Photos of Nevada and Southern California

Hey all,

So I'm posting a photo blog, more than a life events blog. Many of these are taken from around my grandmother's house (Agoura Hills, CA) that I live in, or my parents house up in Minden, Nevada (431 miles or about 700 km from Agoura Hills). Also, I'd like to say that my grandmother's house is about 37 miles or 60 km from downtown (central) LA. I do have some pictures of LA, but I'm not there very often so many of my pictures are not from around there. However, I will get some.

Some pictures of Malibu Lake in the Santa Monica Mountains to the North and West of Los Angeles. You can read about the community here. My grandmother's house is on Malibu Lake (well on the hill above the lake) and it was built here in the 1920s (I think) to be a summer house for a prominent judge in LA. My grandparents moved here in 1957 and my mother grew up here.

Taken from our porch overlooking the lake (and telephone and electrical wires are in the way).

The actual house from the gate to enter the yard. The Lake is on the other side. The top portion is a small reading room (3-4 square meters) that my grandpa built about 20-25 years ago. You can only enter the room from the outside by climbing on the roof. You get on the roof either by the bathroom windows (the upstairs windows on the left) or from a window on the other side.

A view further out. The house can be seen behind the trees on the left. The gate to enter the yard can be seen behind my grandmother's car. This large white building is the garage.

If you walk down the hill you can see this gate. We do not have to enter through this gate to get to the house, but if we go to our dock (place to put your boat) we do go through this. Karma (our dog) and I walk along this road regularly. 

An island in the middle of the lake with some morning fog. The lake is manmade (the dam built in 1926). Many of the fog pictures were taken while walking Karma in the morning back in August (see I told you I was planning on posting pictures, I was just slow. I had many ideas and took pictures at certain moments).

Another view with the island on the right, the mainland on the left, and the lake stretching way back in the middle.

This picture is taken while Karma and I are returning to the house. Because of the layout of the roads our walks are always out in one direction and returning the other direction on the same road. There are no loops :/ On the right is a large grassy recreation area that is owned by Malibou Lake Mountain Club (MLMC as seen on the gate a few pictures above - I usually just say "the club" to describe it). We often go there and Karma can run around and be crazy. There are swings for kids and picnic tables and charcoal BBQs. On the other side of it is the lake. At the end of the picture where the road appears to end is actually the Clubhouse. The road turns right and a bridge goes over where a creek enters the lake.

This type of cactus known as "prickly pear," because the fruit it bears is covered with spikes, is found on a hillside along the road I often walk Karma on (the same road in the above picture, but the other direction). It is very common in Southern California (SoCal).

More grass, lake, and people's boats on their docks.

A nice view of the fog covering the mountains in the background.

This is another grassy area that the Club owns (across the street from the one above), but it is connected to the clubhouse. Behind the trees on the left is the community swimming pool and the tennis courts. Many many many weddings happen here at the club, most of them outdoors on this grassy field. Almost every weekend (often both Saturday and Sunday) we hear music from the wedding. On Labor Day (first Monday in September) we also had a community baseball game. I enjoyed playing in it, especially since I have not played baseball in many years.

A view of the grass and the clubhouse.

Another view from our porch of the lake. That is a flagpole running up the middle of the picture. I thought I would share the same view with different lighting from a different day.

Slightly different angle where you can't see lake, but just a nice view.

I don't remember if it was August or September, but there was a fire about 3 miles (5km) from the house. Often when there are fires, even at distances much further away, helicopters collect water from the lake to go dump on the fire. I thought this was a good one and you can see the hose dropping from the helicopter into the lake. I also love the mist that is sprayed up by the blades spinning. I took about 20 photos that day. I have seen it about 4 or 5 times since coming here.

Some things around the LA area.

Ok, so this isn't the downtown LA skyline or anything like that, but when Daria and I went to a concert down in Irvine (Orange County) I thought I'd take a few pictures of the freeways (highways/motorways) and some tall buildings. This spot has 6 lanes for one direction and 6 lanes for the other.

Another view, and a view of some good old LA traffic. Actually this isn't too bad. The other side was though.

At the concert (Pennywise, Bad Religion, A Day to Remember, and the Offspring) some punks were lighting signs on fire. They also lit t-shirts, hats, shoes, and who knows what else. This is a calm picture, but there are some of people twirling enflamed (on fire) items over their heads.

A picture of the Offspring concert.

So those fires I talked about. Yeah, they're illegal. But you have to love punk rockers who don't care and did it anyway. Of course the bands encouraged it too.

At the LA County Fair this picture of a sow (mother pig) and her piglets was too cute not to share. The one standing on the left (not lying down like the rest) was causing a lot of problems pushing his/her brothers and sisters out of the way. They're about 2 months old.

And there was a piglet race where piglets about 4-5 months old ran around this racetrack. It was really cute, and the race was called "Bring Home the Bacon." After the race everyone got a coupon for a free package of bacon at one of the local grocery store chains.

And we watched how they milk cows. There were 2 cows there for the demonstration. Volunteers were called up to help. Daria and I did not do it. :(

But Daria did go milk a goat.

We do not drink Budweiser, but Daria and I (and many other Americans) love the Budweiser commercials (TV advertisements) that have this old-fashioned cart, clydesdale horses, and a dalmatian dog. There are different groups of them and they often come to things like these fairs. We got to meet the local dog here (Chip) and a few of the horses, but sadly my camera batteries died and I didn't get pictures of them. 

Some photos of Minden, Nevada and surrounding areas. This is the area that I grew up and I was up visiting my parents in early October (and going to a conference).

I just liked this picture showing the fall colors of October, my mountains in the background (the Sierra Nevadas), and the type of houses in the neighborhood where my parents live. Lots of 1-story houses with 3 bedrooms, 2 or 3 bathrooms, a living room and a family room, kitchens, and garages (the whole house is usually about 1500-2500 square feet: 139-232 square meters), usually with a front and back yard.

From the end of my street (where my parents' house is), a view of my mountains. On the right is an old lumber company - I honestly do not know what is in there now. Behind me is where my street connects to the main road that runs through town.

About a 3 minute walk from my parents' house I can look over this hay field to my mountains. I call them my mountains because I really do love them a lot. Especially the peaks on the left. It almost looks like 1 peak, but there are really two, and they're called "Job's Peak" and "Job's Sister." Job's Sister is slightly higher in elevation than Job's Peak. For those of you who have seen my tattoo of the Carson Valley (where I grew up) and the mountain range, this is part of what I'm thinking of.

This is no longer the Carson Valley, but is about 100km away near a town called Fallon, Nevada (where the convention/conference was). I wanted to show you all the desolate desert that is part of central Nevada.

Entering Fallon, NV. This is quite similar to what it looks like when entering Minden or Gardnerville, NV, and looks similar to the town I grew up in (except smaller mountains in the background).

Returning from the conference, a view of Job's Peak and his sister from the road. Now you can see how much higher Job's Sister is. Both center peaks are Job's Peak (left) and Job's Sister (right).

My parents' house. 

A smaller road near the house (by smaller I mean less traffic. I think the size is either the same or perhaps a little wider even). My parents do not live on the main road, but our road still has lots of traffic going through it. This road is only driven on by local residents. It does not "go through" to anywhere else. On my parents' road there is a Fire Station, the Library, some offices, and the High School.

The main Casino in town is near my parents's house; about a 5-7 minute walk. This is the Carson Valley Inn (CVI). It is also located across the main road from the church that I grew up in.

And the Church. My dad became the priest here when I was 5 years old. You can see the casino in the background.

Just a really beautiful tree. At the end of this road is the field seen about 8 pictures above. Clouds are covering Job's Peak.

I walked partway down the street to get a closer view. If you look in the picture above toward the end of the road, you might see this red tree as very small and on the left. In the middle of this picture, you can see sprinklers watering the hay field at the end of the road.

On my way up the mountain to Lake Tahoe. Took this picture while driving. Just a nice picture of our mountains.

And coming down the mountain overlooking Lake Tahoe, the beautiful lake where I was born nestled in the heart of the Sierras.

At Lake Tahoe there is a camp for the Diocese of Nevada (Diocese is a geographical and political structure of a Church). I went to this camp a lot growing up (almost every summer and a few times throughout the year). The Lake is on the left, and this is the main church/chapel for the camp. Daria and I were married at this church.

A view overlooking the Lake while at the camp.

And a view from the beach/lakeshore. This is the camp's private beach.

And walking back up from the beach you can see this view of the church nestled away in the forest.

From the back of the church you can see straight through to see the lake.

And from inside the church. I love this view. Just look out over the lake and the mountains in the background. And a tree photobombing the picture. You can see why I wanted to get married here.

And we left Lake Tahoe and went to a place called Hope Valley. I will often go to Hope Valley to cross-country ski in the winter. It is also one of the more beautiful places to go to see the autumn colors.

More of Hope Valley.

We drove up the mountains from Hope Valley to some alpine lakes called Blue Lakes. They are quite low at the moment because we haven't had as much snow the last few years as we normally do. I think they're about 20 ft lower than normal.

As we exited Blue Lakes, I just really liked this view over the valleys. 

Just a nice picture from Hope Valley.

Back to Minden, NV. This is across the street from my parents. The neighbors have sheep and goats.

I am driving from my parents back to SoCal and this is the hillside on the left side of the road as we leave the Carson Valley.

Leaving the Carson Valley we enter what is called the Topaz (Blue) Basin. About 15-20 miles (25-32km) from my parents.

A view of Topaz Lake. Not the best, but hey, I was driving.

A really neat mountain formation seen from my drive.

A small rural town that I drove past.

A nice view of some mountains and a valley.

Mono Lake. This Lake is unique because it is extremely salty (more than the ocean) and the only thing that lives in there is a special species of brine (shrimp). The white formations seen in the middle of the lake are salt formations and salt pillars. That is now snow on land in the water. It is all salt.

Cool view from my drive. The word "Nevada" means "snow-capped (cap=hat)" in Spanish. You can see why they have that name.

Ditto.

Ditto.

Ditto.

And back in Southern California:

Daria and I went to Oktoberfest at the same place the LA County Fair was. Sadly not too many cool pictures. :/

Another foggy morning near Malibou Lake. I thought you'd all like to see the rock formations though.

And autumn (also called "fall" in English - the only season with two names) has hit the lake. This is that large grassy recreation area I mentioned above that is between the road (on the right from this view - other side of the white fence) and the lake (on the left).

And for you all to see Karma got dressed up as a bat for Halloween (for about 10 seconds to take the picture before she took that silly thing off her head).

my very late start to life in the LA area

So, I promised my former students that I would write about life in the LA area, and I am ashamed to say that I have yet to do so despite the fact that I have lived here for almost 3 months. I am also not changing the name of my blog, even though it is no longer "the Adventures of a Tahoe Native in the Motherland." Or is it? Well, it's certainly not De Karelia (that is about Karelia or even the non-Karelia parts of Russia), and while normally Motherland applies to Russia, one might say that I am still in the Motherland because it is MY motherland, and actually with a stronger double entendre, it's actually my mother's land. Yes, that is right, I am living in the house that my mother grew up in. My grandparents moved into this house in 1957 when my mother was 8 years old and while the town has changed a lot (seriously too much to describe for my purpose here, but it's almost the change of a small village to a full suburban community, from small roads to highways, and from a small market to large chain grocery stores. Oh, and the addition of lots of schools, churches, shops, etc), so despite the changes over 56 years, this is the land that my mother grew up in. Oh, and I'm keeping tahodoga because that is also still appropriate.

That said, I am writing about 3 months worth of material into one blog post. That is not to say that this will be the end of my writing of my starting time here, since I may return to some subjects and events, but I will cover the basics in this single post.

When we first arrived, Daria and I still only had the things we brought from Russia, with non of our belongings that we had left behind and we had to buy at least basic provisions for the animals and ourselves, but fortunately we moved into my grandma's house. Daria left immediately after arriving here (2 days) to go to Hawaii for a psychology conference, and I was left to try and settle in, set up internet (because that had never been installed here), and unpack. In a similar situation to Russia, we had to preserve the way of some things, but were allowed to change some other things to fit our needs. We are living in one room, one that one belonged to 2 of my uncles when they grew up here, but have free roaming over the house. I have actually taken pictures (about 6 weeks ago) specifically for a blog post, but have not done it yet, so you'll all see the house later when I do a picture posting.

We also had to buy a car, so during Daria's time in Hawaii I searched for a car and when she returned we test-drove a couple models and bought ourselves a Toyota Prius C. 2 days after we bought the car we drove up to my parents' house in Minden, Nevada (about 8 hours away, 430 miles or 692 kilometers). While there we attended a friend's wedding, and then unpacked a lot of things to decide what we would need, re-pack the rest to store for another year, and then we packed both my parents' car and our car and the 4 of us drove back to Agoura Hills, CA (where we live, you can look it up on maps.google.com but it won't let me link to it), near Los Angeles. My parents stayed a few days to help clean parts of the house and help us unpack our things.

Daria started her internship in the middle of August (I don't remember the date at the moment), while I still continue to look for full-time employment. I do have a job teaching speech and debate to middle schoolers for a couple hours a week, but I have not started it yet, nor is it very much. I am also trying to substitute teach in the schools as I seek other opportunities, but there are lots of frustrations and things that are in my way of getting a job that I do not feel I want to discuss in this post. Perhaps I will in another, or perhaps I won't. I don't know.

Anyway, Daria drives to central LA for work about 90 minutes each way, mostly in traffic, and it's in a car. This is why good public transportation is nice. I could read and walk and do things while I commuted to work (and my commute in SPB was only 40-45 minutes, but still). Daria listens to the radio and sometimes audio books, but it's still not the same.

When I am not spending my time trying to find a job or do job-related things, I help out my grandmother, who is 87 years old, by doing work in the yard (trimming trees, mowing the lawn, watering the grass, raking up leaves, etc), sometimes running errands for her to the post office or the grocery store, sometimes driving her to play cards with other retired women in the community (or to join some seniors on a bus trip for to Las Vegas -3 days- about a month ago), cooking some of the food, and other various activities. And sometimes I just sit and talk with her about things in the news, her life, or some philosophical questions.

I will say that at the beginning she and I actually had quite a few arguments. It wasn't always a nice, rosy day (for you Russians rosy in this sense means 'good;' we also use 'peachy'). At the beginning we argued at least 5 times a week about trivial things, such as: I don't know how to do dishes (even though I've washed dishes since I was 8 or 9, just not the manner that she likes them done), or I'm moving books/boxes and she wants them in a certain place, or I can't put food in the fridge correctly. For the most part the arguments were us adjusting to a new space and her adjusting to having people in the house again (it has been 6 years since my grandpa died, and even then it was still done according to her way for many decades before that). A big argument also came when we tried to get the internet installed, which we did, but it was difficult because my grandmother does not like technology. She has never had a TV. But now, we argue very rarely as we've all gotten more used to each other, and in fact we often have quite pleasant conversations about a variety of topics.

As for things that we've done, well, Daria and I went to the beach quite a bit on the weekends when it was still warm out (I think 7 or 8 weekends, but I don't honestly remember). And we did normal beachy things like sunbathe, swim, bodyboard, and play common SoCal beach sports like one with a ball that I do not know the name, but we each have a paddle and we hit a ball back and forth. And honestly it's still fairly warm, certainly compared to Russia, but not always beach weather (although I think yesterday was). We also went to see a concert of some favorite punk bands like The Offspring, Bad Religion, Pennywise, and a few others (Sergei, if you read this, I'm still sad that I did not see Offspring with you in SPB, but I saw them and I thought of you). We have gone to the boardwalk in Santa Monica and rode a Ferris Wheel (my Tuesday/Thursday Int and then Upper Int class better remember what I told them about the Ferris Wheel on this one), the LA County Fair where we saw and petted lots of animals like cows, sheep, goats, pigs (and a piglet race which was both fun and extremely cute) and Daria milked a goat. My best friend Greg came down from Davis, CA in August and he and I went beer tasting at one of our favorite breweries and then went to a concert for Queens of the Stone Age. About 8 days ago, Daria and I met with some friends for Oktoberfest and enjoyed some wonderful German food and beer, and of course we enjoyed spending time with old friends. I think that covers the big events. And I will admit that on most Saturdays I watch college football, especially the University of Michigan (my alma mater) games, one of which we also met up with some old friends (high school for Daria and college for me). The last big event was about 3 weeks ago, where I went back up to my parents for a Church Convention (as I am active in the Episcopal Church - the American branch of the Church of England) in Nevada.

Speaking of Church things, I have also been participating in a 6 week program on Tuesday evenings (3 done, 3 more) for young adults in the Church that has been fantastic. And I started a program at my local church called Theology on Tap (I stole the name from others) where we meet once a month in a bar and discuss theological issues. Our first meeting was this past Wednesday and it was a lot of fun (but hey, my former students should know that I like to have good discussions in a bar). 

As to some emotional things about being here, well I only have a few to touch on. Overall I truly and honestly miss Russia. I miss the people, the culture, the atmosphere, and the weather. I will admit, southern California is better than I had expected, and the autumn is actually turning out ok (I fed Karma  in the middle of this post and went outside for a bit and it actually smelled like autumn which was nice), but I still actually prefer SPB to here. The beer is better here, and while expensive, the good stuff is still cheaper than there; and the Mexican food is better here (oh it is soooooooo delicious). I guess, there are just differences, and I must get used to that. And both places have their positives and their negatives. And perhaps because I had a job there, and I'm still looking for one here, that affects me. But to finish the emotions, yes, SoCal is better than I had anticipated. I do like it better than I thought, and there's lots of things to appreciate. I have done a lot of things, and can enjoy nature, go hiking, go swimming, and see old friends. But I miss SPB too. I'm torn. I will say that today I'm more on the missing Russia side too, so that might affect my post. I saw too many things over the weekend/today on facebook that made me miss Russia.

For those who do not have facebook, today is also the day that Daria successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, so thank you to those who helped with the study, and thanks to those who did not help, but are still awesome because we love you all. It's also kinda fun because 43 years ago on this day, my dad was ordained a priest (that's more for me when I re-read than for you).

Well, I think that's all for now, but now that I've broken what was holding me back from writing, I hope to write more and to write it soon. I miss you all. 

the family in moscow

Notice written on Oct. 28th: I believe this post is unfinished. When I go back to read them I may make additional statements in a new post to finish this. But I don't know because I haven't read it yet.

The family in Moscow:

We arrived relatively early in Moscow on Tuesday the 16^th, I believe around 7 or 7.30. On Monday night some of us had coffee or tea and unlike other experiences of us going to the carriage conductor and purchasing it, he offered as we were sitting in the compartment and brought it to us. He hesitated as he left and we wondered whether or not his hesitation was caused by waiting for a tip or not (we didn’t know if we should tip or not), but he left quickly enough that we couldn’t react. In the morning again offered some coffee and tea, but as I was waiting in line for the bathroom, I noticed that the sign next to the kitchenette did in fact state it was for sale. He wasn’t waiting for a tip, but for the payment. He again brought us our drinks, which was nice unlike the Karelia trip where we had to walk back and forth, but we also paid him for both the previous night’s drinks and the morning’s drinks. Another difference between the two trips is that we had nighttime snacks and then breakfast boxes.

Construction has changed the train station from when I was there last August and the entrance to the metro was in a different place, but we quickly found our way, and the police were actually quite helpful in answering my question even though last summer I had been told that they different than American police and don’t often help people with questions of that sort. When I ordered the metro tokens/pass (it’s all on a paper card now) they put them all on the one card and I panicked a little thinking that the card won’t work multiple times for entrance (in SPB I can’t do multiple charges on my single person card). Fortunately we were able to all use the one card, although I had to be urged to ask someone if that was possible.

More adventures came as we exited the metro and couldn’t find the hotel, which was supposed to be right near the metro. We walked into one hotel and asked and they told us it was the giant building that looked similar right across the street (probably once one hotel in two buildings, but was now two different hotels), but lacked the signage on front to tell us so. Once we established the location it’s quite easy to figure out where to go, but if you have 10 or more floors in your hotel, it would be good to have a sign out front. The hotel itself was comfortable and pleasant (and I even stayed for free because we only registered the 4 of them and I slept on the floor on a bed made of blankets). Some of us took some morning naps. Yes, we wanted to see the city, but I think everyone was tired, them after a long time travelling, me after burning the candle at both ends, and all of us for staying up late playing cards on the train.

Fast forward through the morning and into the afternoon. We went to the Kosmonaut Museum (Air and Space, whatever you want to call it). It was really neat to see Belka and Strelka (the actual dogs thanks to the technology of taxidermy), some replicas of satellites and other various vessels, even on a scale of 1:1, and some of the original suits worn by some of the original cosmonauts. And that was just the first room. Ok, upon entering the room I honestly thought that was everything and it was quite cool, but who knew how big this place was and how deep underground it went. By now, it definitely is more than just the USSR/Russian Cosmonauts because they had a lot on the international front of air and space exploration. There was: an entire wall and room for the female astronauts and cosmonauts, suits from different people and different time periods; an exhibit on every country who has sent a person to space, when that happened, etc (and for first satellite, first this, or first that . . .); a gift from President Nixon to the USSR about the USSR’s accomplishments, an awesome video about different parts of the history of space exploration; different modules and rockets used and what their purposes were; just totally awesome. I don’t think I would have chosen to go there on my own, but I’m quite glad I went, and now I highly recommend it for anyone who goes to Moscow. As for the video, so my mom ended up seeing it, and it’s not on a regular schedule so I ended up asking if they would show it as we were getting ready to leave. Because I asked, after the technicians agreed, the C (museum) ushered other people into the theatre and we had a large group able to watch the film.

We went from the Air and Space Museum to Moscow State University, one of the largest single building universities in the world. It inhabits one of Stalin’s gigantic structures and Matt was just absolutely in love with the building. We tried to go in, but the guards wouldn’t let us through without proper documents and he had a friendly laugh as he told us no. The building is just absolutely magnificent and the view from the ground (on top of a hill) has a gorgeous view of Moscow. I’m sure if you get to one of the higher floors in the building it just gets better and better. I also laughed to myself during this time as I recalled one of my Russian lessons that talked about the university and the hill and the breathtaking view of the city. I was able to experience it that afternoon and it is absolutely wonderful.

We each got dinner at different kiosk stands near there, walked back to the metro (one stop up from where we exited), which is under the bridge that the cars drive on, but over the river. Remarkable. We had a little trouble finding our way down the hill to the entrance though, asked a couple in a car, and they had no idea, but he tried to find it on his iphone to no avail. Eventually we got there and we did have a pleasant stroll through the park on the way. We also saw the first example I’ve seen in Russia of divided waste bins (one for paper, one for bottles/cans, one for trash, and one for green waste). I don’t know how well used they are, but they were there in the park.

Not a bad day, for day one in Moscow.

Wednesday, the 17^th.