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.