Through Mark Larson's Lens 

In another year we'll all never forget, 2022 started with the scary omicron surge and ended with a big earthquake. The latter was a reminder that we live near the Triple Junction and now we await this winter's "Tripledemic" of COVID, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

My wife and I continued to limit face-to-face encounters the first months of the year, staying masked up, until our second COVID-booster vaccination in March. In April, we made a pent-up, long-planned decision to travel to Europe, where no one was masked, except on airplanes. I ended up testing positive for COVID (testing was required at that time) before our return flight to the U.S., and we ended up with an unexpected 10-day stay in Oslo until my mild symptoms disappeared.

By late May, with the re-start of the Kinetic Grand Championship, it felt like a re-opening of near-normal life in Humboldt County for the rest of the year, highlighted by the return of the Klamath Salmon Festival, the Redwood Coast Music Festival, the Sara Bareilles concert and many other events.

As for living near the earthquake-prone Mendocino Triple Junction, we agree with local geology expert Lori Dengler, who says earthquakes are not fun and we all need to be better prepared for the next one. At our home, we learned from the magnitude-6.4 earthquake on Dec. 20 that it's hard to drop, cover and hold on when jolted awake in bed, and we need to have a working flashlight and shoes near our bed next time.

Of course, there was much more to 2022. Here are my favorite photos of moments and events from this past year in our county.