Edgar Peck (Chemistry Test, 1990) and his wife Janet enjoyed another traveling vacation this year. They spent the last two weeks of June in the Canadian Rockies. From Vancouver and Victoria to Banff and Calgary they saw beautiful scenery by tour bus and the Rocky Mountaineer train. There were two firsts for them: a walk on a glacier and a float plane trip (Vancouver to Nanaimo). The weather was very cooperative with just a brief light shower or two. Their bus was delayed at one spot by mountain sheep on the road; at another point a bear and her cub were standing near the road. Some of the other highlights were a Skyride air-tram to Grouse Mountain, a dinner and show in Kamloops, a rafting tour of Maligne Lake, a grand lunch buffet at the Fairmont Chateau on Lake Louise, and some time at the Olympic Park in Calgary.

Janet continues both as a volunteer tutor at a local school for first graders who need special help in learning how to read and as a tutor for an additional child at home. Three times in the past year, Janet helped prepare fifty dinners for homeless person who rely on a number of area churches for meals and overnight accommodations. For relaxation, she enjoys many laps in their swimming pool. They both continue to sing in their “occasional” church choir.

Edgar continues to serve as chief financial officer and as an elder at their church. He also serves as a regional elder for the Christian Church of Northern California-Nevada. He does some substitute preaching (nine times this past year). Edgar and Diane Wilson, a pastoral partner, jointly conducted a wedding for her son and his bride at a resort at Lake Tahoe. Edgar opted out of serving as pastor-counselor for the regional Disciples Men this past year, but is now a director-at-large for that group.

Frank (NIF and ME, 2003) and Sigrid Rainer had another whirlwind year of travels in 2008. They began the year in South America, primarily in Patagonia after Frank had completed his journey to the South Pole. They were home for only seven weeks before taking off in March for five weeks of driving in the Iberian Peninsula and another five weeks cruising the Spanish and Portuguese islands and colonies in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and off the coast of Morocco. They wrapped up their foreign travel year in the Pacific. Hawaii offered some of its traditional fare - riding bikes down a volcano; scuba diving with the sharks, manta rays and giant turtles; braving the smoke and lava of the active volcanoes. A repeat trip to Tahiti provided more touring of four traditional islands as well as some more spectacular diving with sharks - fortunately the non-man-eating variety. In between they cruised on an expedition ship along the Line Islands of Kiribati where Frank found a giant glass float on the beach of a deserted island. Unfortunately it was too big and heavy to bring home as a souvenir. The second leg of the cruise took them to the lush outlying French islands such as the Marquesas. The highlight of that portion was a visit to Pitcairn Island, home of the descendants of the mutineers from the HMS Bounty. They spent a full day hiking the entire island, which is not really very large, and met essentially every resident still living there (except for the lone prisoner guarded by some New Zealand constables). Again, they had a spectacular scuba dive at the 1875 wreck of the Cornwallis. They did also spot the original ballast stones of the Bounty as well. On the evening of the arrival to the island, six Pitcairners (about one tenth of the population) came on board for dinner and a night's stay. That provided an opportunity for the ship's tourists and staff to have detailed conversations with the locals. Frank sat next to Andy Christian, eighth-generation descendant of Fletcher Christian himself. Andy, only 23 years old, is the island webmaster and had just finished building a mountain-top house. His goal was to now find a wife, although she would have to be accepting of a body covered with tattoos and a head full of metal studs and earrings.

The LLNL Retirees Travel Group meets the fourth Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. from January through June in the Community Room at the Livermore Library, 1188 South Livermore Avenue. The February 24th program is entitled “Tanzania Safari” by Barbara and Dick Mallon.

The February Retirees luncheon will be held on Wednesday, February 18th, at 11:30 a.m. at the Elks Lodge, Springtown Livermore. The speaker will be Dr.  Lloyd Hackel, an LLNL retiree who is now an entrepreneur and inventor of a truly incredible laser device. If you want to learn of real-world applications of the lab's extraordinary contributions to the country, this is a must hear presentation. The cost of the luncheon is $10 and you must sign up by Friday, February 13th.

Lloyd earned his BS degree from the University of Wisconsin (1971) and earned his Doctors degree from MIT (1974). After graduating, Lloyd was recruited and employed by LLNL for over 28 years as an R&D professional working in the labs world class laser program.  The culmination of his work was the development and perfection of a unique pulsed laser that was licensed by the lab to a private sector firm, Metal Improvement Company, for commercial application.  After collaborating with the firm under a DOE approved Cooperative agreement and developing applications for aircraft and power generation equipment, Lloyd left the lab and joined the firm at its Livermore facilities in 2004 as the Vice President for Advanced Technologies.

Lloyd's talk will include slides showing the array of familiar "products" to which his laser has been applied to make them more reliable, cost-effective, and longer lasting.  The impact that his creativity has had on products, which benefit our lives and enhance US competitiveness, is most impressive!

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