Christmas 2000

Pete, Katie, Kevin, and Karen were joined in Park City, Utah by Katie’s parents, and her sister Chris with her two adult daughters, Heather and Lisa to celebrate Christmas 1999. After going once, we invited Katie’s mom and Heather to join us for another snowmobiling trip.   Grandma is quite a terror on a snowmobile.  We enjoyed Christmas Eve in Utah and flew back to Hacienda Heights on Christmas Day.

Katie and Pete celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary with a ten-day cruise through the Panama Canal.  We left from San Juan, Puerto Rico. At a stop in St. Thomas, Katie discovered that they rented wave runners across the island, so off we went to zoom around the Caribbean.  It reminded us of riding our Sea Doos on the Colorado River during the summer. Another stop was the French Island of Martinique. We also visited Grenada where the US bombed the mental hospital (we saw how easy it was to mistake the fort and hospital – especially when the rebels moved their flag to the hospital). On the Dutch Island of Curacao we toured a cave that was 99 degrees and 99 percent humidity, so much for caves being cool. Watching the Queen Emma floating bridge being opened by two outboard motors was a real sight.  At Caracas, Venezuela, Katie bought a bowl from a glass factory, high in the mountains above the city.

Katie had never been through the canal, but Pete had been there when he was twelve years old on a United Fruit Freighter with his parents.  Finally a place that Katie had not been!  We met some really nice people on the cruise, Manly and Janie from Texas. We even managed to win one of the trivia contests.  Katie especially enjoyed a comedic piano player from Scotland.  The cruise ended in Acapulco, Mexico, where we saw the famous cliff divers.

Pete is in his 13^th year of “babysitting packet radios”, some 25,000 of them. Now in his third year working for Southern California Edison, he’s ready to retire anytime, but Katie won’t let him.  The job is not a lot of fun anymore, and it keeps him from frequenting the ham radio swap meets, electronics stores, and maintaining repeaters as much as he would enjoy.

Kevin is in his third year of college at Cal-State Stanislaus. He finally has a roommate that he can do things with and has been on camping trips, rafting, and just general hanging around.  He is enjoying working on the school newspaper and doing computer repairs at the bookstore.

Karen went to the prom in May. She has just finished her third season participating in the high school’s color guard division of the entertainment unit. They took first place in the Tournament of Champions last weekend.   There is a flurry of activity with senior projects, college applications, and pre-winter guard practice.   She is also still active in the National Charity League.  The Junior showcase fashion show was the big event this year (picture at right). 

Katie is part way through another year of “substitute teaching”. This year she has a full time job at Los Altos High School here in Hacienda Heights, with five classes of special education, talk about pupils with behavior problems!   She is also active in the National Charity League where Karen will be participating in the Senior Presentation program in May. Katie still enjoys playing Bunko with her friends once a month (mostly talking, some playing).  Between all that and keeping track of her busy family and poodle, Mr. Beau, she is a very busy person. 

To celebrate Katie’s 50^th birthday, in August, we all went to Lahaina, Maui.  We were expecting a three bedroom, two bath condo, but were pleasantly surprised with a huge three bedroom, three bath unit. Kevin had a closet on the second floor that was bigger than his room at home.  He was happy that he could see the volleyball court.  On a day trip to Molokini, Kevin did a SCUBA dive that “was the best one so far”. On the day that Pete and Katie drove around the North end of the island, Karen also did a dive, her first since taking the certification classes with Pete and Kevin. Karen also arose, yes Karen, at 2 AM to be bussed to the top of the Haleakala Crater. She then rode a bike 37 miles downhill,  after watching the sun rise over the crater (she watched the road too, didn’t crash). Kevin and Karen both took surfing lessons.

In September, we all converged on Minneapolis for Katie’s niece’s wedding. The weather was nice to us, only getting down to the 40’s at night.  The wedding was really great, Heather and Sam make a terrific couple.  We all managed to get there on time, well almost, Kevin was a little late with trying to finish designing and printing his custom calendar wedding present at Kinkos! We really enjoyed seeing the area and some of the sights.  Katie, Pete, and Belgian friend Gerda, were able to find time to join Chris, Katie’s sister, for a ride (one at a time) on Chris’ horse, Levi.  We all hit the Mall of America and even managed to get soaked on the indoor log ride. Pete visited Chris Peterson, an amateur radio friend formerly of Santa Barbara, and his wife Jo, at their White Bear Lake home.

Pete’s daughters are staying busy. Jennifer just landed a great job at Newport Beach’s Hoag Hospital supervising their call center.  Liberty continues to pursue her artistic talents as a web designer.

This week, Pete is off to Pittsburgh for a business trip, and on the way back will spend a couple of days visiting Bob and Charlotte Kuhn on their newly upgraded (by Bob) 65’ yacht on the Potomac River, just outside of Washington, DC.

Our best to you and your families during the holidays. Please come to visit us at 2650 Daytona Ave., Hacienda Heights, CA 91745, (we’re just East of the 605 freeway and just South of the 60 freeway) phone 562-907-9003