guestbook-03
1998 Letter

Merry Christmas 1998

 

Christmas 1997 was celebrated here in Hacienda Heights with Katie’s parents joining us from Santa Barbara.

 

This has been a year of change for the Bickerdikes.  After 10 years, Southern California Edison decided they did not want to contract Pete from Metricom anymore. As of March, 1998 Pete became an Edison employee, with all of the benefits of working for a utility (discount on electricity is the only one that comes to mind).  Same boss, same desk, same job, just different employer’s name on the paycheck.

Pete, Kevin and Karen took a six week scuba certification class that included several ocean dives. The one off of Casino point at Catalina Island was the most fun. The California Pacific ocean is sure cold in February!

The four of us went on a weeklong Caribbean cruise during Easter vacation in April.  While Katie went snorkeling on St. John island, Pete, Karen, and Kevin went SCUBA diving on Easter Sunday at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Pete even found one of the plastic Easter eggs placed under 40’ of water.

Karen is a Sophomore and has joined the Color Guard at Los Altos High School.  She is one of the tall flag performers. With the rest of the band unit, she will be performing in Italy during spring vacation.  Along with singing in the school choir and her continuing Charity League work, she stays quite busy.

Katie and Pete toured Alaska by cruise ship in August. We flew to Anchorage and boarded the ship at Seward, visiting three other Alaskan cities, Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchikan. We came very close to some monster glaciers. Skagway was an interesting stop with a ride on the narrow gauge train built to take the gold miners over the 5,000 foot pass above the town.

Just after our Alaska cruise, another bout with retina surgery forced Katie to spend two weeks in bed with no movement. Fortunately her parents were able to come down for a while and help out.  Katie was two weeks late starting her teaching job at the high school.

We now have a college student. Kevin graduated from high school in June and entered the Computer Science department at California State University Stanislaus in September and is finding out what being on your own is all about.

Pete and Katie took the Sea Doo boats up the Colorado river from Lake Mead with 60 other members of the River Runner’s club.  About 40 miles above the lake, we had to stop because of strong rapids and a river marker denoting the beginning of the Grand Canyon. After lunch and refueling (we hauled 10 gallons for our boats), we headed back down to the little town of Meadview for a barbecue.

Thanksgiving saw Kevin, Katie and Pete (Karen had band performance commitments and could not join us) along with Katie’s parents off to our three bed-room condominium  at Kahana, Maui for a welcome break.  Kevin was able to scuba at Molokini crater while the rest of  us snorkeled. Pete and Katie drove up to the 10,000 foot Haleakala volcano.  We had a great homemade Thanksgiving meal overlooking the Pacific ocean.

Kevin completed his Eagle scout requirements and had a court of honor  at Saint Mark’s church in June, complete with a surprise visit from Katie’s sister, Chris, from Minnesota.

Pete’s daughters, Jennifer and Liberty, are keeping busy too.  Liberty has moved to Mammoth to pursue skiing and snowboarding. Jennifer has just been promoted to an educator at the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara and is enjoying working in health care.

We are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home. We wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy Holiday Season.  We hope to see many of you during the New Year.  

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