Happy 64th birthday dad! (that's a cake with candles on his head).

Merry Christmas

Well, we're back. I know it's been a while, but I won't make excuses. I just haven't been motivated to keep up with the blog. We've been doing well since we last posted. We're excited to spend Christmas with family next week. May you all have a very Merry Christmas.

Hollywood Bowl, Planet Earth and talking monkeys

About a week ago we attended the Hollywood Bowl and saw the LA Philharmonic perform music from the BBC's Planet Earth series while selections from the series were projected on a HD screen above the stage. The music was fabulous, but the clips from Planet Earth were spectacular and provided lots of material for commentary. One of Richie's favorite clips was one of monkeys wading through water (seen here). The dialogue Richie gave to the monkeys: "Ooo, ooo, oh. This water is so cold. Oh, ooo, ooo." After the concert Richie also decided that he would design a new animal that represents the strongest animals of the air, land and sea. The "Shatigle" represents the Shark, Tiger and Eagle. I'll post the picture of this new creature as soon and he develops it.

Lost Pictures: Arizona

So here are the last of the lost pictures from our trip -- the photos we didn't post while on the road. Our final stop was The Grand Canyon in Arizona. You know, I kind of thought this famous national landmark might not impress me that much. I admit I was skeptical, but when we walked out to the park's South Rim, I was anything but underwhelmed. It truly is breathtaking and, well, grand. We didn't have a lot of time to explore so we spent a couple of hours walking along the rim and admiring the views. They were quite spectacular. Here is a small sampling:

Lost Pictures: Santa Fe

I loved Santa Fe, NM. The weather was beautiful, there were tons of art galleries and the food was amazing. Our first stop was the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. The exhibition was a lot smaller that we thought it would be but there were several gems that I fell in love with. Richie liked them too. (Below: Above the Clouds and Red Hills 1927, by Georgia O'Keeffe)

We then walked by the Palace of the Governors where Native Americans from the regional tribes sell handmade jewelry and gifts. The day we were there the city park was also full of people listening to live music playing on the public bandstand.

We saw the The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi and walked through the adjacent park where local punks were throwing balls at the monuments and sculptures in the park. We thought maybe they shouldn't be doing that so we reported them to a police officer we saw on the street. Does that mean we've become old and fuddy-duddy?

Lost Pictures: St. Louis

Some more unreleased pictures from our trip. We spent a great three days in St. Louis with Emily, Doug, Benjamin and baby Claire. It was so fun to see their new place and get to know their new town.We went to the zoo one night and enjoyed a picnic, an outdoor concert, a crazy lady dancing and the sea lions. Of course I had a post a picture of Richie with the kid pointing at the animals. Benjamin loved it.
So in St. Louis they have White Castle, a fast food joint famous for their mini burgers. I had never eaten there and Richie raved about the place, so we decided to make a stop. Since we had Benjamin in the car at the time, Richie decided to go inside by himself to get the food while I waited outside with Benjamin. He came back with the "Crave Case" - a box of 30 mini burgers. Richie soon realized that he had miscalculated how many burgers we would need to feed four adults and a two-year-old. More than half of the box sat in Em & Doug's fridge until we left. I'm pretty sure they trashed them as soon as we were gone. Unfortunately, I can't say I love White Castle burgers as much as Richie.

As long as we still have video chat

So now that the East Coast Stahr girls are no longer together on the East Coast, we've figured out how to add technology to our communications. We just had our first iChat and it was so much fun! Now that we all have Mac computers, it makes video chatting so easy. Here's a snapshot from today's call. I especially love Madeline all dressed up like a pioneer. You might not be able to see, but she is wearing one of the dresses that my Grandma Stahr gave Rebecca and I when we were younger.
I also believe anyone with a gmail account and a web camera can iChat (even if you don't have a Mac) so let me know if you want to chat. I promise I'll do my hair that day.

Lost Pictures: TN, KY & IN

In Tennessee we stopped at the Knoxville Museum of Art and saw some beautiful photographs and paintings. This one was our favorite: Fallen, 2009 by Gordon Cheung. If you look closely at the painting you can see the background is a layer of stock listings from the London Financial Times. A interesting juxtaposition of a suffering horse and rider and a suffering economy. We strolled around old town Lexington one evening and saw some cool old homes and buildings. We also walked by Rupp Arena, University of Kentucky's famous house of basketball.
This is the only picture I took in Indiana. We only passed through the southern most tip and I don't think we even got out of the car. Maybe someday we'll visit all of the cities of Bristow throughout the United States. On this trip we passed through Bristow, IN and Bristow, OK. Richie especially liked this sign because it had his birth year - 1972.

Lost Pictures: North Carolina

Here are a few more pictures of the Biltmore. This is the view of the estate's "backyard" and then a side view of the massive house, the largest private residence in the US.This is the house Richie lived in during his North Carolina years. It was fun to see his old home and get a feel for where he grew up. I believe the asphalt driveway that is still there was originally laid by Richie. As the legend goes, one day his dad told him he needed to put in a new driveway while his dad was to be out of town. He left some money with Richie and told him he expected it to be done by the time he got home. Richie feverishly called local vendors and arranged for asphalt to be delivered to their home. Then, this strong teenage boy worked for hours to level the driveway by hand. He says now that he learned a lot from that project and was glad his dad gave him the responsibility. Twenty years later it's still there, although it's looking a little rough. Maybe the new owners need to ask their teenage son to put in a new driveway.

Lost Pictures: Deleware

When we stayed with Matt & Rebecca, the World Cup was just starting and their whole family was immediately hooked. Madeline seemed especially interested in the games and everyone cheered when the US scored a goal. One particularly nice day we spent several hours at the pool and then came inside to enjoy the USA v. Slovenia game. Those are some good summer memories.These pictures are from a magical evening at Longwood Gardens. Madeline decided she wanted to put on a dance performance, lit only by the lovely lightening bugs. I tried some different settings on my camera and captured these ethereal moments of mother and daughter dancing with the fireflies.

Close to home

We just crossed the Continental Divide and we will visit the Grand Canyon later today. Tomorrow we'll head home after three weeks on the road. We're excited to be home.

Land of Enchantment

We stopped in Santa Fe yesterday and enjoyed a beautiful New Mexico afternoon. After spending the night in Albuquerque we ate breakfast at Cecelia's Cafe which was recently featured in the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Yummy red chili sauce and carne adovada. More pictures from Santa Fe to come.

Having a blast

We watched the fireworks tonight under the Arch in St. Louis. It is quite possibly the coolest place to watch fireworks.

Here comes the parade

The parade was fun but hot. Once our shade dissapeared, we were out of there. Fireworks at the Arch tonight.

Mid Way in the Mid West

We arrived in St. Louis on Thursday and are visiting Emily, Doug, Benjamin and new baby Claire. Today we're downtown getting ready to watch the 4 th of July parade.

Knoxville and Lexington

Wednesday and Thursday we passed through Knoxville, TN and Lexington, KY. We visited both U of Tennesee and U of Kentucky, hit the Knoxville museum of art, saw beautiful horse farms and walked around old town Lexington. Here is one of my favorite photographs from the museum, taken by Eudora Welty in 1935 in Mississippi.

Holy Roller

The Bible Belt

Scene -- after spending a long hot day at the Biltmore, a tired couple
drives through downtown Asheville looking for a local hangout to eat
dinner. Suddenly their car is surrounded by numerous concourses of
pious cyclists.
Amber: What are we looking at?
Richie: (immediately) Nun ya biznass.

North Carolina is Beautiful

We spent last weekend in in Greensboro, NC visiting Richie's friends. It was fun to meet all of the people he talks about and I loved listening to the stories they tell about him. After our visit we headed to Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore. I have always wanted to go there and it was truly a magnificent place.

Fancy fast food

We just arrived in Asheville, NC and hit the McDonalds to use the wi-
fi. They have a fireplace and a grand piano. It's fancy here. More
updates to come.

DC clean out

Well we left DC on Saturday and as we drove away, I cried. I don't think I ever really felt super sad the first time I left because I still had stuff there and I thought I'd be back. But on this trip I emptied out my storage unit, picked up my car and said goodbye. Mostly I will miss the people who became my close friends. Over the last seven years I had so many amazing experiences that made me who I am today and I will always love DC for that.

Here is a picture of the unit almost empty. I got rid of a ton of stuff and what we didn't ship is going to make it's way back across the country with us.

Thanks to Eric, Alisha, Genvieve and baby Emory for letting us stay at their place. And Mack and Lish, I will miss you forever. Can't wait for our girls' weekend.

Storage unit fun

Richie was the best storage unit emptying helper ever. He even became an expert at riding the cart down the hall. Mostly he didn't judge me too much while I told him I wanted to keep a box of dirty old buttons that belonged to my grandmother.

Road blogging

Since we're on the road for a bit, I set up our blog so I can post
from my phone. We may not write as much but we'll post pictures.
Nobody "reads" a blog anyway. It's all about the pictures.

Here are some pics from our visit with Matt and Rebecca. We enjoyed a lovely evening at Longwood gardens.

Having fun

Pretty little girls

Madeline and Lillian love to pose for pictures and they had such a
beautiful backdrop.

Richie showing Lillian the fish. He's very skilled at spotting them.

Portland, Oh Portland

I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Portland. I was there for a friend's wedding. Lori and Greg had perfect weather on their perfect day. They both looked so happy and their reception was so much fun. It was like a big fun party with all of our old friends.I took advantage of my weekend in Portland and enjoyed some quality time with my dad. (Mom is in St. Louis helping when Em's baby comes. Any time now.) Dad and I had a nice Sunday dinner on the deck and then visited the Portland Rose Garden. Other trip highlights include a quick trip down to Salem to visit Andrew & Linda and the gang and a lovely dinner with Dad, Sheila and Harry to celebrate our birthday. Wish I had taken pictures of those fun times too.

Dream Date

A few Fridays ago Richie and I biked to a local park where we had a picnic dinner. It was my way of replacing our usual dinner out each weekend. After all, I did lose my job and we can't be the DINK's we used to be. (My position was "eliminated" about a month ago, in case you hadn't heard.) After arriving at the park Richie said, "All your dreams are coming true, aren't they." Yes! They were. It was so cute to ride to the park and have a picnic. We got some exercise and had homemade yummy food. What could be better?