My all time favorite thing to do would have to be to go to the beach, if you haven’t realized from my recent blog posts. Recently I have made up for lost time there when the beach was unavailable from the mudslides, and now I am spending nearly my whole weekends there. During time of the mudslides I would go down to Malibu and to one of my favorite beaches.
These past months have been the most chaotic and crazy months of both my life and many others. It all started with the Thomas Fire, the biggest in California History which hit Montecito and Santa Barbara Country hard. Nearly the whole Santa Barbara mountains and back country went up to flames creating ash coming down from the sky like snow and mandatory evacuations listed for everyone in Montecito. Early in the Fire me and a bunch of friends decided to check it out, disregarding the horrible air quality. Santa Barbara was practically a ghost town.
Due to this massive fire came no brush on the mountains and very loose debris because of the burn effects, making for the most catostrophic event SB has ever experienced. January 9th came the mudslides taking away 21 lives, more than 150 severe injuries and taking away many homes including my own, making for the most chaotic next months of many peoples lives.
Now, the streets were covered with mud and boulders, our mountains were destroyed, oceans were dirty and the beaches were polluted. Everyone in Montecito had to move out for a period of time.
I found many materials from my house washed up upon this beach of trash. I would go to the beach nearly every day with my brother of my friend Joe, but this was not an option until just about now. Finally, the beaches are cleaned up, we got a new house in Montecito, my friends moved back into their houses, and the streets were cleaned up. Obviously, things arent nearly the same as they were before all of this chaos, but there has been lots of improvement. I have now been able to go to the beach every weekend or skate on streets that were covered with mud, or even just drive on those streets. As shown in my earlier blog posts was my lifestyle with the mudslide and fire factors. This was a post recaping the timelime of the havoc in Montecito. Check out the rest of my blog to see my adventures and lifestyle along with many others with the mudslide and fire factors.
Have you ever had something hold you back from doing what you love?
This time last year I was in San Francisco, and I was reminising as I was looking through old photos from last year. It was a spontaneous trip, and I went with one of my good friends Shaymus.We went down for 4 days. San Francisco is a familiar area to me because I go there a couple times every year, and it is one of my favorite cities i have been to. The trip consisted of a lot of skating, eating, and views.
This was just the view from our hotel room, and we took advantage of the view by watching the sunset over the bay and skyline the first night. Down below was more chaotic, with trollies whipping by and crowds of people.
SF is a much different vibe than Santa Barbara. Nearly every block will be a different street performance, in this case there was a band playing music raising awareness for gun violence on the same block of our hotel every night, who were all very talented musicians. The city also stays energetic nearly all night, and the hundreds of street lights on every street make it so there is always light. This meant me and Shaymus would skate around the streets until nearly midnight. We did a lot of skateboarding there, which also meant a lot of harassing from security guards protecting places from skateboarders. We traveled around the whole city this trip either by skateboard or trolly, also something you don’t really do in Santa Barbara. This was also still while I was into skateboarding and before I lost my board due to Montecito Mudslides. We also hit up one of the most famous skate parks in California; Soma. Soma is in the more ghetto area of San Francisco but it made for some cool graffiti art on nearly every building, including the skate park. This park is also unique because it was built under a freeway underpass.
SF also consists of lots of very steep hills, which was also fun to skate down but not so fun to walk up. On our way to Fishermans warp, we came upon a hill that looked over the bay and nearly the entire city.
SF is one of my favorite cities that I have been to. What is yours?
Last week I woke up to see snow on the top of the mountains from a far outside my room window. This one one of the few times I had ever seen snow in Santa Barbara, especially in this time of year. Only problem was that it was on a school day, but me and my brother Dane were able to go up there early enough to only miss a little bit of first period. The drive up there did not seem to promising as we thought the snow had already melted, but soon enough we were up at the top with more snow than I could ever imagined Santa Barbara to have. We parked over and went on a stroll across the snow. It was a very weird sight from the Thomas Fire. This area got entirely burned a couple months ago in the biggest fire in California History, and now lots of the mountain tops were covered in snow. Half was burned black, half was covered white with snow. We then kept walking onto spot where we found to be the most snow.
Not only was this my first time being in the snow in Santa Barbara, but so was my dogs.
He is not the brightest dog. In fact I am not really sure he realized there was even snow. Supringly, it wasn’t very cold at all. It was a little chilly but warm enough to cause the snow to start melting. After spending a little bit of time where we found to be the most snow, we walked back to our car, past the both burned and snowed area.
We somewhat had to race back down Gibralter Road to get back to school, where I have been going a lot more than usually lately, as shown in my recent posts. Snow in Santa Barbara only happens very very rarely, and this was a first actually going up to the snow. Hopefully I get to do this sometime again.
What do you do when (if) it snows?
Stay tuned for upcoming posts.
This weekend I spent with all of my friends roming around montecito.
Friday I went home with some friends and then met up with some others at butterfly. It was me, Vance, Chase, Ian, Riley and Jack. After meeting up at butterfly we went to hammonds. We walked along the railroad tracks to a small trail.
Along the small trail is a lot of graffiti art. The trail leads to small hill/plateau above hammonds.
We then walked down the hill to the actual beach. There we hungout on the sand for a bit then decided to jump in the ocean, which we knew would be freezing. There were 5 of us going in the ocean but we only had 4 towels meaning someone would be left freezing without a towel. We all jumped in and it was a race to get the towels. Ian grabbed one but then chase blindside tackled him and got the towel leaving Ian alone.
I woke up saturday morning and called Riley. We decided on going surfing at mirmar. I have definitly been geting my beach fix in and have made up for the lost time where the beaches were polluted and damaged. The waves were small but fun and the water was freezing but it was nice to get in. It was rocky and our longboards did not have leashes so if we ever fell they would wash all the way into the beach.
We then took paddle boards and paddled out a little bit to sea and chilled on our boards and absorbed the sun.
We got a glimpse of many fish and other sea creatures pass beaneath out boards. The buoys aren’t there so its harder to measure how far out you were but we were around where the buoys will be. I took this picture with my go pro which was one of the few things of mine that survived the mudslides. After our morning at the beach we went and got lunch and then met up with some people at butterfly. After meeting up with them at butterfly, we left to a friends pool and finished our day there.
That about sums up my weekend. What is your favorite thing to do on the weekends?
Last weekend I spent nearly the whole time at the beach for the first time in what seems like forever. Although it wasnt exactly how it looked like before, the weather was nice and the water was fine. The water still seemed to be a little polluted from the rain and previous mud slides but it was cleared to go in and seemed fine. The water was not to cold, the weather was warm, there was not much wind and there was some sort of waves.
Saturday was my first time going in the ocean at butterfly or any beach in montecito since the mudslides. Surfing and going to the beach or just jumping in the ocean are some of my favorite things and it was to long without that so it was really sick getting back into what i usually do. The notorious wall at butterfly is now all fenced in. We set up spike ball early and played a couple games then decided to get in the ocean for the first time in months. This picture was taken at sunset, the second time we went in the water.
The next day was about the same. I started it off by taking my dog for a walk at the beach.
My dog loves the beach and he also missed some time there because this was only his second time there in months, when before we would take him for walks there much more often. After taking my dog, I went and got lunch then came back to the beach with Riley and Joe. Joe and I used to go to the beach pretty much every day. Recently we havent been going much at all but we are now starting to get back on pace. The water was the clearest it has been in a while so we decided to go spearfishing.
We saw many fish but none were caught.
At the top right of this picture is a leapord shark, which spooked joe. We ended our day with watching the sunset at Ortega Ridge in Summerland.
Overall it was a great weekend at the beach. What is your favorite beach?
This break was very eventful for me. Usually I have the same sprig break every year which involves spending most of my time at butterfly beach and at the Coral Casino, or in the mountains in Montecito. This Spring break was different however due to the mudsldies making the Coral Casino not available and butterfly still being decently polluted. So this break I had to switch up my activities. I missed the beach greatly but still had lots of fun. I stayed in town for the first half and went to mammoth for the second half.
The first day I went to Red Rock with my brother dane and took advantage of the rainfall. The water was freezing but it was fun to get in.
After red rock I biked to summerland with some friends from Montecito. I have been to Summerland much more than usual recently because everything in Montecito is still damaged from the mudslides and the things that are usualy beautiful in montecito are now dead. In one of my recent posts about trying to go to the flower fields, I went back to see if they were now in bloom, which they were, unlike last time as they were dead.
My next adventure, which once again had to involve the water from the rain, was 7 falls. We just followed to creek up to the falls and jumped in. The water was once again freezing, but it felt good because of the hot weather. This was my substitute for going in the montecito beaches because those are still polluted.
After my adventures in Santa Barbara, we headed to Mammoth. The drive was brutal but the time in the snow made up for it. The weather there was not much colder than SB, especially in the willage and at the bottom of the mountain. However at the top of the mountain it was much chillier and was windy as well, but the snow there was nearly perfect. I went up by myself but met up with a ton of friends there. Skiing is one of my favorite things to do and this was my first time going up in 2018 so it was fun to get out into the snow again.
That pretty much recaps my spring break. What is your favorite place to ski or snowboard and what time of year do you guys prefer going?
This week me and Jack went to the Sunday Car show on coast village. This is the first car show to happen on coast village in months due to the mudslides and the damage that did to coast village. It is very weird to see Coast Village like this because me and my friends would always hangout there and this was my first time being there since the mudslides. It looks a lot better however there is still remains of wreckage.
Jack, unlike me, is an expert on cars. He is used to seeing very cool cars like this because he attends car shows all the time but this was new for me because it was one of my first car shows. I don’t know a whole lot about cars so I’m not sure what any of these cars exactly car but it was super cool to see cars I hadn’t seen before such as this one.
This was Rob Lowe’s Ferrari. He let me and jack sit in it and check it out which was also super cool. All of these cars were both very rare and expensive.
This car was the coolest one there. In fact, it Is the most expensive car in the world, pricing at 35 million. I have actually been in this car before this because it is my friends dads. However I was not aware how much it was worth, so it was cool to see and sit in again knowing it was the most expensive car in the world. It is a classic Ferrari. Coast village had just been cleaned up and it was a good first thing to do there as they nearly immediately got back on the car show schedule. A lot of restaurants and building such as the Montecito Inn are still either closed or being repaired, but they are moving quickly and hopefully will be able to resume and get back to how it usually is. Such as this car show routine, hopefully our routines and usually activities will pick back up to pace shortly.
This week was not as eventful as my previous weeks have been due to the rain. I stayed indoors mostly and didn’t do a whole lot, other than driving around. We were evacuate due to the mudslide cautions, so I was staying on the Mesa. Tuesday Eddie and I went to summer land before the rain hit in attempt to go to the sunflower fields, but turns out they were in bloom yet. It was still cool though because where the fields are still provides a cool view of the mountains and ocean. 
Here is Eddie enjoying a slurpee on the fields in his old car. We then went to lunch at tinkers and then headed home. Wednesday me Vance and Eddie drove around in the rain and went to various locations along SB such as lookout point in Hope Ranch, the Mission and another lookout right next to Vances house.
This is above lookout point through Vances car. It was raining pretty hard and it was also very cold so I chose to take this picture from inside Vances car. Yesterday, I stayed inside all day and did nothing other than a volleyball game which went by quickly.
This is wills Goldfish. I cannot recall the name but I have been friends with will for about a decade now and this fish has been alive since. Goldfish aren’t known to live very long, but this one has impressed many with the amount of years it has down. Me and will then just played x box for the remaining time and as always when it rains, made hot chocolate.
Hot chocolate is always essential when it rains, so we did just that. After playing some Fortnite and doing pretty much nothing, we headed out for our game. We sort of knew we were gonna win this one going in to it, so it was a very quick match. We are now on spring break, which means I will be doing much cooler things and making use of the water now in Santa Barbara due to the rains. What is your go to activity in the rain? Stay tuned for the upcoming posts.
This weekend Niko, Will and I went up into the mountains along Gibraltar Road and further in attempt to go into the fog and if possible above the fog layer. We came prepared with our portable hammocks and blankets because we knew it would probably be cold if we were in the fog. The drive up took about 30 minutes and we finally posted up at this spot I usually go to when I drive up Gibraltar. It is on the very top in the trees and it was perfect for our hammocks. 
This was right after we set up our hammocks and we just got there. It was pretty foggy at this point and was only getting mistier.
This is the little forest we decided to go to and we stayed here for a while, and eventually we could not see even 10 feet in front of us, as shown in this next picture.
At this point we were literally in a cloud. I could not see more than 10 feet in front of me and this picture describes it well. I have sen this picture many times since that day and until writing this sentence right now did I see that Niko is taking a picture of me. On the other side of me was where will was, although I could barely even see him. It started to rain so we decided to leave. We tried going even higher up, but that did not work cause the visibility was so bad and we could not see anything which would have made for a very sketchy drive. Going back down was super foggy, until all of a sudden we got out of the fog and it was suddenly super clear. Going back down we decided to stop at a climbing rock which we climbed and hung out at for a couple minuets. The sun was just starting to set. We then saw a house that was under construction and checked it out. Will found a scooter and ate it on the ground, and after that we headed for home.
Where is your favorite spot to hammock?
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