If you haven't seen my previous years-in-review, please peruse them at your leisure here:
The big news for 2025 is: I'm retired!
That's right, retirement. As in: not working...hopefully for the long run; at least no more corporate 9-5 job. My decision to take the plunge into retirement was driven by two things: first, a financial opportunity to liquidate most of my Databricks stock; then realizing that I'm in the best physical fitness of my adult life and and I'm not getting any younger. So, after building out about a thousand spreadsheets modeling out a million potential financial scenarios, I decided to go for it!
It is a big change, and I'm still getting used to it. I decided to take a page out of my own playbook, in that for most of my career I've done 5-year chapters (roughly). So, I figured I'd do the same thing for retirement and commit to 5-years of "doing all the things" here in the SF Bay Area and California, then after those 5 years: re-assess.
Looking back on this year, I packed in so many wonderful experiences: exploring foreign lands, visiting friends and family all over the country, eating delicous food, engaging with art and culture at museums and festivals, and sunning myself in the bleachers at a weekday day game (just to name a few).
When you retire, the first question people tend to ask is: OMG, where are you gonna travel to?
And looking back, I did quite a bit: some overseas, some cross-country domestic, and some just down the coast and back.
I kicked-off the year with a 2-week ski trip to Japan. Japan is legendary for its ski resorts getting massive amounts of powder; Westerners nick-naming it "Ja-pow". And, I have to say: it lives up to the hype!
My first week was in Hakuba, which is near Nagano and where much of the 1998 Winter Olympics were held. There are a total of 8 ski resorts stretching across the ridgeline of mountains overlooking the Hakuba valley; 4 bigger resorts and 4 smaller ones.
I arrived just after a significant snowstorm and the entire valley was buried in feet of snow, with more falling throughout my week skiing there. It was magical with fresh pow every morning. I stayed at a family-run BnB type place that was a short walk from one of the resorts. And Japan, being a well-organized, sensible country, had shuttles running to all the resorts, so it was easy to hit all the bigger resorts during my week there. I'd say there was maybe 25-33% foreigners at the Hakuba resorts, it felt more like the place where Japanese families go for skiing and not as big a draw for foreigners. I enjoyed the more "native Japan" vibes of Hakuba, compared to Niseko.
Week 2 was in Niseko, on the island of Hokkaido, a few hours drive from Sapporo. Niseko is comprised of 4 large resorts all on the same mountain. There are shuttles that connect the bases, but you can ski from one to the next at the very top of the mountain. My last day there, I made a point to do the "peak-to-base" run on all 4 resorts. Niseko is also famous for its views of Mount Yōtei, which is called "Little Fuji" due to its similar shape to Mount Fuji, just smaller.
And, if Hakuba is where Japanese locals go, then Niseko is where all the foreign tourists go to ski. My guess is that 75% of the skiers at Niseko were foreigners, with lots of Aussies and Kiwis, and plenty of Chinese. It was a very different vibe than Hakuba. Hakuba was more a local-chill vibe, whereas Niseko had the busy bars, restaurants, and nightlife. Both enjoyable, depending on what you're in to. I'm glad I did Hakuba first, to get the "Japanese locals experience" then shifting into the higher-energy international experience of Niseko for the second half of the trip.
And of course: the food! I was extra lucky in that the USD-JPY exchange rate was at an all time high, so that everything in Japan was extra cheap for American tourists. I took advantage of this by eating all the wagyu steak dinners I could get my hands on. I mean, you could get the full wagyu steak dinner, with apps and drinks, for about 1/3 the price in the US. I think I had 6 over the course of the two week trip.
Also, the ski lodge food was both good and inexpensive. I got a huge bowl of snow crab ramen lunch for same cost as a side-order of fries at a Tahoe resort.
In early May, I had an ultra-marathon in Austin, my second Brylers Backyard Marathon, so I decided to make a trip out of it, visiting "cowboy country" starting in Oklahoma City, stopping in Fort Worth and Dallas, and finishing up in Austin for the race. Other than Austin, I hadn't been to those cities before, so I was excited to do some domestic exploring. Also, and perhaps surprisingly, I was able to transit among the cities by train! There's an Amtrak line that runs from OKC to Dallas, an inter-city rail connects Dallas an Fort Worth, and then another Amtrak line from Fort Worth to Austin. Traveling through cowboy country by train -- who would have thought?
I have to say: OKC punches above it's weight. I really didn't know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. They've clearly but a lot of time, effort and money into revitalizing their downtown area, building out significant park and open space between downtown and the Oklahoma River, with the Myriad Botantical Gardens being an absolute gem.
Oklahoma City is also home to the last remaining cattle stockyard auction house in the US. Each week, thousands and thousands of cattle are brought here from all over the country for auction. Each steer is paraded through the auction house, one by one, where buyers can see them either in person or remotely via video feed and make their bids. Unfortunately, I arrived the day after the weekly auction, but I did get a tour from the operators.
I have to say, much like OKC, I was pleasantly surprised by Fort Worth. It has some legit open spaces along the Clear Fork Tinity River, and a very good collection of museums and cultural instiutions. In fact, if you combine the Fort Worth and Dallas museums together, they would stack up against any other metropolitain area. I was impressed.
Another pleasant surprise in Fort Worth was the Will Rogers Memorial Center. As I was passing by to do my morning run through Trinity Park, I noticed the parking lot was full of horse trailers, and a woman was unloading a horse from one. I asked her what we going on and she said there was a roping competition going on that day, and that it was free to the public. So, after my run, I showered up, and headed back to Will Roders and watched teams of cowboys rope calfs on horseback.
TBH, compared to Fort Worth, Dallas was kinda meh. At least the downtown area. It felt like any other city downtown in America, with a Starbucks on every corner and an unbelievable amount of parking garages. It seemed that every other building in downtown Dallas was a parking garage, and the bottom half of every condo tower was for parking. Maybe if I ventured farther out from the city core, I would have found some more interesting neighborhoods. All that said, there were some highlights: Katy trail, Dallas Museum of Art, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, and the historic M-Line Trolley.
The Katy trail is one of the many "rail-to-trail" success stories where an old rail line is converted to a walking/biking path. It was perfect for me and my morning run on my first of two days in Dallas. About halfway down the trail, I passed by the Katy Trail Icehouse, a beer garden that I returned to after the run to down a cold one and grab a bite to eat.
The second of my two days in Dallas was spent at the Dallas Museum of Art. It's a huge art museum with plenty of exhibits to fill up a whole day, which was perfect as a major thunderstorm sat on Dallas all day. Rainy museum days are some of my favorite.
I rolled into Austin to meet up with my Brylers running crew for my second Brylers Backyard Marathon, a 2.4-mile loop that we run at the top of the hour, every hour, until we give up. We bested last year's lap count by one, going 16 laps this time around (~38.4 miles total).
And the next day, after the race, I made the obligatory pilgrimages to Barton Springs for a cool dip to soothe the sore muscles, and then Terry Black's to refuel the engine.
I also got a chance to visit with Harsha, Carrie, and their two girls while I was there. It was so great to see them all again, as it had been many years.
As mentioned above, I did the Brylers Backyard Marathon again this year, along with a whole bunch more races. In fact, looking back, I kinda went overboard with the race calendar in 2025 and will probably dial it back a bit for 2026. All told, I did:
And while each race is fun in its own way, the best ones are where I get to run with friends.
I'm excited for all sorts of new adventures and experiences in 2026. The only thing that can make it better is for you to be a part of it. I hope to see you in the new year!
P.S. the only social media I'm on now is Instagram, where you can find photos of my travels, as well as my home-cooked meals: @aaron.binns. I'm also on Strava if you want to see what kind of crazy runs I'm doing in 2026.
Or you can always reach me at: aaron@randomshiznat.com