Christmas Letter

Christmas 2007

Dear Friends
Merry Christmas to everyone! For my first year of retirement Gail has assigned me the task of writing our annual Christmas letter. I jumped at the opportunity since we will be leaving in April-08 for a years travelling in our RV. If you are a relation, close friend or past acquaintance you can expect a visit this year.
This past year has seen many changes. We started with our usual trip to Hawaii for the last two weeks in January. Our friends from Nebraska, Dave & Tanya Hull met us there for a great two weeks. In February Gail went to Edmonton to visit her family as her mom is now 93. The end of April came with a visit from Ken & Gail Nicholson from Saskatoon. Ken & I were able to do some cycling with the two Gails shopping . May 31 was my retirement date and saw the closing of the Cumberland Medical Clinic where I had a Family Medicine Practice for 29 years. There was sadness to say goodbye to all my staff and patients but excitement about our new freedom and challenges of starting a new career – Retirement. I continued to work at our walk-in Clinic until the 3rd week in August then ceased practice. Gail and I left Comox August 28 and travelled in our New 5th Wheel for two months returning November 1. Our goal was to see if we liked the life style and could live together in relatively close quarters. In the two months we travelled Western Canada visiting many of you. We stayed in Oliver B.C. for three weeks and had a great time at the wine festival. Alan & family came for a few days and Mom for a week. It was a success and we now can hardly wait to get started on our across Canada trip.
My mother will turn 90 this year and keeps very busy leading an independent lifestyle in Comox. Jennifer and Dave Jordan (her boyfriend) finished their teaching contract in Japan the end of August and travelled to Thailand and Nepal before returning to Canada November 12. They are staying at our house until February 3 when they
will both fly off to New Zealand for two years to get their teaching degrees at the University in Christchurch. Lesley Anne is working in Vancouver for a environmental consulting company and just came back from a two week Australian holiday with Brendon (Her boyfriend). This year will be a special Christmas with both girls home and lots of family time that goes with retirement. We are very fortunate that both sides of the family remain healthy and happy.
On February 3 we will say good bye to Jennifer and Dave at YVR as they head for New Zealand. We will fly to Florida to visit Brad and Sheri Whitman before our 10 day sailing adventure in Belize. Three couples have chartered a 42 catamaran and will be navigating the waters around Belize. We return March 1 and will immediately begin preparation for our big adventure. We will leave Comox the end of April travelling across Canada to Ottawa – late June. We will stay there for about 3 weeks and fly back to Comox for July 1- My mother’s 90th birthday. From Ottawa we will spend August in Nova Scotia and Sept in Newfoundland. The fall colors will be spectacular in Maine as we travel south along the eastern US to Florida where we will stay for about 5 months. We will leave the rig in Florida and fly home for 6 weeks at Christmas then return to Florida Mid-January (2009). In March we will travel across Texas and up through California arriving back in Comox early May. We hope to see old friends such as Blaine & Sue Cruickshank in Ontario and Jerry & Ingrid Baskerville in Texas. Our trip is in the early planning stages and our schedule and travels plans will be posted on my Blog.
Important Contact Info:
E-Mail: rtbrown@mars.ark.com
Phone: Home (250) 339-5900 Cell: (250) 338-3465 Our Home phone will be call forwarded to my cell and in service until we start moving into the US early October. – Roaming charges expensive and not sure what I am going to do for communication. E-mail always works
Blog: I have set up a Blog that will have our updated schedule & Plans
http://69janeplace.blogspot.com/
Pictures at below Fickr Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtbrown/
Please keep this as reference as it will have our updated travel schedule.
Merry Christmas to all.