We had an awesome time with some of our friends over New Year’s weekend in Lake Tahoe. It’s not often Natasha and I check out the snow-country just because we usually like it much warmer :). We had a great cabin and I think we definitely got lucky with the weather. Had we been there just a week later, it could’ve been quite a different experience.

I love to snowboard and have spent many seasons enjoying some of the resorts we’re blessed to have in Tahoe. My favorite ones are North Star and Kirkwood, but on this trip we decided to take it easy, relax, and check out some cross-country skiing instead.

Now, usually, it’s a peaceful and relatively easy experience, but Natasha definitely figured out a way to make it exciting. The cross-country area we’d chosen had many hills, and while the uphill runs turned out to be quite arduous, the downhill runs were simply terrifying. Cross-country skis are really not well suited for the hills and slowing down became almost impossible.

At one point while descending down a slope, Natasha had suddenly realized that she’s gaining more and more speed, and because of a lack of downhill skiing experience, she was unable to turn or even slow down. As the road turned, she found safety in a large pile of fresh snow as she realized that it’s probably a good time to crash land before kissing some evergreens :) Some concerned passersby were relieved when they heard Natasha’s laughing.

Here are some photos from the trip:

Some of the decorations we set up in our house:

Enjoying a beautiful and bright time out on the lake:

We hope your New Year’s was fun also!

Mike

We want to wish the best of this holiday season to you and we hope you enjoy the time with your closest family and friends!

Natasha and I are so grateful to all of our past and current wonderful clients. This year has been a whirlwind of excitement for us and we could not be more thankful. It is because of each of you that we’re really able to do what we love.

On Saturday afternoon I packed up my camera gear and took Mike along to San Francisco’s Chinatown. I’m currently taking a class on San Francisco’s history and I needed to get some pictures for a presentation.

I always felt that there are actually two Chinatowns in San Francisco: one for tourists and another one for locals. I wasn’t interested in the kitsch of Grant Street with its stylized Chinese architecture and plastic Buddhas. Instead, I headed to the place where locals spend their time: Stockton Street. We started by walking without the cameras up and down Stockton, adjoining alleys and peeking into the stores and grocery markets while listening and looking at the people. We tried to catch the spirit of Chinatown, to understand it a bit better.

I was hoping that people in this area are so used to crowds of tourists armed with all kinds of cameras that they wouldn’t mind me. It was a pretty busy afternoon and luckily not too many people took notice.

I especially liked the markets: they were so full of life! It was getting close to the end of the day and in efforts to sell off the remaining produce the store owners were lowering prices and putting fruits and vegetables on the sidewalks. These sellers were also yelling out what seemed to be names and prices. While being caught up in this experience it wasn’t hard to imagine myself actually being in China: there were smells of unknown exotic veggies, fruits, and all kinds of unrecognizable seafood.

Natasha

Among our friends, it became almost a tradition to go mushroom picking some time right before Thanksgiving holidays. This year was not an exception: we rented a big house and spent 3 fantastic days overlooking Bodega Bay.

Mushroom picking is extremely popular and widespread in Russia; people are both passionate and competitive about it. Back there people call it a “quite hunt” – you get all the rush of real hunting without killing anything.

It was pretty warm but really foggy there. The fog would come in several times a day and every time it would be very sudden and unexpected. We would look out of the window and see the bay and only 15 minutes later everything would be plain white.

We spent our days hiking, cooking, playing music and naturally taking tons of photos.

Our view of Highway-1 from living room windows:

BBQ coals warming up:

Our friend Stefan and his mussels :)

Jamming:

A giant Porcini:

Natasha