2019
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019!
[For our New Year card, we reminisce on the highlights of the previous year, in this case 2018...]
Highights of 2018 (in 16 photos):
On Feb 1, the first day of Diane’s RETIREMENT (YAY!!!!) …Alan & Diane went to hear Daniel Ellsberg speak at our local middle school. Since Ellsberg’s famous action exposing the “Pentagon Papers” (a significant element leading to the ending of the Vietnam War) was featured in Alan’s brother Richard’s book, Refusal to Submit, that had just been published, Alan gave a copy to Ellsberg (photo below taken by Diane). Ellsberg, who had been autographing copies of his own book, looked at Refusal to Submit and said, “Is this for me?”
Ellsberg autographed a copy of his own book for Diane.
On March 18, we were at my older brother Dan's and his wife Susan's 40-year wedding anniversary at their daughter's house (Becka) in LaPorte CO.
On April 5 we were at the retirement party of my close friend and colleague Edna DeVore, who was Executive Director of the SETI Institute in Mountain View CA and had a long career in planetarium and astronomy education. I was asked to give one of the short speeches of praise for her.
My uncle Charlie, professional bassoonist and pianist who had played in the MGM Orchestra for many years passed away in 2018. Dan, Diane, and I went to his funeral and memorial. Here we are on June 16 at the Japanese Garden in Van Nuys CA that we visited.
The biggest travel event of the year was when we went to Toulouse, France for Alan to attend the International Planetarium Society (IPS) conference at the beginning of July. On the way (end of June), we toured a few cities and chateaus. We went from Paris to Tours on a train. Here is Diane across from the train station in Tours on June 24.
One of the most beautiful chateaus was the one in Chambord, as seen in the photo below taken by our tour guide.
[Click for higher res image:]
The chateau at Chenonceau was built over a river. Here's Alan proving he was there (June 26).
...and Diane too.
Our next stop was Bordeaux on June 28. The trip from Tours to Bordeaux was a problem when our train reservation got canceled due to the strike that had been happening off and on for months. But a tour guide and a helpful railway agent saved us — we got booked on an earlier train that had not been canceled. We walked around Bordeaux and went on a wine tour. At one stop on the tour, St. Emilion in Aquitaine June 28, we walked old cobblestone streets.
At the end of the IPS conference, just before our return to Berkeley, there was a big banquet in the magnificent Toulouse City Hall. Diane captured some of the beauty of one of its halls with fantastic art on the ceiling and walls in this photo from July 5. [click/zoom for higher res]
Alan went to another planetarium conference in Seattle in September: the Live Interactive Planetarium Symposium (LIPS). Diane came and we were in a hotel across the street from the Space Needle.
We were able to visit Diane's relatives (Taokas) living in Seattle. After the conference we visited Alan’s college buddy Dave Siebert and his wife Carol in their new home in Bonney Lake WA. On our last day there, Dave drove us up to Mt Rainier on a beautiful sunny day.
And here's Dave....
May you have a safe but exciting (if that's how you want it), healthy and peaceful 2019!