Oak shadows

Here I am, showing up years later after swearing I'd write more often. But somehow it's 2025, and we missed an entire year on the blog, because we were too busy out in the beauty of it all. 

The TL;DR version (which got kind of long anyway, so maybe this is actually the "too long, read anyway" version), in no meaningful order: 

• Same job, going strong. Got a promotion. Almost three years out, I can say with certainty that leaving academia was 1000% the right move. Phew.

• My grandparents died. I don't know how to write about that yet. God, they were both just so cool. We thought they still had a lot of good years left. I miss them. I see them everywhere. I find myself wishing I could tell them about our travels, our life, the mountains. Sometimes when I'm out wandering, I try to anyway. I had forty good years with them, including weeks together backpacking in the high Sierra. More than anything, they just always wanted us around. It sounds so obvious, but it was something special. That's not a universal experience. It'd be greedy to want more time, but damn...we just missed out on one last trip with grandpa to camp and snorkel at Two Harbors. Dylan brought grapefruits grafted from his famous tree when we went back. I hate that they're not here. I'm grateful to have had so much time with them. 

• Van living half the year is so much more magical than we could have imagined. A life of towering red rocks, cliff dwellings, desert wander sessions, fishing trips, winter campouts, Big Sur parties, Sierra sunrises, painting (though not enough), dive bars, wildlife, summer thunderstorms, Americana. We've grown a deep love for southern Utah and an irrational disdain for Arizona. 

• Aspendell is still the best. We remodeled upstairs. We have an inflatable hot tub that makes us spend more time staring at the mountains, watching the marmots, finding delight in the occasional magestic eagle and humble quail. 

• My immediate family is awesome. At a time when half the country and a whole bunch of our relatives have decided they're Team anti-environment, anti-science, anti-woman, anti-free and fair elections, and anti-democracy, I'm grateful for shared values with my parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews. It's a small but important relief to have them around, when every day I see friends (who have spent their careers working for cleaner air and water, environmental health, wildlife, land, and marine conservation, forecasting and warning us of climate-change driven weather disasters, researching renewable energy, measuring snowpack so we can manage precious water in California, and more) getting fired daily. From their dream jobs with the EPA. NOAA. NASA. Good people, doing really important work. It makes me sick.  

• We're selling the Santa Barbara cabin. We just don't come back here enough, and the mice take over so quickly. It's breaking my heart, even knowing it's the best decision. It was a good home, to me and Mattie, for so many years. I'll miss walking down the lane on a full moon, with sharp moonshadows making a mosaic of the rutted road. I loved doing that with Mattie. As she got older and crazier, we spent more time walking the lane in the middle of the night. I think of her every time I'm out in moonshadows. This little cabin is the first place I felt like home, after leaving home. 

There's so much more in between.

High school graduations. Smaller trips. Little house fixes. Christmas lights. Animal sightings. I hate this recap style of blogging, instead of sharing more often about the special tiny magic tricks happening all around. So I'll say again: I'll try to write more. So far I've failed. Maybe this time it'll stick. 

Here are some of the greatest hits from the past year (with every intention of sharing more deep cuts moving forward). I don't have the patience to put them all in order, but you'll get the idea of 2024 - 2025 so far.

The McCloud is the most beautiful river I've ever seen.

Milky teal water. 

Beautiful rainbows.

The most perfect pocket water.

A young black bear. Mom was close by.

Near the reservoir that dumps into the McCloud,

and down to Ah-Ni-Dah Campground.

Greg with one of those famous McCloud bows.

A spectacular place.

We're so proud of these kids.

Sid graduated in June 2024, and went off to UC Santa Cruz.

Annual Big Sur Easter Party at Dylan and Jessie's in Big Sur (2025).

We spent Friday at their place for the big party.

Sunday we went to Jade Cove, then ate tacos and carrot cake for Greg's birthday.

A perfect weekend on the coast.

There was some snow this year. 

View from the deck in January.

We hosted Christmas in Aspendell.

Yeti and Dad got sick right before so couldn't make it.

But Scott, Lauri, Sid, Emme, August, Dylan, Jessie, Willow, and Rell

all showed up ready to party.

A dreamy 5 days in the mountains and desert. 

Back on Comb Ridge, spending days and days wandering in the desert.

Not much better than this. 

The annual trip to Two Harbors. 

We really missed Grandpa.

Dylan and Greg shaved their facial hair into 

these awful looks so their masks would fit. 

The Wednesday we left was the clearest kelp forest snorkeling

I've ever experienced. It was perfect.

Big alcove above Kanab, as we headed toward SE Utah for spring.

Wandering around, looking for jade at Jade Cove. April 2025.

Climbing around the tablelands.

River House Ruin at Bears Ears.

Finally checked this one off.

A hot hike in the sand,

but a spectacular place.

Back to the San Juan. 

Gorgeous fish.

A flat BLM area to camp on the river's edge.

The Sportsmen Bar and Grill — where everyone else is wearing camo —

just a few miles away in Archuleta.

We saw so many axes and farming tools in the desert.

Beautiful, irreplaceable, home in SE Utah.

We worry about the administration's plans

for Bears Ears.

Last time around, they reduced it in size by 80%.

It's worth fighting for.

Revisiting Steve's grallator tracks in bluff sandstone.

Like our shirts say, we're 

"Just trying not to piss anybody off."

Love this new yearly tradition.

Some high country fishing above Aspendell.

July 2024.

Yeti hanging out with the Moqui Queen.

Absolute stunner.

March 2025.

Dino track hand signs with Paleo Steve 

(who we also learned is a magician)

on a lunch break in Grand Staircase-Escalante NM.

March 2025.

Escalante Natural Bridge.

March 2025.

A dreamscape.

The incomparable McCloud.

April 2024.

Teddy, Yeti, me, and Sam.

Lower Calf Creek Falls, Grand Staircase Escalante.

The perfect little hike.

March 2025.

Yeti, Sam, and Steve at Twenty Mile Wash Dinosaur Trackway.

There are HUNDREDS of dino tracks here. You can follow them

as they criss-cross along the sandstone.

Yeti is doing some great dino stomping in this picture.

March 2025.

Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, near Hike.

We had a two person dance party

drank the rest of our beers

and sang "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger on repeat.

The next day we headed west to meet Yeti and Steve 

in Escalante, Utah.

Willow and Rell at 13 Moons (December 2024).

Man U v. Arsenal at Sofi Stadium, June 2024 (or something).

A terrible game. Worse traffic.

Still glad we got to hang out with Scott & Laura,

and see grandma while we were down there.

Yeti hiking through a *chilly* Escalante River

to get back to the house. March 2025.

We finally made it to Moonhouse in Bears Ears.

An unreal place.

August, Sid, Dylan, and Greg working on the sled run in the backyard.

Aspendell, December 2024.

Steve, Yeti, and Greg dancing with a petroglyph

dude somewhere in SE Utah.

Our second 2-week trip all together, this time in Grand Staircase-Escalante

and Bears Ears National Monuments.

They're worth saving.

We made a really fun sled run.

Probably 100 yards long.

Lots of great banked turns.

Quite a few wipeouts.

Willow never wanted to stop.

Snowmen in Aspendell.

...and snow angels!

Hot tub really leveled-up the cabin.

Greg, Rell and Willow.

Christmas in Aspendell.

Aspendell going off.

A great hike into the hills, Maui (July 2024).

Brett, Robin, and us in Maui (July 2024).

Swimming under Maui waterfalls.

Emme is in her second year at CSUMB,

kicking butt in Math & Statistics.

These kids are so awesome.

A fun visit and delicious clam chowder bread bowls.

Willow and Rell, Two Harbors (September 2024).

This captures the Catalina trip nicely.

Warm late summer evenings,

hot dogs, s'mores, kit foxes,

snorkeling 3x per day, a walk to town for ice cream.

These are the good old days.

Beary checking out the hot tub. 

Greg led the kids on a backpacking trip out of McGee Creek.

Amira, Sid, Emme, Greg, August.

Thank goodness for walkie-talkies.

They got into camp (where Yeti & Dad were waiting)

way after dark, and after a serious huck

with Greg cheering them on.

An upstairs room in Aspendell, during renovation.

This was a fun project.

September 2024.

Teddy is even friends with August now.

It warms my heart.

December 2024.

Climbing Green Wall, Buttermilks.

December 2024.

Great horned owl petroglyph? 
Somewhere in Bears Ears.

March 2025.

Rell eating snow in Aspendell.

December 2024.

A victorious Rell, atop a "butterbean," 

on a great day of wandering and climbing

at the Buttermilks.

December 2024.