drove back… that was highway 58 through Tehachapi to Mojave and it was closed again after they decided to escort vehicles through and spin-outs and truck-against-truck accidents were happening everywhere. It was a crawl through the snowy summit passing families sleeping in their cars and people who wrecked theirs, then maneuvered some black-ice patches, arriving to my new house at 5am, having left at 9am the previous day. Worst drive I’ve ever had.

Always great seeing my family up there and it always seems too short - Had I known the future, I would have stayed an extra day.

Philip Skinner
Birthday Celebration

Got the whole family in Carmel in early November to celebration Mom’s 70th Birthday. This trip included a coastal drive up there, some mountain biking in the Monterey hills, body surfing at Carmel Beach (the “surf & turf” as Matt calls it) and a lot of hanging out playing board games.

Philip Skinner
boats n planes

Our boat neighbors Chris & Mandy took us and another group out on their powerboat for the Great American Airshow in Huntington Beach. Warm weather and barely any swell meant that every boater in Orange County was out trying to anchor and entertain in front of the Huntington Beach pier, and miles of the beach were packed with people.

Then a few weeks later, Mia and I got a mooring in the channel and stayed out there for the night, getting out just in time for sunset.

Philip Skinner
Utah + Denver

Fortunately, my work asked me to Keystone Resort (outside of Denver) in October and the Salt Lake City area in November to work alongside coworkers and meet with our customers. I brought some camera gear just in case there was a chance to see the mountains - I had never been to SLC or Keystone but learned quickly that access to the mountains is only about 20-30 minutes away from the towns.

For Colorado, it was right before the leaf-turning period, they were just starting to. Every fall there’s a social media craze called “leaf peeping”, so some of the photos are in this style or peering through leafs at more leafs… just trying it out. For Utah, it snowed for a day while I was in Utah and my team and I drove up to Sundance resort (before a 10am meeting) while it was still flurrying up there. Then, I was able to cruise out to two different canyons just east of SLC before my flight home. Pictures Below.

Philip Skinner
Running Springs Labor Day

Labor Day weekend was spent accepting the invitation from our friends Kait and Kevin to go chill at their Running Springs cabin. Running Springs is a community up in the mountains next to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear, close to LA.

Being up in the mountain fresh air, hiking and going to a watering hole (used for snow-making at a resort), and just playing house cooking, hanging out, showing them how cool F1 is… it was a great weekend to get a summer-vibe fix and keep things mellow.

Philip Skinner
PBRC

Back in August, Mia’s sister Maeve went off to college which meant that Mia’s ultimate master plan to have a horse in LA started to take form. The horse we all know and love, Journey (see so many old posts..), was driven down with Mia, Annie, and Maeve following in another car, to Portuguese Bend Riding Club here in Palos Verdes, the most beautiful un-Los Angeles place in Los Angeles. 

The facilities are a magical mix of horse stables and California missions. As you can tell, I love taking pictures here. That’s even better now because I recently purchased a very used and old (think 1990) Nikon lens (80mm-200mm f2.8) which is built like a tank and has so much torque when it focuses it actually moves the camera body. Anyway, the pictures below contain some of the results of combining classic camera lens and classic horse barn.

Journey gets visited almost every day by Mia now, and in November Maeve came back for Thanksgiving and got to ride Journey again - “He’s a different horse!” was said no less than 100 times. 

It’s been really awesome seeing how Mia will wake up at 6am and pack for work just to drive up and see Journey, walk or ride him, feed him, and then head to her job by 9am. Hopefully when the time changes and sun sets later she can switch back to going after work! 

As for me, I used to be kind of spooked by these extremely large and semi clumsy animals, and maybe it’s because Journey is so chill, but now a days I’m giving him neck massages and more pets than he could even want - I know I’ve hit that threshold when he starts to eat my shirt. 

Philip Skinner
Engaged!

A trip for Mia’s birthday up to San Juan Island and Seattle gave be the opportunity to finally propose. It’s been over 6 years together and was probably not much of a surprise, but we’re happily engaged now!

We took a ferry from Anacortes over to San Juan Island and stayed in a really secluded modern apartment with a private beach. We took drives around the island and stopped at a lavender field, did some whale watching (which was amazing to see orcas) and had a birthday dinner at Duck Soup - a restaurant that Mia’s aunt and husband visited 30 years ago on the island. We decided that we should just come back to the different San Juan islands and visit a new one each summer. It’s really great up there.

For the last couple days of our trip we went back to Seattle, there was a culture shock going from country/island pace to the loud/crowded city but we adjusted just fine at great dinner and drink places and even attending a big MLS soccer game at the Seahawk’s stadium, after a stroll through the Seattle Japanese Garden and arboretum.

Enjoy the photos!

Philip Skinner
SLO start to summer

Living along the California coast, May Grey and June Gloom become welcome months and weather patterns that I have come to rely on, especially living on a sailboat with no AC. This means that most days start off with a low-hanging marine layer of cooler temperaturecompared to jsu

Philip Skinner
Mother's Day In Sausalito

Took a drive up to the Bay Area with the goal of getting as many people together for an early Mother’s Day celebration in Sausalito and Matt & Julia’s house. The weather was perfect for hanging out in the front yard and playing with the kids, picking lemons and running around.

Philip Skinner
Sedona & Grand Canyon

Road trip! Took Thursday and Friday off from work and left LA around 7am taking highway 40 (instead of 10) to go through Flagstaff and down to Sedona. The new(used) car finally went on the freeway for longer than a minute and I was getting mpg’s up a in the 40s chugging along. Once we saw Sedona and northern Arizona I realized my expectations were way off - it was beautiful there! We met up with Mia’s family and over the few days we did a lot of hiking: Fay Canyon and Soldier’s Pass trails, a walk up to the famous cathedral built into the mountains, and a drive to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. Although it took about 30 minutes to get through the entrance line at the gates, it wasn’t too crowded once inside and we did a couple of hikes before sunset.

It was a great trip and definitely a place I feel the need to go back to.

Philip Skinner