Meeting in St. Louis

It's been a few years since we visited our dear friends the Mettenburgs in St. Louis, and for months they've been urging us to visit them again. But first we needed to go to Iowa. And Austin. And a series of other locales which either used up our vacation, our travel budget, or both. But just after Christmas the stars aligned meaning that Owen's Spring Break coincided with Joe's vacation and meant that he'd be free to show us the sights in the "Show-Me" state's most populous city.

And then Joe went and got a job in Pittsburgh.

Happily for us, this means that Joe, Cate & Gigi will be moving to significantly closer to the DC area this June. Less happily, this meant that they needed to sell their house quickly, which in turn meant that it was going on the market the day after we arrived.

We briefly considered canceling the trip, but Joe & Cate assured us that we would be a welcome distraction, and since we've been there for most of their real-estate deals, we decided to forge ahead.

We were really glad we did. In the few days we were there we managed to hit the Sculpture Garden, the City Museum, the Arch, and play more Settlers of Catan than was probably necessary or healthy. Meanwhile Joe & Cate had an open house, a showing, and an offer on their house. The latter required some additional negotiation so Allen and I took Owen, Nora and a not 100% Gigi to the zoo followed by a picnic in the park while Joe & Cate signed offers and debated whether homemade drapes would convey (FYI: they will not). As it happened to be "Free Cone Day" at Ben & Jerry's, we took the non-fever ridden children out for ice cream followed by a stop at the neighborhood comic book store before heading back to the house. By the time nap time was over, there was a signed contract and babysitter arrangement so the adults could celebrate.

In the end, Owen decided he wanted to move to St. Louis (which would have been handy to know before Joe & Cate sold their house), Nora wanted to go to Gigi's new house (we told her she'd have to wait a while for that), and we were just glad that we got to hang out with some of our favorite people for a few beautiful days in one of their favorite places.

(click here for the pictures)