Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2011: A year of fab "firsts" and a super "second"

Happy 2012! Hope the new year is going great for all of you. This is one of those mega posts that has been sitting in the "unpublished" queue of posts for a while (maybe since Jan 1st, eeks). Better late than never I say (wait, did I just type this exact sentence in my recap of 2010?!)

Anyhoo, here's a recap of 2011. It was a momentous year and here are some of the exciting excerpts of the journey that Gini and I were a part of:

Mid 2011 - We geared up for some serious "zero waste" changes to our lifestyle. Bea from Zero Waste Home is my constant source of inspiration. A post on what we are doing should be coming up (it's in the unpublished posts' queue, I promise!). But this change is permanent for us and we are loving the challenges that accompany it.

July 2011 - We took classes for rock climbing. What an adrenalin rush this was! This is one activity I see myself doing over and over again. Gini was a natural at this, with his mad climbing skills. The very first day he was climbing at the level of an intermediate climber - 9s and 10s. Don't ask about me, even on my last day I was still happy with the beginner levels of 7s and 8s.

July 2011 - We went kayaking for the first time in the amazing Elkhorn Slough along the Monterey Bay. I hadn't imagined that we would be so beat at the end of it. It takes a lot of stamina to paddle in a kayak. I was lucky I was kayaking with Gini. He did most of the paddling =) We saw a lot of birds and seals lounging along the slough, it was a wonderful experience. Here's a picture of a mega-seal jumping out the water, in the backdrop you can see a million seals lounging:


From early September - We registered ourselves to become volunteers at 2 organizations we deeply care about:
Food Sorting at Second Harvest Food Bank.
Maintaining open space preserves with the Mid Peninsula Region Open Space Division.

September 2011 - My first Josh Groban concert. I wish he had sung more of my favorite songs. It was a great concert though, but I doubt if I'll ever go to his concert again. Does that mean I'm not a true Grobanite? :(

December 2011 - Gini's first flight with his flying instructor. Yes, you read it right, his "first flight". He had always wanted to fly, and he is now enrolled in classes for becoming a private pilot (for small planes, of course). I was his co-passenger on his first flight, and it was one of the most surreal experience of 2011.

Some of the "firsts" in the gardening front were harvesting garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, okra, and carrots. I've been reading a lot about growing vegetables and I'm gaining more confidence every year. Some pics from our harvest:







And of course, the most memorable event of 2011 was hiking the Half Dome. You've already read about it, here =).

What are some of your memorable moments from 2011?

1 comment:

  1. Wow..and I didn't know any of it. We need to meet more often :P

    ReplyDelete