The year 2000, as usual for us,
involved lots of travel. Arizona
(twice!), Thailand, and China were our destinations.
In June, the three of us went to
Thailand. We spent some time on a
couple of our favorite beaches at Hua Hin and Samui Island, and made a quick
trip to Chiang Mai, just because we like Chiang Mai. Yao’s nephew Matthew from the Netherlands went along on both
beach trips. Yao and Larry went on a
four-day tour to Beijing, China, the first time there for both of us. We saw acrobats, the Forbidden City, the
Great Wall, and a number of palaces and temples. We dropped out of the tour on the last day to spend the time with
Yao’s uncle who has been there since shortly after the revolution. He and his wife were very gracious
hosts. In fact, our time with them was
the highlight of the trip.
While her
parents were in China, Marie joined aunts, uncles, cousins, and Grandma for a
trip to another beach resort. On the
way, they stopped at a zoo, where the kids enjoyed elephant rides and feeding
the tame animals.
Back in
March, we attended the wedding of Larry’s niece, Stacia Kircher to Mike Kurcz
in Mesa, Arizona. The newlyweds have
their own home in Mesa. Here we are in
our Sunday best ß the day of the wedding.
Our second trip to Arizona was
for a less joyful occasion. Our old
friend, Marie’s godmother, Rose de Turnier passed away unexpectedly in
June. She had just returned from her
third (!) Peace Corps assignment a few months before. In October, we attended her memorial outside of Phoenix. We joined Rose’s family in prayers at a Thai
Buddhist temple, and scattered
her ashes in a mountain stream. We made
time for a side trip to the Grand Canyon, but it rained and snowed on us.
One other big event for our family this year was Yao’s
swearing-in as a U.S. citizen, which occurred on May 18th. After years of being an avid news junkie,
she proudly voted for the first time this Fall in the primary and general
election.
Marie is a lively fifth-grader,
in her last year at Aldo Leopold Elementary School in Madison. She switched from piano to violin this
year. She remains active in Girl Scouts
and soccer.
Yao is in her fourth year of teaching at Cherokee Heights
Middle School, and Larry stays out of trouble playing with computers at the
Division of Information Technology (DoIT) at the University of Wisconsin.
And
another year rolls by! Happy Holidays!
Larry Yao Marie
