Adventure Plan 2026 and Book Project

Costa Mesa, California

April 7, 2026

Dear Family & Friends:

I hope your 2026 is off to a good start.

Here are two updates—my 2026 Adventure Plan and my Book Project.

2026 Adventure Plan

I have always wanted to complete a tour of the World War II battlefields in the European, African and Pacific Theaters of Operations. This year, I will make part of that dream come true. I have signed up with Alpventures, a preeminent World War II tour operator, to give me a tour of the European battlefields in World War II.

My 2026 adventure begins with a flight to Paris on May 25, 2026. The tour begins on May 27 in France and ends on June 9 in Germany.

May 27-29. We will visit the beaches of Normandy where D Day began on June 6, 1944. We will visit all five beachheads—Utah Beach (US), Omaha Beach (US), where the bloodiest fighting occurred, Gold Beach (UK), Juno Beach (Canada) and Sword Beach (UK).

May 30. We will drive up the French coastline to the Pas-de-Calais area where we will visit the Todt Battery/Atlantic Wall Museum. Pas-de-Calais played a critical role in World War II and D-Day because it is the closest point to England, and Nazi Germany therefore believed it would be the most logical place for an Allied invasion. The Allies intentionally reinforced that belief. This left the weak German forces at Normandy vulnerable to the surprise attack by the Allies on D-Day.

May 31. We will travel to Bastogne in the Ardennes Forest in southern Belgium. When Adolph Hitler launched his last ditch, desperate offensive in December of 1944, capturing Bastogne was essential to his plan to split the Allied forces and push toward Antwerp, one of the Allies most critical supply ports. The resulting “Battle of the Bulge” was one of the largest and bloodiest battles on the Western Front. The Allied victory in this battle marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.

June 1. We will begin with a battlefield tour around Bastogne, including Easy Company’s foxholes near Foy and the area of General Patton’s 4^th Armored Division breakthrough at Assenois, where American forces reached and relieved the surrounded troops at Bastogne. We will continue to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to pay our respects at the American Cemetery in Luxembourg City and see the final resting place of General George S. Patton, Jr.

June 2. We will transfer to the wine village of Ruedesheim and enjoy a Rhine River cruise.

June 3. We will travel south via the German Romantic Road and visit the medieval city of Rothenburg in Germany. In the afternoon, we will travel to Nuremberg, the location of the famous Nuremberg trials (1945-46).

June 4. Our morning will start with a visit to Courtroom 600, in the East Wing of the Palace of Justice. We will hear about the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial in the newly opened museum. We will then travel to city center to see the Imperial Fortress and tour the former Nazi Party Rally Grounds.

June 5. We will drive south to Dachau and tour the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site before viewing a documentary film and visiting the museum. Dachau was the first regular concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in March of 1933 near the town of Dachau, just northwest of Munich. It became a model for the entire concentration camp system that followed.

June 6. In the morning we will drive to Berchtesgaden, which is a small alpine town in the Bavarian Alps in southeastern Germany near the Austrian border. From Berchtesgaden we will drive up Germany’s highest alpine mountain road to the infamous “Eagle’s Nest.” The Eagle’s Nest was Hitler’s mountaintop tea house and conference center. After the tour, we will complete a scenic drive to Ramsau and Lake Hintersee.

June 7. We will travel to Salzburg, Austria, the City of Mozart, my favorite classical composer. I hope to tour his birth home. We will drive back to Berchtesgaden for dinner.

June 8. On the last day of the trip, we will travel to Munich, Germany and tour the city, including a walking tour of the Old Town. We will visit the most significant locations of Hitler’s unsuccessful 1923 Beer-Hall Putsch. At dinner, I will say farewell to my tour companions.

June 9. I will fly from Munich to Krakow, Poland.

June 10-11. I will visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp. Auschwitz was the largest and most infamous complex of concentration and extermination camps, located in German-occupied Poland. It has become the most powerful symbol of The Holocaust. Over 1.1 million people were murdered at Auschwitz. The vast majority were Jews, along with Poles, Gypsies, physically and mentally disabled people, Soviet prisoners of war and others targeted by the Nazi regime.

June 12. I fly home from Krakow.

I will file blog reports on my eightsummits.com website and share photos and videos on my Eight Summits Facebook page.

Book Project

I am working on a book, which is a Memoir of my post-retirement adventures. In the book, I hope to use my adventures after age 60 to motivate people of all ages and all circumstances to live their life “to the fullest.” The title of the book is “Life After 60.” The book is currently 399 pages long, including graphs, tables and photos. I expect to self-publish the book by August of this year. I will keep you advised.

Attached is the current Table of Contents.

Bill