Holiday Travels

The holidays this year involved just the right amount of busy and mellow. Mia and I went up to San Luis Obispo a few days before Christmas and hung out, drove up to the Bay Area to celebrate a second Christmas with my family and got to stay a couple days, then back to slo and onward to stop off at the boat for a night. Then back in the car seat for a New Years Eve Joshua Tree trip with friends.

I’m feeling the pictures are better than my write-ups, so I hope you enjoy the slideshow below. Some highlights were a trip to the Pismo Beach Butterfly Grove at sunset. There were butterflies that looked like tree branches, horses walking on the beach, and some sea fog filling in around the Pismo Pier - couldn’t have asked for more. Opening presents with the kids this year was great because you can see their excitement level and talk back and forth, also spent time at local playgrounds to get outside and enjoy the weather.

Out in Joshua Tree we stayed in an airbnb which was far out there, sort of in foothills and off long dirt roads. A group of us got up for the sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park - good thing the timing worked because now the park is completely closed due to the government shutdown. We got in 2 days before the closure, spent about 30 minutes in the cold witnessing a great sunrise and then left. Notice I said cold, which is unusual for the desert. In fact, that day the sky got dark and it began to hail, which turned into snow flurries, it was about 30 degrees all day. As the snow started to melt some of us went for an exploratory walk around the area so some photos are from that too.

Then about a week into January I hopped in Connor’s pickup truck/home and headed to Mt. Baldy the day after a snow storm. It was packed on the road leading up but fortunately the trail was basically empty accept for serious hikers. It was a cold, 2000ft climb/5.5 mile hike up to the San Antonia Ski Hut located below the Mt Baldy summit. I was actually glad that it was too snowy and late in the day to try to climb up to the top. Don’t think I’m prepared for that type of “hike” yet.