Happy Holidays 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This year’s epic travel adventure involved visits to France and Italy. Huong and I took Brandon and Emily to Paris for what was for the most part a “family and friends” visit. We attended a wedding in a town on the main commuter rail line south of the city; the officiant was the town’s Mayor, a woman rather casually dressed save for her tricolor sash of office. Returning to Paris, the reception took place on a boat that took us up and down the Seine in the heart of the city. I was unable to survive long enough to see the reported 3:00 AM end of the dance party. The following day we travelled even farther away for a surprise 70^th birthday celebration for the bride’s Mother. Meanwhile we were still able to squeeze in a bit of tourism. Huong and I took Emily and her cousin Mena to the obscure Musée des Arts Décoratifs (right around the corner from the Louvre) to see the vintage haute couture and design artifacts. The highlight was a special exhibit of historic ladies’ undergarments (bustles, pannier and the like). There was a room in which it was possible for visitors to try on modern reproductions of such; I did not participate, but Emily looked rather fetching in a crinoline.

From Paris we continued on to Florence, where the rest of our party awaited us to begin the really serious tourism. This being our first experience of the place, we visited all the required spots. I was somewhat surprised that I was able to get close enough to “David”, defensively barricaded though he was, to prod him with my cane (I didn’t try it). But our family being what it is, we found the local food culture at least as interesting as the works of art. A fairly comprehensive survey of the city’s gelato dispensaries was conducted. The big indoor farmer’s market was an easy walk from our apartment, and we visited it daily to obtain the ingredients of most of our meals. Some members of our party were never quite able to get over the fresh homemade pasta.

In Rome our apartment turned out to be a block from the previously unknown (to me) gem of the Basilica Maria Maggiore, a sliver of the Vatican on the wrong side of the Tiber, its grounds patrolled by the Pope’s security agents, rather than by Roman police. Again the expected tourist spots were duly inspected. I was able to persuade some of our party to accompany me to the Pantheon, one of my personal favorites, resulting in very positive reactions. Huong and I finally got into the papal tombs lying beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, which we somehow missed on our only previous visit. Pope Francis was in Brazil at the time, so we were unable to touch base with him. Brandon's birthday happened to occur during our visit, thus furnishing us with further excuses, as if any were required, to sample the productions of the local pastry chefs.

We ended our visit in Venice, where we happily rode the vaporetti (water buses) everywhere. I found the mosaics of St. Mark’s to be more refined and life-like than those of the Hagia Sofia; but the Bridge of Sighs and the New Jail were too stuffy and claustrophobic to be enjoyable. On the island of Murano, Huong nearly succumbed to the allure of an elaborate chandelier, but settled for a few glass trinkets in the end. Walking the alleyways late at night, I noted with great satisfaction the deep silence afforded by a complete absence of vehicular road noise, something very difficult to achieve anywhere near home. The water taxi ride to the airport at dawn on the final day was downright awesome.

Brandon (age 12) is in the 7^th grade, and has graduated to U13 soccer, which has his team playing longer games and, for the first time, on a full-sized pitch. He is also participating in an after-school fitness program called “Teens in Training”.

Emily (age 10) is in the 5th grade, the last year of elementary school. In addition to continuing with gymnastics, she is studying yoga, and is taking a class at the local arts center.

That’s all for this year. We extend our best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2014 to you all.

Happy Holidays 2012

Dear Family and Friends...

In May of this year, Huong and I returned to Vietnam for the first time in 12 years. We had been putting it off year after year, and then Huong’s sister Mai and brother-in-law Duwayne invited us to join them on a private tour that they had arranged, including side trips to Laos and Cambodia, and we went for it. Landing in Hanoi, we took the night train to the mountains of northwest Vietnam, where the colorfully attired ethnic minority people employ 11^th-century farming technology, while wielding 21^st-century cell phones.

Continuing on to Laos, we flew to Luang Prabang, the old royal capital, which has the best-preserved French colonial architecture I have seen anywhere in Indochina, and is a place so relaxed that it finds traffic signals to be unnecessary. The elaborately decorated temples contrasted strongly with the simplicity of the king’s personal quarters, which seemed nearly Spartan by comparison. Not far from town we visited an “elephant village”, where survivors of the local lumber industry are cared for, and given the job of tolerating adoring tourists. We were given a quick tutorial on communicating with the elephants using verbal “commands” (more like “suggestions”, I’d say), in their native Lao, and then rode around on them for a while. We helped feed them, and Huong and Duwayne assisted in bathing them (and got very wet themselves in the process).

In Cambodia we had time for little more than the sprawling temple complex of Angkor Wat (and more temples in the countryside nearby, where the minefields laid by the Khmer Rouge are still being cleared, slowly); we did get to visit a floating village, large enough to have its own floating schools and restaurants.

Returning to Vietnam for the final leg, most of the remaining places we visited were familiar to us, with the exception of the Nguyen dynasty’s “Forbidden City” in Hue, the old royal capital; and the vast caverns of the Annamite Mountains, near the border with Laos, with their bizarre, Rorschach-test rock formations.

Brandon (age 11) has left his familiar old elementary school behind for the brave new world of middle school, where, as a sixth-grader, he is once again low man on the totem pole. He was admitted to his new school, which has a STEM focus, on the basis of entrance tests and interviews. It is not located in his neighborhood, and is considerably further away from home, so in the interest of safety the decision was taken to equip him with a cell phone. I happened to have an older iPhone that I was no longer using, which I bestowed upon him as a birthday gift in July. He is now rarely to be seen without it; but it appears to be employed far more often as a portable gaming console than as a telephone. He continues to participate in soccer, and in Science Olympiad.

Emily (age 9) is in the fourth grade, and has more interests than she has time for. She seems pretty serious about gymnastics, and closely followed the achievements of her exemplars in the field in London this summer. She is participating in Odyssey of the Mind and Girls on the Run as well. She seems drawn to her grandmother’s knitting avocation; she has finger-knitted a collection of scarves for sale at charity events.

These children did not venture beyond the national borders this year, but they did take a couple of trips stateside. In July they traveled to Cincinnati to visit Mark’s family. They enjoyed tubing on the Ohio River, rode the rides at the King’s Island amusement park, and consumed Graeter’s ice cream until it came out of their ears. The following month, they flew to Los Angeles to visit that branch of Huong’s family. Beyond enjoying face time with their cousins, a major highlight of the trip involved several days’ camping at Big Sur.

That’s all for this year. We extend our best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2013 to you all.

Mark and Huong

P.S.: If you received an actual paper card via snail mail, that was only because we didn't have your current e-mail address. Kindly send that information to mshaffer55@gmail.com or lacy105@gmail.com, since in future years we plan to go completely paperless. Don't get left out!

Thanks...

M. and H.