Our family photos, as well as an archive of our family letters, can always be seen at http://www.terragalleria.com/family

Although in 2022 we didn't move forward much, we made it through the pandemic and hope you and your family are well too.

Tuan had managed to travel for an event at the opposite end of the globe without catching the virus, but Lanchi brought it home after attending a funeral in Southern California, just at the time when Dr. Fauci declared the “pandemic phase” over. Tuan tried to escape the virus by sleeping for two weeks in the office, but that eventually proved futile. Our symptoms were mild, but Tuan felt tired for months. By July, we felt comfortable resuming family travel suspended since our trip to France in 2019. To keep things simple, we chose Maui, basing ourselves in a Kihei apartment. We enjoyed the diverse scenery along all of the island's roads. The barren lava soil of the 10,000-foot-high Haleakala Crater contrasted with the tropical pools and lush vegetation found at the ocean’s edge at Kipahulu. Based on the children's research, we looked for local favorite food joints such as the hole-in-the-wall Grindz Cafe in Lahaina for breakfast, the food truck Braddah Hutts BBQ Grill in Hana, and Ululani which may have the best Hawaiian shave ice – so finely shaved that you’d think it is sorbet. However, we didn't have luck at the famous Komoda Bakery, as by mid-morning most of their items were sold out.

Back in California, the weather turned quite warm, with power outages often accompanying the heat waves. The thermometer reached an unprecedented 106F, claiming our long-surviving fish - the one that had eaten all of the others in the tank years ago. During this hot weather, Lanchi resumed hiking locally with Tuan. San Jose is surprisingly decent for hiking, with a wide choice of trails less than half an hour away from home. You’d think that mid-summer in hot and cloudless California is not a good time, but if you start early in the morning, hiking remains enjoyable, especially with a good hiking umbrella for shade. After years of bad ergonomy working in her woodshop, Lanchi was feeling all sorts of aches in her body. Although she did the exercises prescribed by a physical therapist, Lanchi attributes improvements in her health to the bi-weekly hikes. She continues to expand her specialty nursery and woodworking businesses. Subject to a lack of mental focus from the lingering effects of the virus, Tuan spent entire morning each day exercising. In addition to the walks and jogs, he added strength training, which becomes more important as one is aging. During the weekends, he also joined Lanchi's younger siblings Bi and Ti for a bit of rock climbing and also to try his hand at surfing, so far without much success, and two injuries.

When Vi-Van turned eighteen, she became eligible per California law to get a tattoo. She designed her own motif and within less than a week of her birthday, received the tattoo from an artist of her choosing in San Francisco. On that day, we visited a few city landmarks, at which she made drawings, as she usually does whenever we go out somewhere new. At the beginning of the year, she had applied to reputed art school programs and a few other colleges. Yet, despite her straight-A record, she received only one admission offer. The backlog caused by the pandemic made the application process unusually competitive this year. She didn't like the sterile appearance of the recently built UC Merced, and the fact that they do not offer a good visual art program. She chose instead to take classes in art and design at Evergreen Community College, only ten minutes away from home, much to Lanchi's delight to have her daughter around for a bit longer. Vi-Van had passed the written exam of the driver's license test the previous year, but it was not until the summer that she began to practice behind the wheel more consistently. After a brief breakup, she and her boyfriend got back together. The two of them often have animated phone conversations for almost the entire night, and prefer to just take nap during the day. That's night owls' way of dating, I guess.

Minh-Dan had become more mature and mellow, besides growing much taller. After some satisfactory grades and a few weeks of summer school, he was again the owner of a latest-model iPhone 14, while Lanchi continued to cling to her iPhone 6 despite GPS malfunction. With the lifting of the pandemic and parental restrictions, he enjoys hanging out with his friends and even went to the high school prom - that Vi-Van skipped. Tuan and he shop for groceries weekly, so Minh-Dan can buy the food he likes and the ingredients he wants to cook. On weekdays, the extended family continues our schedule of communal dinners with members taking turns each day of the week to cook. On some weekends, Minh-Dan took over. Although the dishes that he prepares are classic staples like steak quesadillas or lasagna, he strives to make everything from scratch, including tortillas and pasta. That's the only way he can be satisfied with the taste of the results. The picky eater turned out to be a very good cook! His bare room previously contrasted with Vi-Van's elaborately painted and designed space, but this year he undertook to decorate it in a psychedelic fashion with wall-to-wall graphic posters that glow under multiple strings of black lights.

For over a quarter century, Tuan had been posting on average 2,000 new images each year on the terragalleria.com website. After last year's publication of Our National Monuments, he took a break from projects to try spending more time with the family, engaging instead in eclectic pursuits that included teaching portrait photography and volunteering for electioneering. The most costly and time-consuming of those activities was to acquire and read historic national park visitor guides from 1917 to the present - which acted as a substitute for visiting the parks and may form the basis for a future publication. Besides a quixotic quest in northwest Alaska that didn’t pan out again, he did not plan a single photography trip. However, in February, he found himself in Dubai after a 16-hour direct flight from San Francisco and in his excitement couldn't help photographing the futuristic and diverse city on a whirlwind tour. Why travel to the other side of the world in the middle of a pandemic? World fairs, also referred to as Universal Expositions or Expos for brevity, have taken place since the 19th century. They are great fun to visit: think of them as huge theme parks where nations compete to offer the most memorable visitor experiences while showcasing their culture and achievements. As one of the exhibits in the USA Pavilion at Expo 2020 consisted of nine of Tuan's national park photographs, he had been invited by the U.S. State Department to talk about his work. In a year light on productivity but heavy on honors, Our National Monuments won six awards including a National Outdoor Book Award, and Tuan was particularly gratified to receive the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for Photography, a lifetime recognition which “honors superlative photography that has been used to further conservation causes.”

We wish you and all your loved ones a lunar year 2023 (of the cat, although Tuan supports the Chinese rabbit) 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) 408-706-0894