Hank (Engineering, 1991) and Marian, McDonald spent 17 days in Libya on a Cal BearTrek (California Alumni Association).  They tramped through many ancient Greek and Roman ruins around Tripoli and Benghazi. They crossed the Sahara desert to see Neolithic cave paintings and much of the oldest rock art known.  It's hard to spend any money in Libya, as there is not much to buy except the ornate gold jewelry worn by every bride.  To their surprise you can drink the water and eat the food everywhere.  Libya has no rivers or fresh water lakes, but they have built the great man made river that pipes fresh water to the coastal regions from aquifers 1,200 miles away in the desert.  It was a very physically demanding trip and at times very dusty.  Visualize nine old Toyota land cruisers at 50 mph crossing the desert in an ever shifting formation so that no van gets the flying sand from another van.

Bill Fritts (Nondestructive Evaluation and Hazardous Waste, 1998) retired after 27 years and his wife, Karen, retired from Cal State Hayward.  They moved to Temecula, CA on the Redhawk Golf Course, close to two of their three children, the third living in Oregon. After hip and spinal surgery, he has returned to golfing. With all of the metal, he says he is non-biodegradeable and sure has fun at airport checkpoints

They spent two weeks in southern Spain and Paris early this year – no crowds and the weather not too bad. With Malaga, Spain as their base, they visited the Alhambra in Granada and toured some of the "white" towns in the Andalusian hills around Malaga.  It’s beautiful and without automobiles, it’s like going back 100 years. Malaga is too busy, and dirty.

Cal (Physics, 1993) and Dixie Wood’s (Engineering, 1993) travels: After walking through the mystic Vienna woods, they had dinner at a rebuilt castle that looked like it was out of a fairy story. It had been severely damaged in a fire set by the original owner to get his picture in the paper. The new owner was an absolutely fascinating character, who was doing all the rebuilding and decorating himself. He gave them a personal, private showing them how he had refinished and created molding and designs to embellish the castle, using much of the original wood. He raised hogs for ham, breeding a wild boar with a domesticated sow, to produce tasty ham for his restaurant. They saw his peach orchard, grown to create a special peach beverage. They saw beautiful antiques, including a clock that had belonged to Mozart. Many VIP guests had visited there, including John F. Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth, and others. They saw his oversized garage and the airplane he was building!

The Travel Group will be on Tuesday, May 24th, at 2:00 p.m. in the Community Room of the Livermore Police building, 1110 South Livermore Avenue. The topic is “Southeast Asia with Vietnam” by Arlene and Stephen Chin.

The next Retiree’s luncheon will be held at noon on Wednesday, May 18th at the Elks Lodge in Livermore, 940 Larkspur Drive. Our speaker will be Bob Schock and his topic is “Energy: Is it Important?” There will be opportunity to ask any questions of Bob regarding energy, gas prices, etc.

Don’t forget the Retirees’ Picnic being held on Wednesday, June 15th at noon at Ravenswood on South L Street. You may make reservations on the web site.

Please send any news or input (please include the date and department from which you retired) to Jane or Gus Olson. E-Mail: Jane@LLNLRetirees.org or Gus@LLNLRetirees.org.

This article appeared in the May 6th, 2005, issue of Newsline