For our 2nd anniversary, Leanne and I went to a tapas restaurant in Napa called Zuzu. The tapas were amazing! Our favorite was the ceviche with either the lamb or rockfish in close second. The paella was so good as well.

Leanne and I met in Parkersburg, WV. Leanne’s anniversary gift to me was a map of West Virginia with a heart where it all began. She made this by individually hammering nails into the board and with cotton string. It is such a beautiful and impressive keepsake she made me.

After exploring Monterey, we ventured out to Point Lobos State Park. Point Lobos is considered to be one of California’s most beautiful state parks. We can verify this to be true. Not only were there stunning beaches and coves, but we also saw California condors, found beautiful shells, and just had a blast walking through and exploring.

On the way back home we stopped by Santa Cruz, CA, nicknamed “Surf City.” This is a fun beach town filled with activity. While walking down the wharf there, we happened to learn that the wharf is home to a sea lion sanctuary. Hundreds of sea lions were on the wooden beams beneath us!

We started the day by going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a beautiful Aquarium that has won awards for architecture and has been involved in sea life conservation efforts. We saw all sorts of fish, jellyfish, penguins, and sea otters. The Monterey Bay Aquarium has saved baby sea otters separated from their mothers and has nursed them back to health. What’s even more incredible is they have been able to pair up the baby sea otters to foster sea otter mothers who are unreleasable back to the wild. The mother sea otters take to the baby sea otters so quickly and lovingly. Not only do they provide love, nurse the babies, and groom them, but they also teach them how to dive for food, how to crack open shells on rocks, and essentially how to be a sea otter.

We got lunch on the pier of Old Fisherman’s Wharf where Leanne enjoyed a birthday dessert 😋

For the latter part of the day we went through Cannery Row as well as the 17-mile-drive that had amazing views of the bay and fun beaches to explore

We ended the night with a nice dinner. Happy birthday to Leanne! I hope she doesn’t expect this every year now!

Leanne and I have seen 3 of the 63 U.S. National Parks together: Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. On our mission to see them all, we decided to look first in our own backyard. Pinnacles National Park is one of the newest and is only 2.5 hrs away by car. We had a 5 day weekend and it’s also Leanne’s 32nd birthday weekend so we had to go!

On the way we ate delicious sushi at an authentic Japanese sushi bar

We arrived Tuesday late at night. It was too late to set up our campsite tent but we had Michonne, my Subaru SUV, so that was all the tent we needed.

Thank goodness we stayed in the car. It got down to about 34 degrees and rained most of the night!

The next morning we made campfire coffee and then hit the trails.

The hike we decided on was not for the feint of heart. We chose to do the “Best Of” trail that was 12.2 miles with elevation gain of 3,084 ft. We did the whole trail in one day! Our legs were basically noodles when we were done. We saw amazing sights though, including the Pinnacle Rocks, High Peaks, and even a cave.

We hiked about 5 miles over 2 hours today. Miles is tired!

Halloween is a wonderful time of year. Leanne and I love dressing up in costumes. Even more than that, however, we love dressing up Miles!

Below are the many outfits of Miles.

This year Leanne and I dressed up as minions!

This year was eventful, particularly because we added a new member to our family! Miles, our puppy. When I started my 30th year, I set out a goal to record one second of video for every day and I just about did it. The idea for this was so I could remember the highlights of my year. Some days choosing just one moment was hard. Other days it was hard to find a moment to choose. Enjoy the video!

One day off for the week before switching to nights. There’s no time to lose! We headed straight for Winters, CA for the Blue Ridge Trailhead and proceeded to climb up the mountain. Miles handled the 5 mile trek like a champ.

Leanne had a golden weekend (what we call a weekend with two days off in residency), so we decided to make the most of it. Thursday night we packed our bags and Friday, right after work, I headed to Sacramento to pick up Leanne from UC Davis. From there we headed toward South Lake Tahoe, CA.

We checked into an AirBnB that accepted puppies. The plan originally was to ski since the slopes are normally teeming with fresh powdery snow by this time, but this has been an unusual year. Snow came really late and really little, so most slopes are still closed and the snow is not yet great for skiing. This did not deter us! We decided to go hiking instead!

We picked a hard 10.5 mile trail, out and back, that took us from the ground all the way up to the peak of Mount Tallac! We started at an elevation around 6000 feet and climbed up to 9000 feet!

The trail was hard but was breathtakingly beautiful. Miles had an absolute blast as well!

After an incredible effort, climbing jagged rocks and hardened ice for which we had to attach microspikes to our shoes to climb, we finally got to the top! Miles, amazingly at only 8 months old, also made it with us!

The views at the top were so gorgeous that words cannot describe it.

The problem came on the trek down. By the time we finally made it up, it was already well into afternoon. The sun would be setting by 4:30pm and if we didn’t go fast down, we could get stuck on the trail at night. South Lake Tahoe gets below freezing at night and the woods in the dark can also be dangerous due to bears and other wildlife. We had to get down the mountain and without delay. Those 5 miles down were the fastest I’ve ever hiked.

We were at the end of the trail when it got dark but we were close enough to use flashlights and make it through. Taking off those boots and taking a hot shower after that crazy all-day hike (from 8am until 5:30pm) was the best feeling ever.

The following is the documentary I made that captures the hiking experience. I can’t wait to climb the next mountain!