Bill and Sue Eckert

We wish you a wonderful holiday season, and look forward to seeing you in a happy New Year-wow…2010 already!

After beautiful gatherings hosted by the Copelands, Mathises and Hannons and what we hope to make a holiday tradition with Dick & Dorothy Stewart (dinner in the Broadmoor Tavern when this 5-star hotel is decorated for Christmas), we flew to Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise last January. We boarded Independence of the Seas there…at the time the largest ship ever home-ported in Europe, @160,000 tons of beauty (and great food), with onboard miniature golf, basketball, skating and ice show. It took us to pleasant explorations of San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Royal Caribbean's nice beach in Labadee, Haiti. Yet again, Sue rang the bell on top of the climbing wall, while at sea. I tried and enjoyed (without standing up-wasn't born yesterday…) the shipboard surfing wave. We convinced ourselves to ride the ½-mile zip-line from a hilltop in Labadee down to the beach, and will do that again any time we get another opportunity. Our team won 1st Place the ship-wide Trivia Tournament, and Bill even split a $50 prize for answering questions during the lecture on Pirates of the Caribbean (we have these really valuable skills…). Fun time, though I found that our stretching class seemed to involve a bit more pain than when we discovered this great daily shipboard wake-up activity 10 years ago.

Back ashore, we drove over to Ft. Myers to combine vacationing with looking at potential vacation homes. This nice little town (e.g., Edison and Ford summer homes are there) is foreclosure capital #2 in the nation, after Las Vegas…due, we found according to a realtor, to some 70% of the thousands of available canal-home purchases of the previous few years being by investors not residents. Bob & Judy Pastusek flew down to explore with us for the first couple days, and we enjoyed the good company. Bob flew me around the area to photograph neighborhoods (using half the plane's available power…).

In April, I completed 7 good years with Booz|Allen|Hamilton to accept an offer I couldn't refuse to join the Civil Service. After a few weeks as Acting Director of the Commander's Action Group in HQ NORAD and USNORTHCOM (being 5 years older than the Commander…), I settled into my new job as Director of Strategic Communications in the CAG, which is an over-blown term for leader of the speechwriting team + deputy duties. This is as much fun as ever.

Sue & Chloe continue daily 3-mile fast walks on the hillsides around the Academy, which I join on weekends. These keep us all in pretty good shape, and at almost 3 years old have helped Chloe grow into a very good dog ("a tired dog is a good dog").

Katie's now a C-17 Instructor Pilot, found a nice ski boat (the water around Charleston being shallow for sailing), and will deploy for the third time to the sandbox. She loves her squadron-mates, and remains one of 3 captains who rotate through being Squadron Exec when not flying. She's enjoying more free time to socialize, having now completed her Master's in Diplomacy with Norwich University. Good to get that done when young and single.

We enjoyed a fun summer visit with Dick & Dorothy Stewart in Frisco, CO, where Chloe got to go along. Walking her downtown, I got a kick out of hearing a passer-by say to his friend, "I need to rent a dog-everybody up here has one." This is just about the case, with most dogs wearing a typical western bandanna. We've enjoyed having our sponsor cadets, Brendan and Peter, over throughout the year. A neat outing, as guests of Peter's parents Becky & Joe Tarvin, was our first trip to Minneapolis, including our first look at Mall of America, Minnehaha Falls (Hiawatha's girlfriend), a pleasant visit to their home, and brunch aboard a cruise boat looking at mansions on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. This is a gorgeous area, full of nice people who still appreciate the notoriety brought by Mary Tyler Moore, not to mention the General Mills and Pillsbury mills born on either side of the first falls of the Mississippi.

We went to Charlottesville, VA for the wedding of nephew Justin Siglow and his beautiful bride Rachel. Everybody stayed at inns around the countryside, the wedding was in a very old Episcopal church, and the wonderful reception and dinner were at a gorgeous polo ranch and vineyard. On the way there, we enjoyed the hospitality of Bob & Judy Pastusek, and from their house went out to explore on the Eastern Shore. Beautiful area.

We hope you & yours enjoy a Merry Christmas & New Year.

Love,
Bill and Sue

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