Saturday, January 4, 2014

"Time is precious, waste it wisely" - Jan Jansen

There is no better way to start a New Year than by showing gratitude for the past year. Fortunately for me, it was filled with family, friends, travel, and good food.

And in no particular order...

Disneyland
I rang in the Year of the Snake with my brother and cousin at the "Happiest Place on Earth!"

Living in SoCal for most of my life, I was definitely not a stranger to Disneyland. After this trip, I foresee cousin reunions draped in Mickey Mouse ears and standing in long lines waiting for rides reminiscing about the days of old, when we would be standing in long lines waiting for rides.

At least I'm hoping for it!

Portland, OR

Another cousin moved up to OR about 4 years ago. Finally, after all this time I was able to get up there and visit her in Portland. 

(Side note, when she told her mom she was moving, her mom thought she was moving to Poland! Another side note, my dad actually moved to Poland for a while... go figure.)
Goonies House, Astoria, OR

While we were in the beautiful state of Oregon, we also took a road trip to get in touch with our inner Goonie.

Seriously, they don't make movies like that anymore. (sniff, sniff) Heck, hardly anyone lets their kids play outside unsupervised and who can blame them? I digress...

Seattle, WA
On to the Seattle area, where we met up with some of my grad school friends for some great grub.  Some people may consider me a "foodie" because I LOVE food and even started a food blog. Some might poke fun and call me a "fattie" if it weren't un-PC. Let me put it like this, my goal is to be healthy because life it just too darn short NOT to eat. So skinny jeans be damned! I'm going to EAT and just exercise to balance it out.

Speaking of exercise... we ended up snow shoeing in Snoqualmie.

If you have never done this before, it sounds easy. Strap on a contraption with spikes on your own shoes and away you go... In theory that's exactly what happened. I even got to test these suckers on a mini hill before we went up a bigger one. (I lacked faith...)

Snoqualmie, WA
It was definitely a bit more challenging that I thought it was. Part of that was probably because the only "waterproof" shoes I had were some Puma sneakers. Appropriate footwear is key! (And I didn't have it... fail!)

We had fun none-the-less, although, truth be told, we were shown up by several 6 year olds that went down a pretty darn steep cliff. My inexperience made me very wary of climbing down a mountain backwards, especially when there was a tree waiting there to "catch my fall"... I wasn't alone in not wanting to go that way, which helped my ego a bit. :)

Now if I were on a snowboard... I still wouldn't have gone down that hill. Just sayin...

Washington D.C., Cherry Blossoms
In April, we visited the nation's capitol. I have never been in a city where duck fat was so prevalent. Not that I'm necessarily complaining because I definitely had some! Duck fat fries, duck fat mussels, oh my! I seriously believe the "DC" stands for DuckFat City...

We were SO lucky. The last day we were there, all the Cherry Blossoms bloomed around the Basin. It is truly a site and I'm glad we were fortunate enough to see it in person.

Catalina Island
One of my good friends owns a boat and in May, she decided that she wanted to move said boat back down to San Diego from Marina Del Rey. Our "crew" consisted of Amy, me and her Mini Pin, Capt'n Louie.

We were going to take our time and take about 5 days to get down, stopping by Catalina, Dana Point and wherever else we felt like on our way to San Diego.

Capt'n Louie
I used to sail with her quite a bit back in the day. Before this trip, I could happily brag that I had never gotten sea sick. Let me just say, we can deeply sympathize with the Gilligan's Island theme song... What should have been a relatively easy trip from Marina Del Rey to Catalina was filled with 30 knot winds and "cresting mother-fing waves" to quote the Captain!

It was a relaxing trip, mostly away from all things tech related (although I got a little cell signal) but it put me off sailing for a bit. (I'm ready to go now if the opportunity presents itself, don't get me wrong!) Once I was back on land again, it took me a little time to get my land legs again.

San Diego
I didn't get down to San Diego as much as I would have liked, but every time I was there, it still felt like home. And how could it not? I am lucky enough to still have a lot of great friends that have made a life there and welcome me every time I am back.

There never seems to be enough time in a weekend to see everyone, so maybe this year I'll resume my once a month excursion down the coast. Most of these wonderful people I've known for over 13 years now, so there are many new additions to the family. (You should see all the family Christmas cards that are on my fridge!) :)

Mini Reunion, Boston, MA
Another place that will always be near and dear to my heart is Beantown.

Where, if you walk into Cornwall's, the bartender may not know your name, but he'll definitely know your drink!

Where clam chowda is freakin amazing even in some work cafeterias!

Where I've just been so incredibly lucky to have met some amazing people.

Cornwall's, Boston, MA

I'm looking forward to what 2014 has to offer.

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Let go of what is gone; be grateful for what remains; look forward to what is coming...

NOTE: Written on March 2, 2020: Pre knowing just how big Covid was... I decided not to rewrite it because it was a simpler time then.  Holy ...