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12.26.2023

What I Learned: 23 New Things

Happy Boxing Day! I hope that everyone had a great weekend and a great holiday with their loved ones. This week is a short one workwise, plus we have another three day weekend to look forward to next weekend! I thought that I would start wrapping up the year early by getting started on some of the year end lists. Last year, I went over 22 new things I had learned, seen, done and new places I had gone over the year. I really like injecting new things into my life, as it keeps things fresh, even if it is sometimes a little uncomfortable! I liked the list so much that I decided to do it again, so here we have, in no particular order, 23 new things from 2023. 

1. Alaska. This was one of the 50 U.S. states that I had not yet been to. I had a great time hiking, running, looking at mountains and glaciers and experiencing light basically all night. I did not see the Northern Lights though, so this is still on my wish list for now. 

Hiking the Bomber Traverse

2. Overnight bikepacking for the first time. At the beginning of the year I finally took Bob out for his first off road experience. I biked from my house to the Samuel L. Taylor state park, which is a cool camping and hiking area in the redwoods. I spent the night there and then biked back home the next day. It was very fun, a little harder than I thought it would be, and it made me want to do it again (see #22)! 

3. Selling stuff on the internet. Before this year, I had never really sold anything on the internet. As I have mentioned before, I broke the seal with shoes as they are rectangular and easy to ship, and then moved onto other things. Are there scammers and bots and people from Nigeria messaging you? Yes. Can you ignore/mute them? Yes. Was it as bad as I feared it would be? Nope, in fact it was not bad at all. As an added bonus (?) I also am now quite proficient at Venmo, which I was not really a user of before. However, if you want to sell on FB marketplace, you gotta get used to using Venmo. 

4. Hiking the Arizona Trail (AZT). For Easter weekend, I took an extra day off and spent five days hiking on the Arizona Trail. It was much different than what I am used to in my neck of the woods, which was fun. Also, I got lucky that it was a high snow year and so I had enough water and it was not scorching hot. For those who don't know, this trail is normally hiked in the spring or fall, as the summers can get into the 110+ range at times. 

Picketpost Mountain - AZT

5. Life on Mars. I have a friend who is doing a Mars simulation, meaning that she is stuck in a habitat for a year as if she were actually living on Mars. This deserves a post of its own, but for now you can read about it here if you are interested. Being on Mars means that there are no phone calls, no video calls, basically no real time communication. Even emails are delayed due to the "distance" from Mars to Earth. Luckily we can send emails up to a certain size, so I have been sending her voice recordings so that she can hear my voice from time to time. I never really liked the sound of my voice, but I have gotten used to it, as I often listen to my last recording before sending a new one so that I can remember what I already talked about. 

6. Not quite a century aka 97 miles in one go. Bertha and I completed a century minus three this fall. I know, I know, I should have just ridden another THREE miles to get to 100 but I didn't feel like it. I know that if I can do 97, I can do 100, and I will do it eventually. This was from Davis to Oakland and it was quite a journey. What I learned from this is that I prefer non-city riding over city riding. 

7. Ninth (and penultimate?) Quad Dipsea. After you run the Quad Dipsea ten times you get a fancy finishers jacket. I keep telling myself that I just have to run it one more time and then I am done!! We shall see though, as I know many a friend who has said that and is now on their 13th or 14th time. 

Headed downhill to Stinson Beach during the Quad Dipsea

8. Watch a Japanese movie. I do not know what the style is called, but I watched The Boy and the Heron. My brother loves this style, and so do K's kids, but I was just ho hum on it. I am not opposed to cartoons; I love Finding Nemo! However, I am not sure the two dimensional drawing style or the pace of the movie was my favorite. When I said this to my brother he said that this style is "very beloved" and he was sad to hear that... 😞 I guess one thing I did like was the background scenery drawings, as they resembled watercolors. 

9. Hike to Lake Aloha in the snow. Last winter was a very high snow year and this meant that even in July, hiking was very snowy! However, although it was difficult to get to, we had Lake Aloha basically to ourselves and it was beautiful. To top it off we had to jump in for a swim, even while avoiding the icebergs! 

Camping above Lake Aloha

10. Switch from Comcast (Xfinity) to Sonic. My Comcast was getting very expensive, at about $75 for just internet. So I decided to finally take the plunge and try a new carrier, Sonic, which has fiber and was only $39 per month. My first three months were free, the speed was great, and then it got bumped up to $39 BUT...as it always is, the price was more than I thought. They charge $10 for a voice line, which I do not use but cannot cancel, and with the taxes and the router rental (which I could not use my old one for), it ended up being $70!! Haha. I guess I am saving $5 and it IS fast, so there's that. 

11. Mendocino. I had driven past Mendocino before but never stayed there, and it was a treat. It is a small coastal town and you can walk along the bluffs. It was a rainy weekend when we were there, but we had fun walking on the beach, eating and riding on the skunk train! 

Pacific coast near Mendocino

12. Ride to Santa Rosa for the weekend. On New Years Day I rode to my brother's house in Santa Rosa from Richmond, which was my longest ride ever at the time, and was about 55 miles each way. Later in the year, I beat my own PR by riding from my house to his, which was about 75 miles each way. 

13. Ride the Amtrak with a bike. The weekend that I rode 97 miles was part of a journey I took where I took the Amtrak from Oakland to Auburn and then over the next two days rode from Grass Valley back to Oakland. The experience was good and I would like to do some more train rides, and knowing I can put my bike on them fairly easily was a relief. Maybe one day I will just ride off into the sunset and if I get tired, I will take the train back home. 

The bike car on Amtrak

14. Throw away all old Christmas cards. I was saving these because now a lot of them have photos and those are memories! However, now there is Facebook and other places on the internet where I can find photos of people so I decided that I did not need to keep them in a box that I never look through. I have to say, it feels like a weight has been lifted. I am sure I will have moments where I wish I had that cute photo of three year old soandso, but right now, it feels good. 

15. Three Michelin star dinner. For a client dinner, we went to SingleThread, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Healdsburg, which is part of the Sonoma county wine region. I am not going to lie, I don't think the bang was worth the buck. I am glad I got to try it, but I will probably not go there again. 

16. Complete a snowshoe race. In February, I went to see Lisa for her birthday and we did a snowshoe race. It was fun but we used old school snowshoes and there are actually running style ones that would be easier to run in. However, we had a great time chatting and staying warm by moving as fast as possible and drinking the (warm) water at the aid stations! 

Lisa getting it done! 

17. Gluten free biscuits and gravy. B&G is my favorite breakfast item. However, in 2022 I realized that wheat gives me some tummy issues so I have been avoiding it ever since. I was very sad to give up both biscuits, which are obviously made of flour, and good sausage gravy, which is thickened with flour. But Lisa and I found a good GF bakery near the snowshoe race and they had B&G and they were really good! I meant to try duplicating it on my own, but I have not gotten around to it (however, I have done a bit of GF baking and I find that the results are actually pretty good!) 

18. Bike accidents. I am very careful on the bike, but I would be amiss if all I did was talk about the good. In Spokane, I hit a goat head thorn, blew a tire, and tumbled (and skidded face first) right on the pavement. Luckily I was wearing gloves and the car next to me was stopped. In Oakland, I got hit by a car turning right. Luckily, he was not moving fast and I just bounced of his passenger door and onto the ground. I took a trail ride and went over a bump and accidentally squeezed the front brake too hard and went ass over teakettle over the handlebars. Luckily all of these have been minor, but accidents do happen! 

19. Driverless cars. I knew they were around, but it still made me do a double take when I saw my first driverless car in San Francisco. I signed up to try it, as they offer ride shares, but still have not had a chance yet. There have been some controversies over these, but aside from a couple of kinks, I think a robot is probably better suited to driving than many of the humans I see operating motor vehicles. 

A Cruise car with nobody at the wheel. 

20. Hike in Castle Crags State Park. I have driven by and even hiked near Castle Crags, but had never been inside the park before. In June, for my Dad's birthday, my family went and hiked up to the Crag Dome, where we had a great view of Mt. Shasta and the surrounding area. For those who don't know, Mt. Shasta is about 14,180 feet high, which I think makes it the 5th highest mountain in California. It is volcanic and is part of the Cascade Range, which extends all the way to BC and includes well known mountains like Hood and Rainier. 

21. Drive through the eastern part of Oregon. Once you leave Bend and head east, it just gets more and more sparse and the trees go away and it gets hot and there are no amenities. Really, there are none! We almost ran out of gas. We also camped off the side of the highway and there were these huge crickets, which could be Jerusalem or Mormon crickets, but whatever they were, they were gross and they hitchhiked in my car and I kept finding them in random places for days afterward. 

High desert of Oregon

22. Bike across Washington state. K's daughter A told everyone that I rode across the US, but I had to tell her that I may someday, but this trip was only across WA! It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the Olympic Peninsula and the varying scenery of the state as a whole. This trip had a lot of firsts: longest multi-day ride, first time taking the bike on the ferry, lots of new rail trails, riding through Seattle and riding through a two mile long tunnel! 

23. Soccer mom duties. Once a week I go and spend time with my friend K and her daughters A and L and often on weekends I will chauffer and spectate whatever sport is happening for the season. This has now been a regular thing for a couple of years, and it has been fun to be chauffer, confidant, game buddy, soccer/lacrosse "mom," bike instructor, cook and friend to all three ladies. Even though sometimes it is hectic and we don't have time to chat, more often than not, it is a chance to catch up a little with what is happening in each of their lives, which is priceless.

So there you have it, 23 new things in 2023. There were many more than this of course, but these were some of my favorites. 

What new things did you do/learn/try or places did you go in 2023? How do you feel about driverless cars? How do you feel about the Japanese drawing style? 

26 comments:

  1. Wow. You really did have a year of adventures! I think if I were going to do something like this, I would have to list out the things in advance and then make myself do them- I can really get stuck in a rut. Also, my list would probably include things like "try a different brand of tea." All your adventures sound amazing. I've read about most of them over the year, but seeing them all together like this is impressive.
    To answer your question, I would try a driverless car if I got the chance! I think they probably drive better than most people in South Florida.

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    1. I know; when you look back it seems like a lot but it is interesting how it seems when you are in the middle of it. I used to make more of a list but I generally just do a check in with myself at some point during the fourth quarter and see where I am at and if needed, I can get a jump on some things at that point. My Dad used to ask me every day what new thing I learned that day, and although I sometimes thought there was nothing, more often than not there is something that we have learned each day! Trying a different brand of tea sounds fun; I tried an apple cinnamon one by Tazo for the first time this year which I am still on the fence about!

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  2. Wow - that life on Mars would drive my crazy but HOW COOL IS THAT FOR SOMEONE ELSE?!!! Wowzers.

    I think the big "new" things for me in 2023 were starting therapy, getting an endometrial ablation, and getting laser eye surgery. Big (expensive) decisions, but I'm proud of myself for going through with them!

    The biggest adventure was going to Rome with my husband. It took a lot of effort to get ready to go, but it was the trip of a lifetime.

    I think I would love a driverless car in bad weather and cities. Other than that, I kinda like driving. It find it meditative.

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    1. Wow, your new things were necessary and were very adult!! The Rome trip was the exception (not that it was not adult, but it was much more fun than and endometrial ablation, I am certain). I agree regarding driving with the addition that I love driving but don't really love other drivers. My favorite is to drive a windy mountain or coastal road where every curve is smooth and has a view and you can just cruise along.

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  3. Very interesting!! I don't have time to come up with 23... But how about 5 on top of my head, big and small.
    I learned
    1. how to place a trade in on the stock market
    2. that our brain needs much love and care (a book I read)
    3. driving in Europe with two kids can be... fun and challenging ;)
    4. that I can start a blog!
    5. that WhatsApp has a "news" section.

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    1. That is so funny that you just mentioned the WhatsApp thing, because I actually just learned that yesterday! I was trying to find a place where the photos were all stored and came across that instead. I have not used it at all yet, but thought it was interesting!

      Also, yay for placing a trade in the stock market! I remember my first time and I was so nervous, but believe me, you get used to it (kind of scarily) fast!

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  4. Oh my goodness you lead such a fantastically adventurous life! Loving all of your "new" things! Except the bike accidents, of course -- although I am very glad they were minor.

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    1. Thanks! Yes, I was lucky that the bike accidents were minor but I do think that they give me a little perspective, and caution and a reminder that I am not invincible! Sometimes we need that and hopefully it is a small gentle push and nothing worse.

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  5. OK, I haven't finished your (amazingly diverse and wow you travel a lot) list, but the Mars simulation made me want to send you this link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/27/opinion/mars-simulation-desert-mdrs.html
    Let me know if that doesn't get you behind the paywall; I can share the gift link if so. So interesting about your friend!

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    1. That is interesting! They talk about the simple things from back home, like café chatter and how they miss those kinds of things, and that is exactly what my friend told me, that she likes it when I record from the street or trail, as she can hear the cars, birds, wind etc. It does make me realize how many things we take for granted!

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  6. That is an awesome list of things that you experienced in 2023! I am glad it included a visit to Minnesota! My new experiences for 2023 was taking a solo trip with Paul to visit Abby in April (which was super fun and something I'd definitely do again) and going to Banff to meet up with Amber! One thing I learned in 2023 that stands out is something I learned from you - now pouring chicken broth out of a container is so much less messy now that I learned the trip you demonstrated on the blog!

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    1. Yes! The trip to MN was fun! I went to the zoo there for the first time too! And had a dosa for the first time, and ran with YakTrax for an extended amount of time. I am sure there are other things that happened at your house that I had not done before!

      I love that the broth spout trick has helped you! I only just learned it a couple of years ago too and was wondering why the heck I never knew that before! It seems like someone should put that right on the box! I am also glad that your trip with Paul went well, so it gives you more options for travel in the future. I am sure that traveling without Taco (sorry Taco!) is best for the time being!

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  7. I have heard that Alaska is absolutely beautiful and the pictures I've seen make me believe it! I have quite a few friends who have been there! I think with the right controls driverless cars probably are safer than ones controlled by humans. When I started doing vendor events I had to become proficient with venmo. Interesting and such a bummer about the 3 start restaurant! I've been to Healdsberg, which is so beautiful, and there are a lot of really fantastic food places!!! I enjoy food experiences and thankfully I have friends who also enjoy them because M is not on board with this kind of experience. Sounds like a year full of adventure! I traveled quite a bit in 2023! A lot was for work but I managed ot have some fun experiences squeezed in.

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    1. Yes, Alaska is beautiful! It was a little expensive for some things (lodging for example) and their season is pretty short, but I really enjoyed myself a lot! I always stayed away from Venmo after they started asking for a lot more personal information, as I was getting fed up with sharing my info. I prefer Zelle with people that I know. However, when it is dealing with strangers, those extra personal items they make you put in are more of a protection for me now, so I have given in. Also I learned how to use the QR code, which was not hard, but was still something new! Never too old, I say!

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  8. I loved my brief time in Alaska when we went there for our 25th wedding anniversary. The natural beauty, the whales, the glaciers, the incredibly blue ice--all I kept saying was, "I hope no one is ever allowed to come in here and screw this all up." Every bald eagle I saw gave me chills.

    I have a dear friend who has celiac and has been GF for decades. She has a website and is an activist and speaker for GF/celiac causes. You can find her here; she has a ton of great recipes and resources.

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    1. Thank you for the link Nance! Luckily I tested negative for celiac, but have been having some stomach issues and am trying to rule out certain things and unfortunately wheat seems to be one of them. I will probably have a croissant or two if I go back to France but I will pay! However, it will be worth it. :)

      And yes, Alaska is still so wild compared to a lot of places that we are used to in the lower 48. I do love that feeling of aloneness and it makes you feel a bit savage, in the best kind of way.

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  9. I'm laughing because I ended up riding 97 miles on my island vacation this summer. Back when I was running this would have driven me crazy and I wouldn't have been able to rest until I'd gotten the extra 3 miles. In my new life I'm very happy with "a century minus 3". Yeah you and I both know we can ride 3 miles so there is nothing to prove.

    Faster internet and an extra $5 in your pocket each month? Yes please!

    I could go on but safe to say that 2023 was a great year! Here's to 24 in 2024!

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    1. I also used to run around the parking lot if I only had 9.8 miles so that I could have the even 10. Now I just am glad to get outside and enjoy myself and I find that the numbers matter less. However, I do want to someday do 100, but it will happen when it happens! 23 was a great year! Here's to 24 in 24!

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  10. I love this list, mostly active trips, exploring new places! how wonderful! Have you visited dolomites? I just learned it's a great place to do hiking!

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    1. Yes, I have visited the Dolomites; they are beautiful and are great for hiking! They are also great for food and I think there was even a two Michelin star restaurant in one of the towns I stayed in (I did not go to it though).

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  11. What a fantastic list of adventures and accomplishments! I love reading about your life and adventures because they are SO different than mine, and isn't that what makes these relationships so cool? New things in 2023: LASIK, going to a Pride parade, seeing the Smoky Mountains... and probably some other things I'm forgetting. It was a good year!

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    1. Our adventures are different! But that is what is so fun. Did you know that I have never been on a cruise and I know that you have done several!? I can't wait to hear about your Smoky Mountains trip; I know that is right up my alley so I am always looking for tips and ideas!

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  12. I added South Carolina to my states visited this year! We went to Myrtle Beach for our spring break.

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    1. That is still one state that I have not been to! It is on the list though! How did you like Myrtle Beach?

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  13. What a great list. I love that you seek out new adventures or things you haven't done every year. It's a good exercise as "things you do for the first time" apparently slow down time vs. things you do all the time speed it up.

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    1. That is so true; a friend of mine actually mentioned a study or a podcast that talked about that very thing!

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