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December 1999

Happy New Year to all our friends! We were slow with our Christmas greetings this year so we hope you had an enjoyable Christmas and are starting a prosperous New Year. This may make it to some of you, electronically, before Christmas!

Our first adventure in 1999 was during February. We went to Mount Washington for 4 days of skiing. As we drove up the ski hill we encountered a windy, whiteout storm that had already left a lot of snow on the road. When we eventually arrived we found our 3-storey chalet encased in drifts from the ground to the roof. It was quite a job finding a spot to park the truck and unloading our things in the storm and darkness, only to find that the power had gone out. We had a cold, dark night, but by morning the power was on and the storm had stopped. We had excellent skiing for the next few days.

During our spring break Mike had an opportunity to backcountry ski for a week amongst the glaciers and mountains of the Roger’s Pass area. Mike dropped Monica, Jenny and Claire in the Okanagan on the way to the Roger’s Pass where they spent a week visiting Monica’s parents and her brother’s family. Mike had a spectacular trip, but said he had never been so tired in his life! Each day, they climbed up about 1000 metres on their skis and then had to telemark ski back down. It was much harder than telemarking at the ski hill.

In April, Mike was asked by a local film company to accompany them for a trip to the Galapagos to film sharks. Most of the filming was done in an area Mike had not previously visited, which was an extra bonus. The group dove several times a day with very large schools of hammerhead, Galapagos and silky sharks. Diving with the hammerheads and Galapagos sharks was amazing but uneventful, but the silky sharks were more aggressive and caused some tense moments amongst the divers. The film produced is called “Sharks of the Golden Triangle” and it has been shown on Discovery channel.

Jenny was invited to participate in 2 plays staged by the senior school students. In first she played one of Lady MacDuff’s daughters in ‘MacBeth’. In the second she was a child in a holocaust play called ‘Playing for Time’. Both Jenny and Claire were asked to model clothes in the graduating class fashion show. Both events were lots of fun and the girls enjoyed the attentions of the older kids and want to do more of these shows.

Mike turned 40 in June so we had a big party. He received lots of presents, many of them silly and related to his interests (fishing, rocks and beer!) such as a plastic fish tie and a rock that said, “at least you are not as old as this rock”!

We joined the Victoria Palaeontology club on a fossil hunting camping trip to Hornby Island. There we scoured the rock shelf beaches for ammonites and bacculites. We were successful and came home with a much heavier truck.

In June Mike went to San Francisco to attend a Galapagos Symposium held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. It was an excellent symposium and Mike was able to meet many old friends and make new acquaintances. This trip also resulted in Mike being asked to lead a trip to the Galapagos in August for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He will likely lead a trip for them next year.

The summer vacation started as it has for the past few years with a few days of work for Mike in Vancouver. He was working on a project for the Ministry of Education. As usual, Monica, Jenny and Claire came along to share the hotel room, use the waterslide, do fun things in the big city and to visit Vancouver family.

Monica and the girls went to the Okanagan next and spent time at the cabin by the lake. Jenny and Claire spent all day playing with their 3 cousins. Monica and Diane kept an eye on them to make sure they didn’t get into difficulty in the lake and fed them once in awhile. It is so wonderful how they can entertain each other now.  Mike joined us at the cabin after some fishing at Port Renfrew, where he caught a 25lb. salmon. 

After being home long enough to do laundry and pack, we made an eventful start on our trip to England and Scotland. We nearly missed our flight! We thought we were to leave a day later than we actually were. We missed the Victoria to Vancouver flight by a couple of minutes, but luckily the Vancouver to Heathrow flight was delayed an hour so we were able to catch the next flight to Vancouver get the plane to England. Never do we want that kind of stress again!

Once in England we had a lovely time visiting Mike’s family, some for the first time, as well as castles, beaches, and country estates. The highlights for Jenny and Claire included playing with their cousins and especially riding Josh the pony at the Akenheads.

The solar eclipse occurred during our last full day in England. Mike tried to find a way to get to Cornwall or France where the eclipse was to be 100%, but everything was fully booked. Instead we viewed it from the patio of Mike’s Mother’s house and probably had one of the better views in England, as it was cloudy and rainy in Cornwall. Also, we didn’t have 5-hour delays on the motorways. We saw a 98% eclipse in a virtually cloudless sky! Mike was able to celebrate with a bottle of Eclipse Ale brewed especially for this event.

Shortly after returning to Canada Mike flew to Ecuador to lead a Galapagos trip for a company he hadn’t worked for before. He had a terrific trip and is keen to lead trips for this company again.

In September Jenny started grade 4, which is very different from the previous grades. She has a new uniform, has taken up the violin, has different teachers for every subject and now they have tests and more sports opportunities. Claire is in grade 2 and is very glad to be back with her friends. We were very pleased with their first term reports. Both girls have been taking precision skipping and gymnastics after school.

Monica is again volunteering at the school library and has put her name on the tutor registry for helping geography students. She has had enjoyed brushing up on her degree subject and being part of the senior school once again.

Mike is so busy with school and his other activities that he hasn’t had time to write what they are, so suffice it to say he is keeping very busy and didn’t write much of this letter! That is also why there are no pictures with the letter this year. However, there are a few family snaps on our “family web site” at http://members.home.net/mjackson3/.

Our Christmas vacation starts in a couple of days. Mike is immediately going off on a 3-day avalanche training course at Mount Washington. When he returns we will all drive to Monica’s parents’ house for Christmas. We will visit family and friends and hopefully do some skiing. On Boxing Day Mike flies to Ecuador for a ‘Millennium’ Galapagos trip.

 All the best,

            Mike, Monica, Jenny and Claire

This page was last updated on 01/06/01 by Mike Jackson.

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