1997 is rapidly (very rapidly!) coming to a close. And as usual, this was an eventful year (are there any non-eventful years?).

The highlight of the year was our new van-camper. It is a Sportsmobile with pop-up roof - sleeps four comfortably, five not quite so. It has refrigerator, sink, stove, heat, air-conditioning, microwave, solar panels to keep us charged up, porta-potti, storage, and yet is only a full sized van. We began the year - and actually ended the previous one - with a "quick" trip to San Diego. Gyuszi, Erika, and Tas spent a total of 5 days on the road and 5 days there. In addition to the joys of seeing family, it was wonderful to experience our new little home on wheels. Of course this was a practice trip for our big project for the year -our trip to Alaska. This trip also included Zsolt.

My canned answer to "how was the trip" is the three "b's": big, beautiful, boring. How sacrilegious! But really, other than seeing the beauties of nature (and there are plenty to see), and enjoying each other's company, there is really nothing much to do in Alaska -and there are certainly no young people there for Zsolt and Tas to socialize with. I was amazed at the variety of environments in Alaska - rain-forest, mountain, great plains, breadbasket, seashore, tundra. However you have to cover a lot of miles to experience them all (and all this without even touching on western Alaska). In brief, our itinerary (get out your maps!): drive to Prince Rupert BC; ferry to Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway; drive to Whitehorse BC; Tok; Glenallen; Valdez; ferry past Columbia Glacier to Whittier; train (flatcar, staying in our own vehicle) through the mountains to Portage; all around the Kenai peninsula, including Hope where we panned for gold, Seward, Kenai, Homer; Anchorage; Denali where we went whitewater rafting; Fairbanks, Coldfoot (above the Arctic Circle); Tok; Chicken; Dawson City; Carmacks; Watson Lake; Fort Liard, NWT (along the Mackenzie Hwy); Hay River; Enterprise; Peace River; Fairview; home. In addition to sightseeing, we read a lot, and played innumerable hours of cards - cribbage, hearts, and even rudimentary bridge. For the boys, the best part of the trip was our stop at Miki's (a distant -literally too - relative) in Fairview, Alberta, who took them to a shooting range and allowed them to shoot - handguns, rifles, shotguns. The boys were thrilled!

Krisztina (kjnadas@midway.uchicago.edu) is continuing her work in the laboratories of University of Chicago, toward her PhD. After a year or so of significant frustration, her experiments seem to be moving ahead just now. However, the end is not in sight for a while yet. In addition, she is active in hungarian scouts, folk dance, learning to do repairs on her own car, and at the YMCA - thus staying busy, to say the least. She has been using her well- developed organizational skills in helping Erika re-arrange the house.

Gyula (gnadas1@uic.edu) is in his last year at University of Illinois in Chicago, with a planned BS in Biology with a minor in Psychology. It will be good to get the degree behind him. I don't think anyone - especially not Gyula - knows what comes next. The most likely plan is to work for a year, preparing for the specialty exam in whichever field he chooses. In all likelyhood, it will be pharmacy - he's been a pharm. tech for three years at Walgreens, likes it, and has learned a great deal. This is knowledge he can put to use if he continues in the field - but we'll see.

The two big kids, along with Jason, who didn't go on the Alaska trip did a phenomenal job on the house while we were gone. They removed everything from the living and dining rooms - no small feat - sanded and polyurethaned the floor (many coats), and painted the ceiling and walls. Then they moved stuff back in - but only about half - to give it a new un-cluttered look. Guess who had to figure out what to do with the rest of the stuff. In addition, they did a bunch of work outside - there is now a new, lovely, flower garden in the back yard, along with a deck with stairs for the pool. There were also fewer weeds than ever before. What a treat!

Zsolt (znadas@imsa.edu) is a junior at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. While he is not particularly happy there, he is exposed to a marvelous education. And he does have one or two teachers who excite and challenge him - this year's best is English - how unexpected - in which they are reading books to develop understanding for the various "-isms" (existentialism, optimism, nihilism etc). I almost wish I were in the class; it sounds so interesting. He is swimming again this season, but is (finally) in physical therapy in sports medicine for his shoulder problems. I hope he will eventually be pain-free and able not only to swim, but to do such normal boy things as swing from the branch of a tree.

Tas (tjnadas@hotmail.com) is in sixth grade - the year that we noticed with each child that he's not a little kid any more. This year is particularly difficult for him since his shoulder difficulties have kept him out of swimming for two months, and may keep him out for the entire season. The depression that goes along with losing a major focus for his life (he's been swimming competitively since he was six) affects him profoundly, and the rest of us too. He tries to keep busy - trombone is going reasonable well, and he is involved in a reading program which gives points for books read (and questions correctly answered). This gives him some outlet for his competitive drive, and also has him reading at and above his level. Of course, he, too, is in physical therapy for the shoulder.

Gyuszi (jnadas@ccc.edu) discovered in his sojourn in Alaska, that he still loves teaching, and misses it when he is away for long. Of course it gets tiring at the end of each semester (the pressure is on to finish the material, prepare exams, get grades in, etc.) and he is glad to relax between terms, but he is also ready to start again with the new term. For recreation, he has been working out various algorithms for having the solitaire game (free cell) on the computer play by itself. That is quite a challenge if you think about it. He now has the computer solving about 3/4 of the games, but he feels there has got to be a better way. Leave it to him to find such a fun way to hone his skills as a computer programmer.

Erika (enadas@worldnet.att.net) has had a lot less chauffeuring to swim practices. This has been replaced in part by driving to therapy sessions, but how much more exciting. There is so much to learn watching the therapists at work. They really know their musculature and the interaction between muscle groups etc. Erika is still teaching senior citizen fitness at the YMCA, and in the spirit of wanting to know more (like those therapists) decided to pick up a course next semester in Anatomy and Physiology. Hopefully, it will even have practical application. The computer business work has grown lighter in the last half of the year, leaving her to feel a bit less pressured, so she's spending time reorganizing the house from top to bottom, and unloading many years of unused accumulation. Also, for the fun of it, Erika joined the church choir (she last sang with them before Zsolt was born). The choir will be performing the Messiah, in addition to the usual sunday liturgies, but the most exciting part is that they intend to perform Bach's Magnificat in February - one of the most magnificent choral works around (obviously a biased opinion).

As you can see, we're all "on-line" - so if you are too, please keep in touch.

We wish you a peaceful, productive, satisfying, and healthy 1998!