Best of 2003

We started 2003 in San Diego, recovering from our big night out with Adam, Fran, and Morgan. On New Year's day, we woke up early for an 8 hour drive to San Francisco, a 2 hour flight to Vancouver, and a 3 hour drive to Whistler. We joined 200 of Ryan's GSB classmates at Whistler for 4 days of skiing and some time with family in Vancouver.

Then it was back to the "grind" of the first year of business school and our life in Palo Alto... with lots of little breaks to keep things interesting! We made a winter trip to New York where we visited Ryan's old roommates, ate at Peter Lugar's, and caught up with lots of good friends. We stayed closer to home on President's Day Weekend, hosting dinner parties and hanging out with David and Jennifer (getting bigger and bigger!) before heading off to Pinnacles National Monument for a weekend of camping, just the two of us.

Of course there were also loads of business school events: One Tuesday night later in February, 300 of Ryan's business-school classmates dressed up in 70's gear and headed to Las Vegas for a one-night party called "Vegas FOAM." Eunice decided to jump into the fray and became the head of the business school partner's group, planning parties, events, and outings (including a trip to see the elephant seals at Anu Nuevo State Park). And no spring would be complete without a late-season trip to Tahoe with friends, a baseball game at PacBell park, a ride on a segway, and beers with friends in the backyard of our cottage in Palo Alto.

Melody was born in April.... and we were at the hospital moments after her arrival! How exciting to have our first niece so close to home! And Benson and Danielle were married later in July, bringing lots of Eunice's family to the Bay Area (and our house) for more celebration!

To celebrate Dad's 60th birthday, the Nichols boys took a 10 day road-trip through the north and south islands of New Zealand (boys only, much to Eunice's chagrin!). We drove 2000 miles, landed on a glacier in a helicopter, swam with dolphins, climbed a volcano, kayaked to a remote beach, jumped off an underground waterfall, and sampled lots of excellent food and drink. Happy birthday, Dad!

We spent more and more time outside with the arrival of the Bay Area spring. We took a great family hike through Big Basin, meeting Adam's girlfriend Rachel for the first time. Jesse and Lee came out for a visit from New York to visit wine country, do some volunteer work with Eunice, and do some incredible hiking in Yosemite. Susan's visit over the summer was a great chance to enjoy the arrival of summer in the city and cool off in Stanford's fountains. We relived our days in San Francisco for Eunice's Birthday, staying at a B&B in North Beach, having a wonderful meal at Cafe Jacqueline, and enjoying a great hike out to the beach.

We went out to New York again in July to celebrate Tej's Wedding and to spend July 4th in the city, watching the fireworks from a swimming pool by the river (thanks to Jesse's park's department connections!). We finished the summer with a weekend visit to San Diego and a weekend trip to Virginia for cousin Carrie and Pete's wedding.

Ryan spent his summer trying out product management at Intuit, but September brought the start of his second year at business school. It started off strong-- he led a mountain biking trip
up in Lake Tahoe for the new first year students.

We went back to New York in October to see Mamie's dance performance and connect with the New York crew again. We spent our first Halloween in the Castro with Josh and Christine, using Adam's house party as a base to avoid the madness.

Thanksgiving was a huge family event-- the Nichols, the Barons, AND the entire Lin / Tang family, all at Dad and Nancy's place for dinner! After an epic day in the Marina, we went with Eunice's family down to Carmel.

This was also the debut of Eunice's first short film, "New Beginnings," about 3 generations of mothers in her family. You can check out the film here (give it a couple of seconds to load)-- its only about 12 minutes.

After Christmas eve with family at the Hills, the two of us escaped for a week-long road trip to Death Valley. We fell in love with this place-- camping in the desert in the winter is a magical experience. Then it was back to the craziness of the Bay Area for a New Year's Eve wedding: Patricia and Adam threw a fantastic party, providing the perfect finale to a great year.

New Beginings

Here is Eunice's first short film... online at last! A 12 minute documentary, this was screened at the first annual SNBC Film Festival in 2004 and received a certificate of honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was also screened at the Williams College Reunion Film Festival in 2007.

According to the director, "After the birth of my niece, I was inspired to make my first film - a documentary about four generations of Chinese women in my family and their exploration of new beginnings through motherhood, immigration, culture, music, and faith. A retrospective of their personal journeys through major life changes, this film attempts to capture the strength of spirit passed down through the generations.

My interest in filmmaking comes from my father who had a passion for capturing memories for posterity, first through black and white photos, then silent film, and finally video… After he passed away in 1995, I took a trip home and started going through hundreds of his old videotapes documenting countless music recitals, vacations, reunions, and family milestones. Buried in all this footage were threads of stories that I found myself remembering, reconstructing, and wanting to explore through a more refined narrative. Yet it wasn’t until 2003, after my sister had given birth to her first baby girl and was taking a trip to visit my mother and grandmother, that I found myself for the first time itching to be behind a video camera – not so much to document the actual family gathering, but to capture the nuances of their personalities, ideas, values, actions, and physical selves, so different, yet also so clearly connected. Each had taken from the generations before them but were also passing on things uniquely theirs. The short film format turned out to be the perfect vehicle for exploring this theme."

CAST LISTING
Hong Chen Tao, Grandmother
Terry Tao Lin, Mother
Jennifer Lin Tang, Daughter
Melody Joy Tang, Granddaughter

CREW LISTING
Eunice Lin Nichols, Director, Camera Operator, Editor
Ryan Nichols, Interviewer
Madeleine Lim, Advisor

Hike in Big Basin

What could be better than a pre-father's day hike at Big Basin Park?
Beautiful redwoods, lush valleys, and 3 wonderful waterfalls....
Click here for photos!

New Zealand

To celebrate Dad's 60th birthday, the Nichols boys took a 10 day road-trip through the north and south islands of New Zealand. We drove 2000 miles, landed on a glacier in a helicopter, swam with dolphins, climbed a volcano, kayaked to a remote beach, jumped off an underground waterfall, and sampled lots of excellent food and drink. Thanks, and happy birthday Dad!