Coming off a fun holiday season spent with family and friends, I launched into a series of trips during the first quarter of 2019. Ranging from weekend jaunts to multi-week excursions, these adventures saw a mix of snowsports, music, culture, and work.
It was probably one of the most travel-heavy periods of my post-grad work life, resulting from the stars aligning with friends’ schedules, flight deals, and work load. Despite being on the road, having less down time, and missing my friends back home in SF, I experienced plenty of cool insights and personal growth along the way.
Historically, I haven’t been the best at looking back and reminiscing on past events. But there is value in revisiting the past, particularly by exploring ideas gained and lessons learned along the way. In an effort to learn from my travels and to process the past several months, I’d like to share some of my trips and the insights I took away from them. Read on for the full recap!
Whistler & Vancouver, Canada
My trip to Canada happened near the tail end of January and was a repeat trip from last year, courtesy of the Epic season pass for snowboarding. Andrew, Karen, Olga, and Mike came on this year’s trip, and we booked an Airbnb right in the village, which was walking distance to the gondola.
Over 3 days, we explored both Whistler and Blackcomb (two separate peaks combining for a massive 8,000+ acres), snowboarding during the day and enjoying food, drinks, and Brooklyn 99 TV marathons at night. To top things off, this year’s trip started with Mike and Olga announcing their engagement, which set the overall celebratory mood of the next few days.
The snow was great this year, and I continued to get a good feel for my new snowboard. After the third day, I caught a shuttle back to Vancouver to meet up with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. We shared updates from our lives over dinner, and the next day I explored Vancouver with my uncle, stopping by downtown and Granville Island.
One of the thoughts I was working out on this trip had to do with the changing nature of friendships, as well as savoring friendships in the here and now. Whenever I recognize good times with friends, I try to mentally step out of that moment and appreciate it, almost like taking a little snapshot in my mind’s eye. There were plenty of those moments here.
Denver & Frisco, Colorado
After my Whistler & Vancouver trip, I spent a weekend in LA visiting my mom for Lunar New Year and another weekend in Tahoe with my church small group. By mid-February, I was on another big trip to Colorado. This adventure ended up spanning 12 days, with the first 7 days in Denver/Frisco and the next 5 in Aspen.
My friend Michael and I flew into Denver on a Saturday morning and spent the next couple of days embarking on a cultural tour of the city. We visited museums such as the Denver Art Museum and Clyfford Still Museum. We hung out at multiple coffee shops. We tried to keep the snow and cold weather out of our minds as we enjoyed the many amazing restaurants around the city.
After the weekend, Michael flew back to SF and I continued my trip solo. I’d booked an Airbnb for my weekday stay in Denver, situating myself in the River North (RiNo) Arts District. During the day, I commuted to work at our Denver office near Union Station. During the evening, I explored RiNo, trying out a bunch of amazing restaurants and bars in one of the buzziest neighborhoods in Denver at the moment.
On Thursday, I picked up a rental SUV and drove out to the mountains west of Denver, staying at an Airbnb in Frisco, a mountain town situated close to a handful of world-class Colorado ski resorts. Over the next couple of days, I snowboarded at Breckenridge (running into Karen and some of her volleyball team friends) and Copper (a new favorite). In the evenings, I’d decompress in the hot tub and drive to Main Street in Frisco for dinner.
During the latter part of my Denver stay as well as my time in Frisco, I traveled solo which opened a new world of experiences, from dining out alone to exploring interesting parts of town on my own. During an evening after work, I visited New York’s famous Death & Co cocktail outpost in RiNo. I ended up chatting with a stranger at the bar for over an hour, sharing our mutual love for Japanese whiskies and the outdoors. A similar experience happened another night in Frisco as I was enjoying dinner and drinks at the bar seating of an Italian restaurant. I ended up chatting with a local who shared her small business aspirations and how she ended up in a mountain town from a big city. These were just a couple of the most vivid examples of embracing solitude and being open to the connections and lessons it can offer.
Aspen, Colorado
Continuing my Colorado trip, I drove directly to Aspen on Saturday, arriving at the rental house in the early afternoon. Soon, my friends Kerri and Andrew joined, and we were ready for several more days of fun in the snow.
Except things didn’t turn out quite the way we planned. We started our first day by taking on the groomers at Ajax, the main mountain. But right before lunch, Kerri had a weird fall and hurt her knee. We had to stop and head to the ER for the terrible news – she’d torn her ACL.
We did our best to make the most of the trip and to keep spirits high. Andrew and I went out the next couple of days and did some lighter snowboarding, working on our jumps at the park. In the afternoons, we’d return to the house, meet up with Kerri, then head over to dinner reservations at fancy restaurants, including Jimmy’s for steak and Eleven Madison Park’s Winter House pop-up restaurant for “casual” fine dining.
I’m so lucky to have such positive friends. Despite Kerri’s injury, we made the most of our time in Aspen, one of the ritziest ski resorts I’d ever been to. By the time we boarded our respective flights, I couldn’t believe almost two weeks had gone by since I started the Colorado trip.
CRSSD Fest at San Diego, CA
Three days after I got back from the Colorado trip, I was on a plane on my way to San Diego for a weekend music festival. CRSSD had been on my list for a long, long time. It’s a smaller music festival focusing mainly on underground house and techno – basically, my dream festival.
I went with Tricia, Jon, Erica, and Karen, and we also met up with a sizable group of Tricia’s friends. The festival was held at Waterfront Park overlooking the ocean. There were three stages and over the weekend, I caught some incredible sets from producers and DJs that I’d been really wanting to hear live.
I absolutely loved the festival’s chill vibe. The crowds were some of the best I’d seen this side of FYF. People were there to listen to music, dance, and have fun. At the same time, everyone was respectful and it was obvious that there were many experienced festival goers in the mix.
If there’s one memory to take away from my CRSSD experience, it would definitely be getting into the flow state during Lane 8’s set. I slipped into a state of mind that felt perfectly at ease and content, completely losing track of time and hunger. It was one of the most sublime moments I’ve had in a long time. Experiencing this natural high reminded me that on a deeper level, my hobbies and activities are not just a way for me to challenge myself and improve my skills, but they’re also a way for me to reach another plane.
Hokkaido, Japan
For much of this year’s snowboarding season, things had been building up to this epic snowboarding trip. Our crew consisted of Andrew, Luke, and myself, so it was going to be a fun and intense time with tons of snowboarding. And tons of snowboarding (and skiing) we did.
Over the course of a week, we spent several days at Niseko United, which was the main resort covered by our Ikon season passes, and also the location of the hotel where we stayed during our trip. We also did a couple of backcountry days near Kiroro, trekking several thousand feet in elevation each day and descending on some of the freshest untouched powder snow I’d ever experienced. And finally, we checked out Rusutsu, another resort that Epic pass holders will become more familiar with next year when it’s added to their season pass.
In between the snowboarding, we relaxed in the private onsen (hot spring water-fed hot tub) in our hotel room, tried amazing izakaya, ramen, and seafood at nearby restaurants, and even explored a whisky distillery and some seaport towns a bit further out. And of course, we had incredible snacks from 7-Eleven every day – the convenience stores there are something else!
One of the major themes I took away from this trip was recognizing the limits of the human body. I pushed myself so hard that my poor knees got tendonitis by the fourth day. Yet at the same time, I realized that I was able to go far beyond what I thought my initial physical limits were. The experience reminded me of getting through challenges and being able to push just a little bit more than I think I can take, whether that’s physical feats or mental blocks.
Closing Thoughts
The first three months of 2019 were definitely some of my most action-packed months in a long, long time. I feel so fortunate to have the health, time, and means to do these trips, and I’m looking forward to a chiller spring where I can spend more time enjoying my home in SF.
