Greetings to Family and Friends
Patrick, Ellen, Nick, Cate and Tom are well and in great spirits. We started 2011 celebrating in Mexico. We like Alamos ,Sonora and were there for the traditional Mexican Posada that celebrates the travels of Mary and Joseph looking for a room in Bethlehem. The Posada is a very colorful and solemn tradition. After a wonderful Christmas in Alamos, we headed down to a favorite camping RV beach north of Puerto Vallarta overlooking the ocean kayaking, swimming and watching the sun set over a warm Pacific. Mexico was deserted because of the fears generated by news stories. It reminded Patrick of being there in the 1960’s when his family had the beaches to themselves. Nick took time from the University and traveled with Ellen and Pat and the boys took their dual sport Kawasaki 650 motorcycles. We managed to get way back into the mountain with these motorbikes where the bird life and coffee plants thrive. We ate giant lobster, shrimp, fresh fish and street tacos until we couldn’t hold anymore. One night Nick came home with 8 whole shrimp he bought off the fisherman and they were 10 inches. Cate moved from San Francisco, where she graduated from the University of San Francisco, up into the foothills of Sierra Nevada. She traveled over to Taiwan in the spring to visit our son Tom and explore the Far East. Our youngest son Tom is a student at the National Taiwan University a program funded by the University of Nevada to study Mandarin. He has spent two years there and after our scout, Cate, returned raging about the beauty and wonderful people, Ellen and Pat flew over in June for a visit.
To say the least, we were surprise at how advanced Taiwan is compared to the mainland; such vibrancy. Ellen saw her friend from high school who works the nuclear reactor and we visited a graduate student from the Purdue days. What impressed us the most was our son had matured so quickly and spoke Mandarin which enabled the three of us to tour the back roads on the Island. No wonder China wants to own Taiwan. The Taiwanese are the model of free enterprise, a highly educated population and a unique democracy. Not once did we see a policeman, chewing gum on the pavement or litter. The transportation system is excellent, the cultural and ancestry honored and in the end, Tom had a developed zeal in him that only youth can inhabit.
Upon our return to the Sierra Nevada’s here in Reno, our first impression was how uncrowded and quiet RENO is. Our research company Maxell has taken on a herculean task of data mining for answers that might explain the crash of the Mule Deer population in the Great Basin. An exciting project that will have profound impact as 87% of the land base is public lands and open spaces. The research require the latest in data mining and forecasting systems that have never been applied to biology in a quantitative manner. I thank Purdue University each day for the exposure it provided us toward taking an engineering approach toward biological problem solving.
Summer was long in coming and Patrick traveled to Montana with our hunting dogs for his annual fishing time. He met several friends in Missoula and found that fly fishing was slow due to a prolonged snowpack but came with a bang. Many trout came up to visit the dry fly the King of Sports. He fished the Missouri, Beaverhead, Ruby, Odell spring creek and then traveled down to our family land on the Madison River near Quake Lake. Ellen spent most of the summer trying to develop a forecasting model for the behemoth Canadian company Telus and so her fishing days were in check. She vowed never again to miss a Montana summer
In the fall Patrick traveled north again to train the dogs on the Canadian Prairies where the ducks and geese congregate before heading to their winter grounds. You can follow his travel blog at http://thesportingfields.blogspot.com/.
Winter is here and there is no snow in the mountains. Often we have a white Christmas but not this year. We are preparing to head back to Arizona where Pat was raised and all our children spent many Christmas camping in the desert. Being there in the Woolsey Wilderness, we skip the hectic commercial side of the season and experience spiritual time. Tis the news from the Sierra Nevada’s wishing our family and friends the warmest holidays with loved ones.
Cheers Patrick, Ellen, Nicholas, Catherine and Thomas (Fe and Tess our faithful dog friends)
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