In these five years, Nellie and Danny began their socializing and schooling. Included in the latter, at any rate for Nellie at this time, were Friday evening lessons at Chinese school, where she excelled at artwork — example shown here. Notice that my clever girl has signed her name in Chinese: 齐耐丽 — Qi Nai-li. The other characters higher up say 金鱼 — "goldfish" … though I'm not sure Nellie got the colors quite right …
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Here are some photographs from these years. Clicking on a picture brings up a bigger version.
| ———— 1997 ———— | |
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Danny at two years old, taken on the back lawn. |
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Nellie at four or five years old, taken … don't know where. |
| ———— 1998 ———— | |
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In the Fall of 1998 we took a trip out West. Here we all are sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon. |
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Rosie at the Grand Canyon. |
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California, here we came. Mixed priorities here. For the kids, Disneyland was of course top of the list. |
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For Mom, the HOLLYWOOD sign. |
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For Dad, the Hale observatory on Mount Palomar. Annoyingly, none of the photographs came out. This one, of Rosie and the observatory dome, came nearest to coming out. Grrr. |
| ———— 1999 ———— | |
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A family classic. Our 1999 summer vacation was at Smugglers Notch in northern Vermont. The facilities included a day camp for little kids. This did not meet with Danny's approval. |
| ———— 2000 ———— | |
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Taken on the back lawn, June 22, 2000. Danny's U.S. Marine look is not accidental — he had taken an interest in military matters. |
| ———— 2001 ———— | |
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The Petroushka Ball, held at the old Plaza Hotel in Manhattan in February. It must have been getting late at this point. |
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There were two Petroushka Balls this year, a second one — "Petroushka on the Hudson" — held on a chartered boat on, of course, the Hudson River. Here we are with the dear old Twin Towers. |
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Same event, Rosie & I at the dinner table. |
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We spent July and the first week of August 2001 in China, visiting relatives and sightseeing. I wrote up the trip
here. We left New York July 1st, arrived in Pei-p'ing Peking Beijing July 2nd. This is the following day, July 3rd — Danny's 6th birthday. As usual, he'd prefer to be elsewhere. |
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Changchun, Northeast China, July 7. Our first duty in the Northeast was to call on Taiye, Rosie's grandfather. |
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This is the top of Changbai Shan — "Ever-white Mountain" — on China's border with North Korea. The mountain is an extinct volcano, with a lovely pool in the crater: Heaven Pool. |
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The North Korean border cuts right across Heaven Pool and the top of Changbai Shan. There are signs to mark the border. Danny and I decided to trespass on North Korean Territory. The sign says something like: WELCOME TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA. NOW GO HOME! |
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At Christmas 2001 (and the two subsequent Christmases) Nellie danced in a production of The Nutcracker put on by the Huntington Ballet Theater. |