It would be impossible to sum up the weekend we got married into words. The festivities were based in Carmel, we were surrounded by family and friends for the whole weekend. Friday we stocked up on libations and drove them to the venue, Point 16, in Big Sur (the sunny photos) and then there was a great welcome party in Carmel. Saturday we drove down the coast along with our photographers and stopped at a few scenic locations and then to Point 16. It was the best day ever and so much fun, I have the best memories from the whole weekend.
Matt and I met at Bass Lake for what was essentially my bachelor party. We camped and road our mountainbikes for 3 days on different trails, it was pretty epic! After the big bike ride on Saturday we did the bachelor party move and drank beers on the shore of the lake and traded off kayaking. It was also super fun to be able to ride our bikes to the local store and restaurant for food. I never knew that my water bottle holder also fit tall cans.
We took on a more significant house project in August which was to add a gravel parking area and a privacy fence to the front yard. It also leads into an idea I had that we could leave the front door open on nice days and Finn would be contained in the front yard. The fence required a lot of research (on Mia’s part) finding high quality hardwood from Brazil and enough other supplies, some planning on my part, and a lot of short breaks during summer days to work on the project. It turned out pretty good!
We also had the pleasure of attending a wedding of my college roommate in Palm Springs - I partied like I was in college again and paid for it by Sunday.
Although I haven’t been around to update a blog in many months, it has been on my mental to-do list. Unfortunately at a lower priority than other to-do’s. I’ll share some of those here.
A couple things stand out when I think about the year so far since my post. Weekdays have been really busy and weekends have been a balance of trying to get things done and trying to still enjoy what I have right in front of me. I got a haircut after like 16 months. I got vaccinated. And yeah, some other stuff below:
My birthday was in February and Mia got me a coffee roaster - so I’ve been buying raw coffee beans sourced from small operations around the world and then roasting them at home. The cost of this works out to about 25-30% versus buying whole beans from the store and the other upside is that our coffee has been tasting super fresh and has a little more thought put into it than just picking a bag of beans with an intriguing logo. I admit that was how I was making my coffee purchase decisions from time to time. Mia also got me a metal trough/tub to take ice baths in. I definitely recommend it to anyone with physical pain who wants to endure even more for 15 minutes. It’s like icing your whole body in one go, quite peaceful though.
We became annual members of the South Coast Botanic Garden which is a huge arboretum that also allows dogs to come in once a month for walks. Some photos from there are included.
For a long time living in this house I felt like the garage lacked decent looking and functional storage - so I got cabinets and a table top and installed it all myself along with some other shelves over the laundry machines.
We’ve upgraded the garden from version 1 to version 2 this spring by adding another 6” wall of board and soil to the garden boxes so that some vegetables will have more depth to grow. I also had to throw a quick chicken-wire fence around it to prevent the local animals from digging at night. In the past few months we’ve harvested a ton of dill, cauliflower, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers. Looking forward now to artichokes, zucchini, different kinds of lettuce and peanuts (PEANUTS!).
Also on the subject of the yard, I’ve spent a lot more time cleaning up the abandoned mess beyond our immediate backyard fence. I used left over decomposed granite (fancy dirt) and left over wood from the fence and created a more formal outcropping/walkway with step pads. I also sawed down about 12 large invasive trees and am clearing the next section of the hill of dead leaves and ivy. Slow and steady progress. I also peaked into the spooky hut and discovered more retaining walls and noninvasive trees further down the hill.
Back to biking. I quit my gym membership at the beginning of covid so to workout I have a little creative at-home set up and more importantly the gravel bike. A couple memorable rides was one 82 miler from the house to Will Rogers beach and back. Barely made it home and learned that I need to pack more snacks. Another was an attempt to go south to Huntington Beach and back, however I fell a couple miles short. The major goal is a clean 100 miles and I have my sights on it, but may wait until summer is over for cooler weather. Another fun ride was up in Big Bear in June. I went riding from the lake and up to the summit of some mountains and back, all on sand/dirt fire road. It made for a good ride with sight seeing and it was 95 degrees that day so it was a lesson in how much water to bring as well as how much slower miles are met when riding on dirt instead of pavement. I hope you like pictures of a bike in front of random scenery.
Finally, just last weekend I went to the bay area for the first time in 7 months and hung out with my family, got to see my older brother’s house in San Rafael, enjoy time with friends and homemade pizza in Oakland and also allowed for Finn to get accustomed to more road trips and different situations and people. Success!
Between the extremes of road cycling and mountain biking are a lot of alternatives and right in the middle is gravel biking. Best of both worlds. Lighter than a mountain bike, sturdier than a road bike, with tire sizes and tread meant to go quick on pavement and provide grip on loose dirt. A happy medium that provides a lot of versatility for the rider. Gravel biking (in my opinion) is less defined and restricted than other cycling extremes, there doesn’t seem to be a type of person out of place who is participating in it. It’s just the thing I was looking for. The other day I was able to leave my doorstep and ride 20 miles around Palos Verdes on paved roads and then turn off onto the mountain biking trails and get around them easier than on my mountain bike. Another 6 miles on steep dirt trails and I can go back to the road and comfortably ride the last 4 miles home. It feels like the right gear for the trip as a whole. Anyways, it’s just a lot of fun and opens up opportunities for different types of exercise and recreation without too much compromise.
The bag can attach where it is on the frame, or up on the handlebars (which is the better position).
There’s 3 water bottle holders, 2 of them carry water and the lowest one actually carries a spare tire tube and tools (the water bottle leaks so it was a perfect candidate for it).
The bike is also designed to carry more on the front and back if I needed to.
The drop-bars are what you would find on a road bike, except they are wider for better stability off road. The hand positions are more comfortable than the regular mountain bike flat bars.
The tires are narrow enough to still be fast and easy to pedal and they can vary in tread pattern to handle dirt trails. I have a wider and more aggressive tire on the front (because of the dry and loose trails I ride on) and a slightly narrower and less aggressive tire on the back.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
