Anyways, back on topic. 2008 was a heck of a year for the Hammonds. It started last year with our decision to host a young Obama staffer for roughly a month during the Primary Democratic election. Nevada had one of the early primaries thus it gave us our first insight into the upcoming elections. Later on Ting got out and did some canvassing. We also got to see the President Elect up close at a rally at UNR. It certainly ratified for Ting and me the need for grassroots change in our country. You can imagine how we voted.
As we moved through February Ting left for her 2-1/2 month internship in Taiwan. Living in a foreign country for several months gave her a much better appreciation of the sweet life we have in the States. Zoe also went along and got a taste of kindergarten in Asia. While our hopes for her coming home speaking fluent Mandarin have been dashed we do think the experience was a good thing. Even at five years old the kids are focused on education in Taiwan. As Americans we should take note. While I said no pictures above I could not resist!
Kindergarten in Taiwan means school uniforms every morning!
Ting and Zoe in the streets of Taipei
When Ting came home in April our lives got somewhat back to normal. We did some great trips this year while trying to keep it local. Fun was had meeting up with Mark, Kelly, Nolan, and Abigail in Yosemite Valley. We went backcountry with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and took the Subi several hundred miles off the main road to explore the wilderness north of the Black Rock Desert. Late in the year the Hammond family went solo and did a week long exploration of Great Basin National Park. Visiting in October means that we had the campground to ourselves; except for some Mule Deer, a coyote, and a very brave squirrel.
Great Basin Natl Park - Zoe gets real life deer to draw (she got within probably 50 feet of them!)
Dawn patrol at the Reno Balloon Races
Zoe and Abigail Wolshon summit in Yosemite - Half Dome in the background
We could bore you with some career talk as well. Ting answered a heck of a lot of e-mails for Patagonia this year. I got to do some PowerPoint presentations in exotic places such as Houston, Jakarta, London, Taipei, and Philadelphia. If you want the gory work details then drop us a line and we’ll fill you in.
A special thanks if you’ve made it this far into the Blog. This holiday season we will be heading to Phoenix to meet up with family for a week. If things work out then we plan to smuggle Ting’s sister Dee back to Reno for a little skiing before she returns to Shanghai for work.
Look for more writing in the New Year! - Regards, Steve
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