This is Lanchi and Tuan's annual family letter. Our family photos, as well as an archive of our family letters, can always be seen at http://www.terragalleria.com/family Up until the end of May, Tuan spent most of his waking hours working on the book, decided not to go on a single trip before it was finished. Tuan's goal was to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service (NPS) by creating the best photography book about the national parks. If nothing else, the quantity was there, with 456 pages including 500 photos and more than 130,000 words. The reviews, including one from the New York Times, turned out all positive, but we'll let you decide if Tuan succeeded by checking out the book for yourself (http://TreasuredLandsBook.com). Although we missed the NPS anniversary date (Aug 26) by more than a month, Tuan is still happy with the outcome and grateful to everybody who helped it make happen. The first printing sold out from Amazon within three weeks of publication, but second printing copies should be available in a matter of days, and Tuan will reach out to you. In June, Tuan emerged from his cave for a repeat of last year's trip, exploring the subterranean world of the deep Zion National Park slots by canyoneering with his younger in-laws. For July, to celebrate the NPS Centennial, we embarked on a road trip. We drove Highway 50, the "loneliest road in America" to Great Basin National Park, and then to Salt Lake City, where we had our worst beach experience ever at the Great Salt Lake: stinky area, muddy water, brine flies, and a long walk on alkali grounds made painful by the need to share a shoe with Vi-Van who thought that she'd be fine barefoot... Fortunately, they did enjoy the typical attractions there. In Grand Teton and Yellowstone, we found lakes and rivers for the kids to swim. In the past, family trips to national parks didn't work out very well because of photography, and this time we also ended up going home early with a stop at Circus Circus in Reno. The short trip was all that Lanchi could afford because of her busy art show schedule. This year, she attended 24 events again, and like in previous years, was always scrambling to produce enough inventory to keep up with demand. Besides also selling hand-made wearables (that's called "fiber art"), she also resumed growing and peddling plants for fun and profit. Since the greenhouse had been re-converted into a woodturning workshop, she managed to find plants even smaller than the miniature orchids. Lithops and Conophytum, also called "living stones" are desert plants related to the ice-plant with a fascinating variety of shapes and colors that allow them to blend among stones. Not only they are they the size of a coin, which allows Lanchi to easily grow hundreds of them around the house, but being succulents, they also require minimal care unlike the dainty orchids. Lanchi's knack for identifying collectibles let her source rare species and resell them with large margins. You'd be surprised to find how many people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a tiny plant that one can barely see. 2016 was also the year Lanchi moved into the 21st century by using Tuan's old iPhone (408-613-8567) and creating a Facebook account which to her surprise was located by several of her long-time friends. Once Lanchi's father came back from the Stanford hospital at the beginning of the year, his condition began to improve, although he continues outpatient treatment. Fortunately, besides shortness of breath, he didn't experience adverse secondary effects from the medications. He and Lanchi's mother joined us for another quick stay in Reno later in the summer. It was the only extended family trip of the year, besides a quick day excursion to point Reyes in the winter. Vi-Van confirmed her taste for fine foods and continued to regale us with baking treats that we often find better than those bought at the store. She graduated from elementary school and started seventh grade, and her conscientious and hard-working ways paid off with good grades. She enjoys frequent playdates with her good friends Hannah, Jenny, Wade, Johnny, and Dietrich. We wished Minh-Dan would follow her example and work harder on his school work. In the summer, Vi-Van started to play Pokemon go, which encouraged her to tag along on Tuan and Peanut's runs - they went in circles to let her catch up. However, Minh-Dan soon got interested in the game and as is typical of him, became more fanatic than Vi-Van about it. We are a bit ambivalent about that game: on one hand, they are now at least motivated to get out of the house and go places, but on the other hand, they walk around with eyes stuck to the screen. One would think that Tuan could relax after finishing the book, but a saying in the industry is that writing the book is only 10% of the work, the rest is selling it. Tuan was pleased to show the Treasured Lands exhibit (59 large-format photographs, one for each national park) and to give two presentations at a local Bay Area venue, the PhotoCentral gallery ran by Geir Jordahl who had encouraged Tuan to get the book out at the 11th hour. Fueled by interest in the national parks during the NPS Centennial year, the exhibit traveled continuously in 2016, but while it was showing at its highest-profile venue so far, the Museum of Science in Boston, the book wasn't available yet. At the beginning of September, Tuan was happy to take a break from marketing and return to Alaska for two weeks to visit four national parks, traveling with a friend, a rare occurrence for him, but one that makes Lanchi feels much better. Although the weather was quite rainy, as often during this time of the year there, the conditions were superb for photography and Tuan particularly enjoyed the quiet of Katmai National Park, as opposed to the busy summer. The only other excursions that Tuan made for the rest of the year were quick side trips on the occasion of book events, most notably exploring Channel Islands National Park sea caves by kayak on the eve of an appearance at the Arts and Lectures series at the University of California, Santa Barbara that drew an audience of more than 400. For more details about Tuan's travels, please check his blog, and in particular http://qtl.us/2hSo9qp and the links within. We wish you and all your loved ones a lunar year 2017 (of the rooster) full of happiness, health, prosperity, and success, and hope to hear some news from you. Tuan, Lanchi, Vi-Van, Minh-Dan, Peanut 3373 Meadowlands Lane, San Jose CA 95135 (+1) 408-223-8419