Biltmore Estate

For our first day in Asheville, we headed over to Biltmore Estate, "America's Castle." It was nice, but we've been to quite a few castles / humongous mansions / palaces in our travels, and it was kind of a let down! It was probably that it was raining, and all our guidebooks really hyped it up! Expectations were high, we were trying out a new stroller (not a winner with anyone, especially Kylie), and naps were missed! Here's the day in photos!

 Ta-da!

 Artsy pic by Autumn

 Kylie's favorite part - being out of the stroller!

 Fall colors!

 Panorama on the patio

 K's best cherub impersonation

 

 Yay! IT'S OVER!

 ROAR!

 Twisty old tree

Autumn splendor

Honolulu Zoo

Today's adventure while mom was in boring meetings...the zoo!

 Is that Dumbo?

Seriously though, there were about 10 animal statues for every actual animal in this zoo!

 Miss you mama!

 Beautiful flowers

 More tropical flowers!

 A wonderfully shady walk

 Giraffe!

 Two giraffes! And a volcano!

 Petting zoo!

Street lei

To Seattle!

After the family festivities this weekend, we drove down to Seattle to spend a few days with old places and old friends. Unfortunately, Jeannie was feeling under the weather, so we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, but it was so nice to see familiar faces from our old life there. Special thanks to Jason, Eran, Emily, Stephanie and Amy for still making the time to meet up with us after five years of being away!

 Winky-Blinky riding in the baby backpack...

...can't believe that Kylie will be too big for this in the not too distant future!

 How sweet, W-B brought flowers to my sick aunt!

 Kylie's first haircut...

...Thank You Melissa at Li'l Klippers!!

 Kylie's reward cupcake for being a good girl at the salon...

...Mmmmm Neopolitan and Hummingbird @ Trophy Cupcakes!

 Quick visit to the market

TAKE MY PICTURE!!

Saturday in Rio

In order to maximize time between baby naps on this trip, we pre-planned and pre-purchased everything that we wanted to do including our visits to the big Christ statue and Sugarloaf mountain. Unfortunately, it is fall here, and it RAINED ALL WEEKEND!! Oh well, we made the best of it, and had a very relaxing vacation. Less beaches, swimming and touristing than planned, and much more relaxing, strolling, reading and gaming.

 Kylie's "picture face"...

...yeah, we're trying to stop this ASAP!

 Rio breakfast clockwise from top:  

strawberry, passion fruit and pineapple juices, a cheese pastel and a cafe-zinho!

 Autumn never gets her name right on the cup at Starbucks, but mine is accurate 99% of the time in every country! (Sometimes, I get and extra 'k' at the end, but that's understandable!)

#starbucksnames

 All aboard!

 Look! We're on a train!

 Fogged in at the top!

 Uh oh! Headless Cristo!

 Cheese!

 Beautiful views of Rio from the Corcovado!

 Picture-perfect day

 CHINESE FOOOOOD!

...and den....

 Family photo

 Overcast skies at Copacabana

 Empty beaches

 Run! Run! Run!

 A caipirinha and a kiwi juice

 Cheers!

 One more view of the stormy day

 Familia-zinha

Goodnight!

Catamaran Tour

We had our official first group trip today which was a catamaran tour of Recife's glorious rivers! It was really fun, relaxing and actually cool (temperature-wise, which never happens here!!).

 A three hour tour...

 Barnacles!

The Legislative Assembly Building

 Colonial-era mansions

 More old stuff!

 The sculpture park! 

 Which our guide proudly proclaimed multiple times had many statues with HUGE BREASTS!

 Ahoy matey!

Recife Antigo