A warm and hearty Merry Christmas to all our friends and family.
It has been a year of reconnecting with the past and planning the future for us. We had several trips all across the US. In May we flew out to the San Francisco area to attend the wedding of Bruce’s only Bottomley cousin, Joan. We had met her guy already at Karin’s wedding. Joan married Martin Alter at an historic resort on the hillside overlooking Berkeley. It was a fast trip for us, but we did have a little time to explore the Napa Valley (aptly named: after a bottle of wine in an orchard we needed a napa). We also spent a brief time in Monterrey and Carmel, finally driving the famous 17 mile Pebble Beach road. In 1970, we balked at the $5 fee; it has now risen to $8, which we in our middle-aged affluence decided we could swing. We love the Pacific coast because the scenery is so incredibly beautiful and yet so accessible, usually totally open to all for not a cent. And places to park too. Not an East coast opportunity for sure.
At the end of June and over the 4th of July we were at one of our favorite vacation spots, Door County, Wisconsin, with Sue’s sister and family. We admired their ‘new’ house, constructed out of the beams and boards of their old barn. It was a three year project for them, and it turned out wonderfully well we think. On the Fourth of July we were in Gill’s Harbor, watching two sets of competing fireworks over the water.
In August, Karin and Sue visited Sue’s Aunt Anne in Hyden Kentucky. Sue had been intending to go there for a very long time, but her Aunt’s failing health made the trip imperative. Aunt Anne (Dr. Anne) was the medical director of the Frontier Nursing Service, a midwife training college started in 1925 when there were no roads within 60 miles and the nurses rode on horseback along the streambeds to reach their patients. Neighboring towns with interesting names include Kickshin, Thousandsticks, and Coon Hollow. We went to a bluegrass festival, toured the hospital and school, and read the first draft of Aunt Anne’s memoirs. Sadly, Aunt Anne did die on October 24th. She was buried near New London, New Hampshire, where she had been a physician for more than 20 years.
Interestingly enough, Bruce and Sue had just, 2 weeks before, signed papers and bought a house in New London. We were glad that we could offer hospitality to friends and family attending Aunt Anne’s funeral, and a few weeks later we held an open house for New England friends and relatives. This is a vacation house for us right now, and is to be rented out in the summer and winter as it is in a beautiful resort area. We still own our house in Columbia, and Bruce will not retire again for two more years.
Our children are doing well and are a joy. Karin continues her career as a Web designer (check out e.ventsonline.com) and also works three days a week at Natoli Design in Baltimore, located in a quirky, uniquely Baltimore neighborhood called Hamden. This is where the movie Pecker was filmed. Sue recently met Karin for dinner there to catch a film and see the neighborhood’s famous Christmas decorations, which include a tree constructed entirely of hubcaps (www.christmasstreet.com). Karin’s husband Dan works at Dodge Color, a firm that contracts with the US Postal Service to design stamps. Sarah is a second year graduate student at the University of Maryland, working towards her Master of Public Health. This is her 6th year on campus (actually 5th, as she took one year’s courses in Quebec province). Her boyfriend is named Dan, and hails from British Columbia. He is an assistant professor in sports management at the University of Maryland. Sarah spent a month last summer visiting Dan’s home area, meeting family, and trekking–pack on back–to a remote lighthouse on Vancouver Island where Dan lived as a young child.
You can find pictures of our house in New Hampshire and
other information about our doings at our Web site, bbottomley.tripod.com.
We send our wishes for Peace in the New Year…..peace in
your hearts, families, towns and in the World.