Bruce and Patricia MacCormack Family News

2011 - Travels and Reunions...... The highlight of celebrating our fiftieth anniversary this year was the special extended trip to Europe during September and October. It was wonderful to see so many of a our family and friends again since our last visit to the UK in 2005..Details of our experiences are described below as well as links to other pages and photo albums. Earlier in the year we also visited Mazatlan, Mexico, Palm Springs, California and Tofino, Vancouver Island, Canada. It was fortuitously timely that Bruce retired as chairman of the Bellingham Angel Group in January after almost six years since founding the organization and as chairman of the Northwest Economic Council in March. This was the first time for several years that we have had the free time to do all the things we had planned and we took full advantage of it. We also found time to play a fair amount of golf. The photo on the right is a view of our home from the eighth green at Sudden Valley.

Travels early in the year took us to Mazatlan and a beautiful new property just opened which we had almost entirely to ourselves, (see right). Then a trip to Palm Springs in March visiting friends and in June a long weekend excursion over to Tofino on Vancouver Island with our car friends, (see left).

An Action Filled UK Itinerary

So many people to see, so many places to visit! Our sincere thanks to those who so generously hosted us during this trip: Paul and Viv, Jean and Ivan, (Pat's sister and brother in law), Bill and Margaret, (see right) and Walter and Beth. You were all great to us, including some driving us around - since we were too chicken to drive ourselves! Our journeys took us from London to Warwickshire, Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire and we tried to see as many friends as time would allow. Highlights included visits to the Heritage Motor Centre, Chartwell House, former home of Sir Winston Churchill, Winchelsea and Rye and of course, Chichester for the Goodwood Revival mentioned below. Complete photo albums of this visit can be found here. (Remember to scroll down to the bottom right of the page to find the sub-albums).

Glorious Goodwood Revival 2011

Four couples, friends from our local car group joined us from Bellingham to attend this great three day event and the ladies looked every bit the part in their 'Revival' outfits. The event highlight for me was my personal meeting with Sir Sterling Moss and another was the Fordwater Trophy celebrating fifty years of the Jaguar E-type. The complete Goodwood photo albums can be found here and my Goodwood 2011 page here.

Mediterreanan Cruise starts in Venice

We spent several days in Venice prior to embarking on our cruise on Holland America's Nieuw Amsterdam. Thanks to our friends Duane and Jackie who alerted the President of HAL of our trip, we were given very special treatment whilst on board and it made all the difference. Our ports of call included Dubrovnik, Corfu, Argostoli, Santorini, Catania, Salerno, Rome, Florence and Barcelona where we also spent several days before returning home via Amsterdam. Photo at left is close to our hotel in Venice. Complete photo albums can be viewed here and remember to scroll to the bottom right of the page to view each of the sub-albums.

While our travels have been a wonderful, albeit somewhat exhausting experience this year we are nevertheless disheartened that so many of our dear friends are battling various health issues and so we send them our sincerest wishes that they may regain their good health as soon as possible. Notwithstanding, several were our hosts during this trip and we dedicate this years family report to their courage. The opportunity for us to experience the economic problems that beset Europe as well as here at home strengthen our wishes to all of you for a more prosperous and peaceful coming year. We all deserve it!

Love and best wishes,

Patricia and Bruce

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