It is Christmas at the White House!


It has been an eventful year for the White folks.



Last year we permanently moved into our condo in Islamorada Florida. (By the way, if you click on several of these pictures, a larger view will be displayed. If you find pictures overlapping the text, just change the size of your browser's window and maybe that will help.) This has been our first full year of retirement, and wow, it has been a lot of fun. Looking back on it while writing this letter, I realize that this might have been the most fun year we have had ever! I hope yours has been as much fun.

Betty decided that she needs to get out of the house more, and got her real estate license. She is now one of the newest realtors for Schwartz Property Sales, Inc. and is working out of the Islamorada Office.

When Bob isn't fishing, reading about fishing, or talking about fishing, he spends a lot of time managing our stock portfolio and surfing the web. Bob also acquired a digital camera, and has been having a lot of fun with it. Bob has been doing a little bit of consulting. Bob designed a couple of web pages for a few clients, and has a possibility for a long-term consulting assignment in New England. We occasionally rent out our condo which affords us the opportunity to travel. We currently have a renter for the month of March, but we haven't decided where we will go yet.

Our kids are doing well. David got his MBA in Business Management, and is living in Albuquerque managing a storage warehouse. His e-mail address is superdave007@earthlink.net.

Misty is a senior at the University of California at San Diego. With a bit of luck, she will graduate at the end of next year, but she hasn't decided yet what she will do. She has mentioned graduate school in Oregon, as well as the Peace Corps. Her E-mail address is mistymistywhite@hotmail.com.



Our Travels



We did a fair amount of traveling this year. In April, we went to the Tampa area for a few days, and stayed in Larry Leach's (a friend of mine from Idaho) condo in Lutz, Florida. While we were there, we drove up to Crystal River, and passed by several outfits offering snorkeling/swimming trips with the manatees that inhabit the rivers up there. We decided to give it a try, and it was one of the most memorable experiences we had during the year.



As it turns out, Crystal River isn't very crystalline. Manatees, which weigh up to 2000 lbs eat a lot of weeds and stuff - up to 300 lbs a day. That means they gotta poop about 299 lbs a day, which in turn makes the water kinda cloudy.



It was very creepy approaching a critter in the water that weighs as much as a bull that you can't see. My first encounter with one was that I reached out and touched it before I could see it, which scared the daylights out of me and the manatee. It is hard to scream wearing a snorkel!



Later, after we (and the manatees) figured out we weren't in any danger, they turned playful, coming up to examine us closely, and blowing bubbles under us. These big gentle playful creatures made a very big impression on us. If you ever have the chance to swim with them, don't pass it up.



In February, we took a ferry over to the Bahamas to look around. The ferry turned out to be a high-speed catamaran, and runs daily from Miami to Nassau for $99 bucks a head, and was an interesting trip. Later, Bob got interested in cruises, and we got a great deal on a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas using the onsale.com auction site for a mere $295 bucks.



It turned out, our deluxe cabin was about the size of your average walk-in closet, and was buried in the bowels of the ship near the engine room, but since it didn't come with bilge rats, it was serviceable.
The ship was a converted WW-II liberty ship under Panamanian registry, which was converted to a cattle boat, and later converted to a "deluxe" cruise ship. It had more rust than steel, I think. It had about a 10 degree list to port too. The food was good tho, and we had fun.



We also took a trip back to Texas in July for a family reunion. While in Texas, we stayed around Plainview baby-sitting Betty's mom for about a month while Betty's sister attended a wedding in Chicago. Betty's mom will be 97 in early January, as is still active. While in the area, we took a side trip to New Mexico to see David, and we also visited my cousins in Albuquerque and in Ruidoso. We are currently planning on spending Christmas in Albuquerque with our children.





Sinking of the Boat



We had to cut our trip to Tampa short - we got a phone call that informed us that our beloved boat, 'Gone Fission', was sitting on the bottom of the harbor. A quick phone call to our insurance company, our mechanic, and a salvage company got it snatched out of the water and the engines 'pickled' in short order. After a couple of months of waiting for insurance settlements and repairs to be made, she is better than ever. We had everything electrical replaced, including two batteries, bilge pumps, electrical cables, control cables, instruments, charging systems, starters, the works. We also had the carbs rebuilt. It is in better shape now than when she sunk.
It turned out, the cause of the sinking was a combination of a lot of things, including weak batteries, a slow leak, and failure to put the battery charger on the correct battery. Live and learn, I suppose.







The Hurricanes



We had several close calls with the weather during the last year. Hurricane Floyd scared us spitless - it was 4 times bigger than Andrew, and more powerful to boot while out in the Atlantic heading straight for us. Fortunately, just about the time we were getting ready to make a run for it, it took a turn toward the Carolinas, and weakened.

We were not so lucky with Irene. The weatherman assured us that she was going to go up the east coast of the state and hit Tampa. Instead, she crossed the keys near Islamorada, and we received near hurricane force winds. Fortunately, the direction of peak winds was favorable, and we received only minor damage near our condo complex. As it turned out, we needed to be near Miami so Betty could take her exam for her real estate license, so we buttoned up our place and rode out the storm in Florida City (a small town just south of Miami). We were without electricity about 24 hours, and there was some damage near the marina along with several tree branches down, but all in all we had less damage than we had last year, and everything is back to normal now.





Our Visitors



Fortunately, we had several other visitors last year, besides Floyd and Irene, that were much more fun. In late-January or early-February, Ben Cherry, my cousin who lives mostly in Albuquerque, and his wife June visited us. Unfortunately, the weather was so windy that we didn't have an opportunity to do any serious fishing. All was not lost, however, since Betty made arrangements to take June swimming with the Dolphins at the Dolphin Research Center. This was a real hoot.



We had a lot of fun with Ben and June, and we hope they come back soon! For more pictures of Ben and June during this trip, try this link.





Our next visitors arrived in late February or early March, and were my friend Gary Eller, and his brother Chuck. Even though Gary worked at Los Alamos, I didn't meet him until I went to Washington. Gary was responsible for getting me hooked on sturgeon fishing.



Since the weather was nice, we had the opportunity to go fishing, but unfortunately, the sailfish weren't biting. We did have a lot of fun with the barracudas out at Alligator light. We also caught a few dolphin and blackfin tuna out at the hump. For more pictures of Gary and Chuck during this trip, try this link.



My cousin Linda Heaton and her husband John visited us in April. While their visit was short (only lasting 4 days), we did manage to get in a trip to Key West, a snorkeling trip out to the reef, and a couple of fishing trips out to the hump.



Of all our visitors that we took fishing, John and Linda had the most success fishing, catching a few blackfin tuna, lots of dolphin, and a monster wahoo that probably weighed around 45 to 50 lbs. Click the photo of John and Linda to see what I mean, or to see lots of pictures of John and Linda during this trip, try this link.



We had some visitors visit us twice last year. Our wonderful friends Beverly and Greg Funnell from Washington State spent a week with us in May and then because we had so much fun, again in October. I guess our most unusual adventure with Bev and Greg was the Fantasy Fest Parade in Key West for Halloween. It was truly bizarre. Fantasy Fest is sort of like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, except the people are drunker and they wear less clothes. Other than Fantasy Fest, we fished, we sunned, we swam, but most of all we laughed. It sure has been quiet around here since they left!



Well, this letter is getting out of hand, so I had better close. We hope your year has been fun, profitable, rewarding, and fulfilling. We would love to hear from you, and we love visitors. As a matter of fact, Betty would love someone to come down to go fishing with me so that she wouldn't have to go so often! May this holiday season find all of you as happy and healthy as we are.

ADDRESS




Home/Work:   88181 Old Hwy, #H21, Islamorada, FL  33036 (305) 853-5606
FAX/Email:   (305) 853-5689 / whitej7@ASME.org

This page was last updated on 12/6/99.