A Send Off For 2020, And A Lovely Start To 2021

 

I've been forcing myself to remember that it wasn't all bad in 2020, and that in spite of the pandemic, there were many lovely moments. Included among these would be our magically cruise around South America in early 2020, just prior to the pandemic reaching the America's. The memories we made on that trip will be with us forever. We drank Chilean wine straight from a winery in the Casablanca wine valley, sailed through the stunning Patagonia channels all the way down to the tip of continent, saw and circled Cape Horn, walked among native penguins, stood outside of the balcony where Eva Peron gave her famous speech in Argentina, and attended Carnival in Rio de Janero, Brazil, an experience to top all experiences for sure.

We also explored every inch possible of our beautiful coastal location, on foot and by bicycle, during the first few months of our initial Stay At Home order, as we sought for ways to break the monotony of being so much at home while working to remaining safe.

We took a wonderful 9 day RV trip along California's ethereal central coastline, and enjoyed ourselves so much that we committed to upgrading our travel trailer in order to do even more RV'ing in 2021.

And finally, we closed out the year with a simple, yet special evening that again drove home how happy we are to live where we now do. We packed a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses along with some folding chairs and drove five minutes to a bluff park overlooking the ocean to watch the sunset. The parking at this beach-adjacent park is free, a rarity here, and even nicer, alcohol is fine to consume. During the pandemic coming to watch the sunset has become a big event, and it's been lovely. People are mellow, spread out, happy to chat, dogs and kids are aplenty, and oftentimes someone nearby is playing a guitar, or a keyboard, or something equally pleasant. 

Social distancing at work last night, and which now feels completely normal.

After enjoying the sunset show we headed over to one of our membership wineries at the harbor, and chatted with the owner for a bit. He shared that as a fire captain (his other job - yes, he is amazing!) he had received his first dose of the COVID vaccine and felt fine so far. We were so happy for him, and after wishing him the happiest of New Years, we sat down at a table out on the patio and sipped our To-Go wine and talked about our own hopes for the new year. Of which we have many!

From there we headed to The Little Kitchen Asian Cafe, a new-to-us restaurant that is currently being listed as among our county's best for Chinese food, and hunted down our bagged order from the 40(!) or so that were neatly lined up awaiting pickup. The place was absolutely packed outside with people waiting in a long line place their To-Go orders, and we were very happy that we'd thought to order ahead. We took our food back home and enjoyed it while watching a British-made docu-drama someone had recommended, Fisherman's Friend. It was sweet, even if somewhat predictable, and we much enjoyed. We turned into bed about 9:30 PM, our usual New Year's Eve turn in time - I much prefer getting an early start to New Year's Day - waking up for a few moments at midnight to the sound of celebratory fireworks traveling up our canyon. 

It was really a perfect send off to 2020.

Today, the first day of 2021, I am celebrating not only the completion of our very messy bathroom remodeling project (yeah!), but that I actually managed to get window cleaners in yesterday to tackle our subsequently very dirty windows, so this morning the house feels truly clean for the first time in months.

And even better, we have plans to spend the day biking along the coast, from Huntington Beach to Long Beach, with our daughter and her boyfriend, after which we'll return to their place in order to enjoy lobster mac and cheese and champagne out on their ocean viewing patio. The boyfriend is cooking the mac and cheese, and we're bringing the champagne.

Tomorrow we are going kayaking with friends.  

Happy 2021 To All . . . It's Got To Be Better Than 2020!