California 2018 – Not Your Average Engineer

December 29, 2018December 12, 2021

17 Mile Drive with Dmitri, Sul, and Violet

Dmitri, Sul, and Violet came to visit us in Monterey for a few days to check out the sights. I went with them to do 17 Mile Drive on a nice, sunny day.

Dmitri and Violet on one of the beaches along 17 Mile Drive. Violet loved playing in the sand.

Checking out the tide pools. Violet really liked the little hermit crabs.

Big surf along the coast at Pebble Beach.

This crazy dude actually went through the surf zone at Carmel River Beach. There was really big surf sweeping the beach that made me nervous watching.

December 25, 2018December 12, 2021

Christmas in Shaver Lake

Poofy is enjoying her new life as a cabin kitty. After being a farm cat, she became a trailer kitten, and now she’s a cabin kitty where she gets to sleep all day next to the fireplace.

Another beautiful sunset at Shaver Lake. The colors in the trees are really pretty this time of year.

Looking at the sunset from the other direction as the sun sinks low in the west.

I thought I had taken photos of the Christmas tree, the trains, Dmitri and Sul’s adorable daughter, Violet, and my parents but I was enjoying the moment so much that I never got around to taking any additional photos!

December 23, 2018December 12, 2021

Bald Mountain in the Snow With Dmitri

Snow Wheeling in the Central California Sierra Nevada

Over the long holiday weekend, I took Dmitri up on Bald Mountain outside of Shaver Lake, California to go play in the snow. While the steepest parts of the route were clear of snow, there were several feet of the white stuff to play in on several tree-covered sections of trail. Here are a few photos of our fun.

Dmitri and I traded time in the drivers seat on our way up the mountain. On the flats, there was about 2-3 feet of snow. As long as we stayed in the ruts, we did fine. If we got off into the heavy, deep, and uncompacted snow, it became much more challenging.

We had to stop off at the Hollywood Hills area to take some photos on the poser rock.

Hanging out on the poser rock. The Central Valley was completely shrouded in low clouds and fog. We could see the coast mountains in the distance.

Driving around on Bald Mountain is so much fun any time of the year. In the snow, it’s a great game of figure-out-where-the-trail-goes. There are a lot of different tracks bashed in the snow going in all different directions.

The old fire lookout is on top of Bald Mountain in the background.

Looking out from the lookout tower on top of Bald Mountain.

My little 4runner did a great job getting up the mountain. We saw a few other old 4runners and Toyota Pickups on the trail. There was a SxS and one or two Jeeps as well. It was a pretty quiet day all things considered.

My 4runner and someone else’s 4runner. Our two runners looked pretty good together.

An interesting note: this is the first time I’ve used the new WordPress Gutenberg editor. I’m still on the fence about how it works. Uploading multiple images is now more complex and annoying. But these blocks are pretty nice.