1996 Christmas Letter

A lot has happened since our last Christmas letter was sent. Both girls are now married and the two of us have moved onto Lanikai and traveled to San Diego, California. We have a live-aboard slip in Chula Vista until next year when our plans have us traveling further south. Bill got himself tied up in a programming project in April 1995 that was planned to be a 9 month project but is still going on even now. He says that come next June he is done, then we will do some traveling here in Southern California waters until October when we can turn south again. In mid-November ’96 we also received the news that we will become grandparents next July! It seems that our youngest, Gretchen and her husband Rusty have already decided to start a family.

We left the Columbia River in late August and spent 6 weeks traveling down the coast. Newport OR, Eureka CA and San Francisco each got 5 days of our time. Newport was transmission repair time; in Eureka we waited out foul weather and visited with friends. In San Francisco we spent time in Sausalito, at Angel Island, and even one night anchored at the aquatic park off of the Maritime Museum. Over a week was spent in Monterey where Ginger and her new husband Chris live. They are both in the Army and are learning Russian at the language school there. We hope to make it back up to the San Francisco and Monterey areas next summer before we go further south. At that time we will explore more of the harbors between here and there as during our trip down the weather south of San Francisco was so good that we hopped straight from Monterey to Oxnard, then spent one night at Catalina and one in Dana Point before arriving in Chula Vista on October first. The marina here has lots of amenities, especially a hot tub which we both make use of! There is also a pool and a nearby park, that Gilbert enjoys.

Bill’s mother lives here in San Diego, not far from where we are docked, so Doreen spends some mid-week time shopping, or going to movies with her. We plan on having Thanksgiving dinner at her place, but for Christmas we plan to take the boat to Catalina, and maybe some of the other Channel Islands. Both of the girls will spend Christmas with their in-laws this year; Ginger and Chris are off skiing while Gretchen and Rusty will remain in The Dalles.