Can we say it is still a new year?

Happy almost February!

Great that Susan who really has had the most on her plate got the blog started for 2009! Thanks.

Knew that there should be something from Big Bend before we head west Friday. There have been a lot of things we've promised ourselves we should write about, but I guess all the pre=Xmas snow really de-
railed those hopes.

Some of our cruise highlights have been discussed briefly with you, but we haven't been able to share as much as we were primed to when we returned. It was great in every detail. The entire trip was almost 1000 miles and the ship moved mostly at night, but there were a number of days when the most scenic areas were passed right after breakfast and we still were able to make the usual daily stop early enough to have a guided tour with either our shipboard director of a local guide and return to the ship for lunch and then have time for some local exploring in the afternoon and get back to the ship by dusk. Most village/city stops were near the city center, so walking to the busy areas was quite easy. Many were locations where there was little WWII bombing so they were really "old Europe". We saw some great churches, beautiful town squares where large Xmas market booths and stalls were being stalled. Saw much evidence of Roman rule prior to the late 400's. Visited one museum in Mainz which centered on archeological discoveries of Roman commerce and fighting ships which were used on the Rhine. We passed thru 66 locks, some as deep as 85 feet and the highest point on the trip was slightly over 1300 ft about sea level.

The last full day was in Amsterdam where we had a canal tour in a covered boat--much classier than the one we had experienced in 1975. We had a choice of two museum, the Riksmuseum which has all the old Dutch masters which we visited in '75 and a fairly new Van Gogh museum, which we chose. It was a winner and was a nice follow up to the exposure we had to his Provence years last year in and around Arles. Have our photos interspersed between the ship's plan of the day and extensive lunch and dinner menu in an album we hope we can share with you before too long.

All we can remember between our trip back home and when we had such a great day at Mark's on 12/26 and the reprise we had here during the weekend, was all the snow we dealt with. Glad we've had a break from
that in 2009--so far.

Glad we had a chance to have a nice dinner with Susan, Jay, Colin and Bridget on a cold Sunday before the semester started and while Susan was involved with her recovery program. The day before we left for Arvada, Colin and Bridget came over for
a fine visit before they headed back to school. We were sorry that we didn't have another chance to see more of the grandchildren before their activities began again.

Our long weekend in Arvada was great! When David met us at the airport on Saturday morning the sun was shining and it was already almost 60. Every day it was warmer and it was over 70 when Michele drove us back to the airport on Tuesday. Hoping to have something special for us, Michele planned to take up to the zoo on Monday, MLK day, a federal holiday. It turned out to be a free day and the place was mobbed with parents with preschool age children in wagons, strollers, etc. Being warm and free was a real deal. Luckily, we were able to get the last wheelchair for Grandma and we did quite well steering her between all the child carrying vehicles. It wasn't until we decided to head for the exit that I realized we had been going down hill around the exhibits and the route back was pretty much up hill! IT WAS A ZOO!

Thinking pretty much of David and Charlie and their trip this week and Mom called Arvada about an hour ago and they were safely there! David reported a good trip, so far.

We were in Madison, unexpectedly, yesterday. The husband of a woman your Mom and Aunt Charleen met in Milwaukee when they came here to work died and we went to the funeral. We had remained in touch with them, not as closely as Charleen an Bob have, but they were generally part of the group when we met C and B in Madison for lunch over the years. We had a good driving day and enjoyed a good visit at the post funeral luncheon. Managed a short Trader Joe shopping stop, as well.

Had a phone visit with Mark last night and learned that his job offer is still in progress. He has a business trip to San Francisco next week, so a lot of us will be traveling. Tonight, Kevin called and we had a long visit. Big topic was Declan's satisfying experience at Rutgers and that they had been able to go to Mystic, CT over the last weekend and get a new bass violin. They will be checking to see if we can't come there to hear some of his concert work later in the spring which they will try to have in conjuction with a graduation party for Magdalena. It appears that the Mount Holyoke graduation program has a very limited ticket supply, so there is not room for much more that parents, so
a party sounds fine to us!

I did get my copy of Rick Brimeyer's book on the Cub's 2009 season and was about 3/4 finished with it, but I forgot it at
Michele's so she is going to send it back with David, so I won't be able to share it with Matt next weeks. It is a nice read, probably not a Pulitzer candidate!

Glad Michele and David have recovered their e-mail. Thanks for your update yesterday and most assuredly for your great hospitality last week.

Mom had a phone visit with Susan tonight, as well.

One more item, my cousin Kathy Staerk let us know this fall that she had retired again--early from Il public schools, this time from a 3rd grade spot at her parish school for the last 6/7 year. When I sent her our Xmas greeting, I suggested that we try to meet her for lunch some week day, now that she was less involved. In her Xmas message she suggested that we come to her home is Lake Villa, IL
on a January Saturday. We did it on the 24th. Three of her
4 children came, as well. We had a very nice visit in her recently
remodeled home on a 5 acre plot with a little pond behind the house. She has 2 girls and 2 boys. The eldest daughter is married with 3 little girls and lives in the St. Louis area. The other 3 are unmarried and 2 live in the Chicago suburbs and the last lives in
Waukesha and works for Johnson Control. They are three very nice young folks--late 20's early 30's. The 3 of them were very interested in learning more about their grandfather,my dad's oldest brother, Dan, who died when their mother was quite young. Most of you can remember visiting their mother, Aunt Ruth, and
seeing the doll house her girls had. Kathy is a god mother to one of you, but we're really not sure who.

Really looking forward to being with the birthday girl--and her parents next week!

Guess that is more than enough for tonight. God Bless you all!!

Love and prayers, Mom and Dad