2006 was a travel-packed year for
the Liu family. In January, we went on
a birthday cruise (for Pookie & Melissa) to Ensenada with the whole family. President's weekend we had a trip to Temecula
for Dan's accountability group and had a great time wine tasting and playing
tennis. For spring break we went to Yosemite
and saw the valley during a different season and avoided the usual summer
crowd. The hike around Hetch Hetchy reservoir was a
memorable experience. We were in Sacramento
for Memorial Weekend for a tour of the Gold Country & CA history. We find these travel times to be great
family-bonding opportunities.
In June we traveled as a family
to the East Coast to visit Boston, New
York and Wa,
D.C. We visited the Ivy League Schools, Kennedy
compound in Hyannisport, Cape Cod,
Plymouth Plantation, Mayflower, Empire
State Building,
Wall Street, Rockefeller Center,
White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, Mt.
Vernon, and Williamsburg,
VA. We saw the Wicked Musical on Broadway (kids'
favorite activity). Driving in Manhattan
proved to be an exciting challenge.
Dan's 30th reunion was
in Longview WA
and was very well attended; we went down to the Columbia River,
Portland and Rainer. We also made it down to Springfield,
OR to visit Uncle Doug and Auntie Marge
Taylor, and visited where Dan grew up. The Johnstone
Ridge observation point at Mt. St.
Helens was dramatic and informative. It was refreshing
to see how lakes recover after 26 years, and reminisce about fun summer times
at the YMCA camp.
In August we went to Shaver
Lake for a camping trip with
families from our church. The
star-studded nightsky and the breath-taking alpine
lake views are our fondest memory.
Horseback riding around the lake is always a highlight of the weekend,
plus catching fish at Huntington Lake
was a great family memory. In Sept, we went to Parker, AZ, Lake Havasu's sandbar and Parker Strip for a warm late fall vacation. Dan had another outing on the 45 foot yacht
of his friend Gert Linder and helped move her from Ventura
to Long Beach.
Dan got a promotion to manage a
larger department of 80+ engineers which develops the Optics for Raytheon
products. It has proven a growing challenge
with weekly overnights to Santa Barbara,
where he has 20 optical engineers and physicists.
Melissa is at UC, Riverside,
in her second year, majoring in Computer Engineering and hopes to land an
internship next summer in EE or SW at Raytheon. She worked at Best Buy this
summer and got Dad a powerful new iPod stereo for his
boat.
Jocelyn was selected for Scholar
Athlete of the week for Orange County
by the Orange County Register for her 4 years as Varsity Tennis 1st
Doubles, plus being in the top 5 at her school during her senior year. Next year she hopes to study Economics or
Math at UCLA or UCSD.
Alaina
performed in the Pageant of the Arts at the elementary school in the Spring. All three
girls were able to perform in "The Three Japanese Women" painting
re-creation during their time at McGaugh
Elementary school. Alaina is now at McAuliffe
Middle school, a 6th-grader,
she plays tennis, piano and now Flute and had her first Band concert in
November.
Pookie
is still at Los Alamitos Medical
Center, and teaching Sunday School to 1st and 2nd graders. Every week she helps with Food Finders. She enjoys walking our Dog, Honey (a Maltipoo) everyday.
Honey has proven to be a great joy enhancer for our family. She had a real nice Thanksgiving with a Big
Bone. Check out our website: http://danliu5a.tripod.com
Dan, Agnes, Melissa, Jocelyn, Alaina Liu
