Top Ten 2021

Happy 2022! - That number looks strange to me.  I ended up having to re-do my website as my maintaining my own proved to have a shelf life beyond my ability to extend.  I'll trust the folks at Google maintain this beyond what I did with Drupal.  It did allow me to look back and its been a good ride!  2021 continued that streak with many highlights.  With gratitude and appreciation here are some of them:

10.  New Years Day Hike:  Many thanks to Jaleel for organizing a New Year's Day hike from Stinson Beach up to the summit of Mt. Tam. The hike has great views of the entire Bay Area and we did about 16.8 Miles with a 2,790 foot elevation gain.  Of course we started way too late and we ended up using the light from our cell phones for the last 1.5 hours.  That added to the adventure.  

9.  Skiing.  One concession I made in 2020 was not skiing.  My fear was that when I'm in the cold dry climate my nose always runs.  Perfect conditions for catching Covid or any respiratory illness.  However, post vaccination I decided that was over.  Last year I had driven by Mammouth along 395 and had always wanted to go.  So it was an easy call to join David for a couple of great days of downhill.  We stayed right in the Village at the base.  Later in the year we got to check out Steve's new home in South Lake Tahoe.  Although its an hour from our place at Squaw (Palisades), the views from his place made the drive worth it.  Kaiden did his first run off a lift so hopefully he will come to enjoy skiing over the years.  

8.  Backyards.   I made a few changes to Backyards across the portfolio.  In our house, I added landscape lights which really accented some of the vegetation (and of course linked to Alexa).  At 1782 8th we went to a more modern look that incorporated concrete and natural grass.  Our tenants Dean and Cristina added a hot tub.  And in Las Vegas, Victor spent a week replacing the concrete sports court (plan on painting it this year) and our tenant Heidi implemented some of our landscape plan while adding some of her own.          

7.     Business.  Combined, the business held its own in 2021.  At a high level we grew revenues in both Sandalstone and Clarameda mostly by switching more to short term and more pricing power in Las Vegas offsetting weakness in the Bay Area.  Ninth Peak Partners saw a decrease in year on year revenue as we had fewer properties however the profitability increased as we saw an increase in occupancy and rates.  On other major accomplishment was that we re-financed a couple of properties and returned all Partner Capital in Clarameda Fund, LLC.  Many thanks as always to my business partner Michael and to Jamie, David, Hemant and my Dad and all of our investors.  Also a shout out to Yufen for becoming a professional AirbnB (Super)Host(ess).  In addition to managing ours she also manages one for Steve in Oakland.  

6.  Sports.  Spent many happy moments in my Fantasy Baseball league this year, until my best hitter went down with an injury (Ronald Acuna) and my best pitcher well you can Google Trevor Bauer for yourself.  Once again we played wiffle ball and I had the game of my life - was hitting home runs like Barry Bonds - for one game anyway.  I also ran Lake Merritt on my birthday, good to know that was possible!  One of the unfortunate aspects of our short sighted Pandemic policy was shutting down gyms.  While my gym was closed I substituted back to running.  When it re-opened in May I went back to the gym, good to stay healthy although many of my gym pals simply didn't return.  We had the good fortune of being visited by our nephew Jimmy who couldn't go back to Taiwan for his Winter break and we ended up going to see the Warriors at the new Chase center.  The highlight was seeing Steph Curry get his 3000th Three point shot!  And I would be especially remiss if I didn't mention all the times I beat Jamie and Carlos in chess - at least thats the way I remember it.  

5.  Sameer and Abby's wedding.   Many congrats to my brother getting married to Abby in Brooklyn, NY.  They put on a great 3 day wedding event.  The first night was a welcome drinks/dinner for out of town guests.  The second night was more the Indian night where we had a traditional Indian Sangeet (dance).  The third was a gala rooftop wedding with a live 10 person band overlooking the Manhattan skyline.  Yufen and Kailee had a great mother daughter dance which they practiced for many weeks - I have that song embedded in my head.  I gave a toast, but the highlight was Abby's mom's speech who Zoomed in from India because she was going through a cancer treatment and couldn't attend.  We are all so happy for you guys!  

4.  Mexico Trip.   After not being on a plane for over a year Yufen and I decided to go to Mexico after we got vaccinated.  It was my first trip to Cancun.  We did an all inclusive in Cancun where we had a ton of fun on the water slide and since only half occupied we had it mostly to ourselves.  Then we rented a car and went down to Tulum where we stayed at a great AirBnB in the same area as a Cenote - which was a underground river which we snorkeled through that opened into a large cave, complete with bats, wish I had photos of that.  The beach and ruins in Tulum were also fun, much more laid back than in Cancun.  The local food was delicious and so inexpensive!   It was disappointing though to see the effects of the pandemic on areas that rely on tourism.  

3.  Summer Trip.  Later in the summer I joined David, Ed and Cliff for a long weekend trip in LA, Palm Springs and for me a quick business stop in Las Vegas, where I just had time for an Oyster dinner.  Relived some past glory with a bike on the Strand, and stayed at the same hotel in a prior friends first wedding (ahem).  Saw Dave and Andrea's newly built modern farmhouse in Hermosa Beach, great job by them after a ton of work to get it thru the process.  Cliff got to see a film festival premiere in Manns Chinese Theatre. Palm Springs used to be the go to vacation place for celebrities which we were not.  Ed and I had U2 blaring from the drive from Palm Springs to Joshua Tree as is mandated.  Good to be back flying on Southwest over the Southwest again.  

2.  Kailee and Kaiden

Kaiden has firsts this year - first grade, first baby teeth falling out, first ski chair lift and first year in Little League and first piano lessons.  Kailee also grew this past year, almost the same hieght as her grandmothers who might both be shrinking, shes in 5th grade, which is the final year of her elementary school.   

1.  Thanks everyone for being a part of 2021, I'm happy that we have more in person events again  (parties, Bar Mitzvah, weddings, camping, and Thanksgivings, Book Club and Guys Night out)  and hope for more of that in 2022!