Family Stuff

He was almost 12 and was spunky and swimming and running right up until his last month. He enjoyed many family trips, including an epic final trip with Lisa and Steve on their month-long bus adventure around the country, during which he got to run through dozens of beautiful parks and swim in many clear lakes and rivers. He loved every stop, and was in perfect health throughout that journey but declined rapidly after our return home.

At left below: two children with their new pup in 2003. At right, two young adults prepare to say goodbye to an old cherished companion.

Left is young Sirius in his first of many leaf piles. Right is a more regal Sirius in the cold California mountains (one of his favorite places) last winter.

In 2015 we also lost a close family friend: Otto Slater was a great man, and the best neighbor we could have wanted for over 23 years.

tent

Lisa and Steve took two EPIC low-carbon vacations in 2015.

The first was in Eric's Bus/RV, powered primarily from waste vegetable oil obtained from restaurants along the way.
We camped at lots of wonderful state parks along the way, researched and scheduled by Head Navigator Lisa.
Pictures from the trip are available here. We took the bus to many remote locations and only had to back out once!

The second was via Amtrak along our west coast, the Mexican & Canadian borders, and the Mississippi.
Trains are a very restful way to travel. Pictures available here.

We also had a wonderful trip to Tanzania to meet Justine at the end of her semester abroad.
Pictures below include Lisa's mom Nan, Eric's girlfriend Elle and Justine's boyfriend Flo.
(Steve stayed home with the dogs to stay within his carbon budget.) More trip pics here.

Clearly another great year because we got to spend lots of time with family and friends!

The entire Hampton clan met up in Lampasas in April (only the back row was asked to smile)

We did lots of other fun things too, and ate & drank lots of good food throughout the year.

Finally, our estimated carbon tally for the year --
Still doing well, but we saw a slight increase in family carbon emissions above our two prior low years.
(Turns out Africa is very far away.)
Air travel continues to be our biggest challenge in reducing our GHG pollution.

Emissions factors used
1 kWh of PG&E electricity = 0.5 lbs CO2e 1 therm of natural gas = 13.5 lbs CO2e
1 gallon of gasoline = 20 lbs CO2e 1 passenger mile of air travel = 0.5 lbs CO2e
1 serving of Beef = 12 lbs (and 1 CCF of water); Cheese: 5.4 lbs; Pork = 4.8 lbs; Poultry = 2.8 lbs CO2e
1 CCF (748 gallons) of water in SF Bay Area = 2 lbs CO2e