Category: California

  • We lived in Oakland, California, again

    We lived in Oakland, California, again

    I think if we had said aloud, “We want to stay in the UK for another year, we will figure out a way to make it work”, we would have done just that and very possibly been in the UK to this day still. But that’s not what happened!

    Sometimes I ask Lindsay, “why was it we ever left York?” We always have to talk about it for a few minutes before we remember what it was like at the time we made the decision – Lindsay had no more classes or “purpose” in the UK, we hadn’t been home in roughly a year, and the pandemic made the future seem uncertain (In the last post I wrote about living in the UK I touch on this a bit, but barely.). And so, Lindsay decided to start applying for jobs and (semi)unexpectedly ended up getting a job back in San Francisco, and so our next move was decided! I really do think we could have just stayed put in York and lived there happily ever after.

    Instead, we left and made a short stop over at our family homes in Michigan before moving back out West to California – Oakland specifically.

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  • Russian River and Packing is Underway

    Russian River and Packing is Underway

    Packing is now fully underway. Lindsay has spent the past week+ organizing, cleaning, and selling our stuff on Craigslist. Sadly, we still have a long way to go – as I lay in bed typing this, I see our bed stand, our alarm clock, our covers and sheets, our mattress, the artwork above our head, etc. All of that stuff needs to be gone in two weeks. And that’s just in our bed area.

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  • Disneyland and 1AM Fancy Mineral Bath

    Disneyland and 1AM Fancy Mineral Bath

    Lindsay had a few days off for spring break. “Wow, that’s great” – That’s what you might be saying. But YOU ARE RIGHT! It was great! I took a few days off (three, if you want to know) and we had a 5 day great weekend. I should add that prior to this amazing weekend I had an amazing birthday party, thanks to Lindsay, complete with oysters (and a super cool dude who shucked them for us), friends from all over the place, etc.

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  • A few photos from recent trips

    A few photos from recent trips

    Well, quite a bit has happened since my last post here. I spent two weeks solo in Chicago for work. Lindsay and I went to a wedding in LA. We spent a day in Santa Cruz. I shaved my beard (and am now growing it back again). Actually that’s all I can think of.

    Chicago was a great time. I stayed in a fancy hotel and went to a pretty interesting training. Anthea came to visit, as did my mom and Tristan. I ate some great donuts, and a (not pictured) great pizza.

    Anyway, long story short, I took a few photos and figured I might as well post a few of them.

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  • Camping on the North Coast Part 2: The Sea Awakens

    Camping on the North Coast Part 2: The Sea Awakens

    Lindsay and I decided to go camping again this weekend. It was awesome. It really is so incredibly awesome that we live only 2 hours from such an unbelievably beautiful place.

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  • Camping, Crabbing, and Freediving on the North Coast

    Camping, Crabbing, and Freediving on the North Coast

    Lindsay and I had a 3 day weekend for Veterans Day, and we decided to do some camping sort of activity for the weekend. AND IT WAS A WONDERFUL ADVENTURE AWESOME WEEKEND.

    First, because I am guessing people might be wondering and I want to admit this right away: 1) We didn’t catch any crabs 2) I didn’t get any fish while freediving because I wasn’t spearfishing.

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  • Bug Hunting off of Santa Barbara and Catalina Islands

    Bug Hunting off of Santa Barbara and Catalina Islands

    This past weekend (just yesterday actually) Lindsay and I went bug hunting down in SoCal. This was both the first time bug hunting (aka “bug grabbing”) as well as the first time diving in Southern California, and only the second time doing a charter in California.

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  • First spearfishing experience

    First spearfishing experience

    This past weekend Lindsay and I drove down to Morro Bay to do some camping and diving before next weekends big bug grab. The “bug grab” being a live-a-board dive charter we are doing with a bunch of friends (Nick included!) down near/around/on Catalina Islands off from LAish area.

    Anyway, the trip was great/awesome. We got a late start from Oakland (didn’t leave until after 8pm on account of Lindsay having a Cross Country meet), so we didn’t arrive at the campsite until 12:30 pm or so. Thanks to Nick (hey buddy!) for staying up (or getting up?) and calling us at the exact moment that we drove by the campground. This is difficult to appreciate, but somehow at the exact moment that we drove by the campground (we totally missed it and had no idea where we were going) he called. Perhaps it’s because he was using Find my Friends (?).

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  • Our First Dive on the West Coast

    As some of you may know, I come from a family of SCUBA divers (from now on I’ll just say “divers” or “diving”, but I mean the SCUBA variety, not the free/olympic/etc variety… though I am very interested in giving freediving a shot). Still, despite having dove in a number of locations around the world (Michigan, Mexico, Belize, Virgin Islands, Thailand, etc…) I had never been diving in the Pacific.

    Lindsay and I decided that it was probably a good time to do something about that. We had all of our dive gear out here (thanks family!) so there wasn’t much stopping us. Well two small problems:

    -We didn’t have hoods or gloves
    -We didn’t know where to dive

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