Honestly, I have not much to say about the next few posts you're going to be seeing. The rest of the trip included a bigger sleeping room, much better food (since I knew what to order) and GORGEOUS scenery. As I progress through trips, I'll add in short memories... but most of the rest of the posts are going to be comprised solely of photos. Let's get started!!! The first part of our final leg of the trip took us through the great plains- which I won't lie, scared me with the endlessness of flat ground. I'm so used to hills and mountains that it was a shock to my system to see so much flat ground. SEE WHAT I MEAN?! Nothing but flat ground and open fields for MILES. I'd go crazy living out here. Nevertheless, it was still beautiful and I'm glad I got to experience it. This is the last post-worthy scenic photo I have in the great plains. Whoops, I lied. Those are the last photos I have from the great plains. Join me in my next post to see a small bit of Denver, get a few memorable stories, and begin the ascent into the Rockies.
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Honestly, this post doesn't deserve to be titled "train trip". This post lacks us even being on a train, in fact! Remember how in my last post I stated that it was the last time anything during the vacation would be on time? The horror started in Chicago when our train ran FOUR HOURS LATE due to maintenance problems. First, a vacuum pump went. Next, the entire engine needed to be replaced. It was pretty ridiculous; considering we had been there 4 hours earlier than our initial boarding time to begin with. Thank god there was at least a lounge that provided wifi, food, and drinks for us to wait in for the train... if we had been out in the station, I think we all would have wound up in bad moods. In any case, it didn't take long for boredom to hit both me and my sister, so I dedicate the rest of this post to our stupidity while waiting for the California Zephyr to get its shit together. At the end of the day, I'm pretty sure all of us- and by that I mean everyone who had to deal with the 4 hour delay- looked like my dad in the above photo. Thank god the next three days went smoothly and were enjoyable.
YES, FINALLY! I am putting out my half of the trip, now that it's been about a week and my dad has already stolen all the glory of it with pictures and witty remarks. Ah well, I'll certainly try to redeem myself! I'm going to break these posts up into pretty short things with a few pictures each, and try to summarize the awesome trip as best I can. Before our trip even began, my dad and I had to get up early to bring my dog over to my friend's house. She had agreed to watch him while we were gone. The thing about leaving him with her was, that she had two cats and Lucky had never been around cats before. Within 10 minutes of being home, I had my first update on my dog- he wasn't exactly "getting along" with the cats: In any case, there wasn't much to be done about things now- we were set to leave by car at about 9:00. The car (or should I say bus) arrived on time and within an hour of pick-up we were in Boston at our first train station of the trip. The first leg of the trip took us on a ride from Boston to Albany. The train wasn't a sleeper train, and the ride in and of itself was long and boring. To entertain myself, I wound up using snapchat filters on my family and turned out with some amusing results such as the photos above. We finally got into Albany, though, and this is where our trip truly began in my eyes. Little did we know, this was the last part of the vacation that would be as on-time as we predicted. Since the train from Albany was only taking us to Chicago; we had to make one more stop and board one more train before embarking on the last leg of the trip. Since it was a day trip; we had sleepers on the Albany - Chicago train. The rooms were a LOT smaller than I had predicted; and in the beginning I was quite claustrophobic. When we finally did leave our rooms to get food in the dining car, I was met with even further disappointment at the bare choice on the menu. I can't say much about the dish I got on this train... it was my fault for going with noodles in alfredo sauce and not steak. I will say that the meal itself tasted like bile. Don't worry- things got better after this. The train got better after dinner ended. I wound up making a blanket fort for myself on the bottom bunk in our traincar (I was rooming with my dad) and since the train had good wifi, I wound up falling asleep at 2am after a long talk with my boyfriend (mainly surrounding the small living areas and shitty food).
"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting." That's a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. If you don't know who that is, then you really need to read more! As a refresher for those of you who might not remember him, Ralph was an American poet who led the transcendentalist movement. Most of his important stuff was first given as lectures and then written down as essays. "Nature" and the "American Scholar" were two of his best-known essays. To get back to his quote, I have three separate thoughts on it. First, I agree with him that you should never lose an opportunity to see beauty. Not because it is God's handwriting, but because we should all experience as much beauty in our lives as we can! Confucius believed that there was beauty in all things, but that not all could see it. Personally, I see no beauty in war or violent death, so I'd have to disagree with him there. I certainly saw no beauty in the way my wife died either, but I may be looking deeper into his words than he meant. What I think we can all agree on is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Furthermore, beauty does not have to be seen to be present. If you have ever just sat and listened to Bolero or some other piece of classical music, then you know what I mean. Beauty is subjective to the individual. While I am certain that there are some standards of beauty that most people would agree on when it comes to people, I honestly believe that there are so many variations to what people find beautiful that I can honestly say that everyone is beautiful in someone's eyes. The trick is to find the person that finds YOU beautiful! They may find you beautiful for the way you look, but more importantly, I hope they find you beautiful for the way you are. Aside from beautiful people, I think there are many beautiful places in the world. The Rockies during the summer are very high on my list right now. The mountains in my own back yard are also beautiful. Here is the view from Pac Monadnock in New Hampshire. As for people, I think all people can be beautiful in their own way. Here are a few of my favorite people: And, of course, there is the person I found most beautiful of all. My wife. Rest in peace Babe.
My Beach ball is tiny. It has 4 colors, orange, pink, my favorite color, blue, and white. I do not take it to the beach because it is too easy to lose. I like to play with it, I kick it. I also run up and then I jump on it! Some times, I run and kick the ball too.
Ahsleigh Well, we are back from our vacation and had a wonderful time. Over the next few days, we will have the blog back up to full speed again. Carrying a camera with you all the time really lets you see what you have been missing each day! I do not mean that my life is lacking when I am not on vacation. No, I mean that sometimes we need to slow down in life and actually take pictures of what we see every day. What is ordinary to one person may just be the little bit of extraordinary that someone else needs in their life. I think that as I go through my day I am going to start to take more pictures of what to me is ordinary and share them to you. Over the past two weeks we have received more visitors to this site than in any other week. While I like to think that what we write is interesting, I think many people may just be looking around for interesting things to see. If you live in San Francisco or the Rockies, then our pictures likely weren't that special to you. Meanwhile, if you live elsewhere, you may have found them very interesting. I am more of a reader than a sightseer though. When I look at web sites, I am usually looking for something interesting to read. I hop you are too. With that said, I do find pictures can help to make what you are saying more interesting. Thus I will try to incorporate more pictures into my posts going forward. That does not mean I will be cutting back on my writing. Instead, I will try to add a picture here and there to illustrate my points. Although people say that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." This old dog is going to try and learn some new tricks over the net couple of weeks. Let me know what you think after a few weeks! To that end, Here are two pictures. The first shows what I will be doing for the next few minutes, while the second is the view from my front door. Enjoy! That final pick is of a sunset on Contoocook Lake taken by Maddie back in February. Every day should have some beauty in it. There is some for you, if you are having a tough day!
Today I read a new book called ''Duck''. Long ago, there was a little boy named Tim. Tim called all of the animals that he saw "Duck". He called horses duck, and he called sheep ducks. Chickens were also called ducks. Later, his Granny took him to a pond and showed him a real duck. "Duck", she said. "Duck". he said, and Granny kissed him.
Later Tim saw a tractor. ''Truck,'' he said. He also called a bus a truck and a car a ''truck'', too. Granny then showed Tim a real truck. ''Truck,'',!she said. ''Truck'', he said, and Granny kissed him again. Tim then got quiet and didn't say another word. He went home and looked at his toys. The next day, Granny took Tim back to the pond. Again he saw another duck. The duck said ''QUACK!'' Tim said ''duck'' and Granny smiled! Ashleigh Here are the last of my pics from our vacation. The first picture was taken on the pier in the Embarcadero. Given we were in San Francisco, I thought this shirt would be fun to walk around in. One stoner actually came up to me and said "alright shrooms! That's an awesome shirt! He then tried to sell me other shirts with "dubious" messages. (Get it... dubious?) On Monday we did a tour of the city with the "San Francisco Love Tours". The tours are given in old VW vans painted with psychedelic scenes in bright colors. Since there were four of us, we got a personal tour! Here is Ashleigh in front of our van. The archway is something that was constructed for the World's Fair that was held in San Francisco. Meanwhile the shoreline and building above is a view of part of the Presidio. It was getting foggy just as we got to the Golden Gate bridge. This was the best picture I could get. Maddie really looks like her mother Sharon in these two pictures. Standing on the curb helped her to get to about the right height too. Haight/AshburySan Francisco has a lot of murals, particularly in the Haight/Ashbury area. The one below is of Jerry Garcia. See if you can find Jimi Hendrix in the following pictures. There's Jimi! Yep up near the roof line there. Unfortunately, that was the best picture I could get. The rest didn't come out too well. The mural above the store has Janis Joplin featured. The pink house is where she lived when she was in San Francisco. Believe it or not, That gated house is where the Grateful Dead lived while they were in San Francisco. The new owner put up a gate because she was tired of people coming up, sitting on the porch and lighting up joints. Below, San Francisco has really embraced gay pride. Below is what I called the gay crosswalk. Lombard Street...The Crooked Street!Feet In The Pacific!The girls have now dipped their feet in the oceans on either side of the country. Here is a shot with their feet in the Pacific. When my mom first graduated nursing school back in 1961, she left Canada with three friends. My Mom had wanted to go west, to San Francisco, but the other three wanted to go to New York... So off she went. It's been 55 years, but she has finally made it to San Francisco. As Jerry Garcia used to say. "It's been a long strange trip". I hope you enjoyed it Mom. Not only the vacation, but the choice you made in 1961.
Today I read a new book called ''I Am an Apple''. First, an apple starts as a seed and then, becomes a tree. The tree gets buds, and then blossoms. Then apples start to grow and people pick them. I like apples very much! Remember, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away!"
Ashleigh San Francisco is an interesting city. We did a number of things, and took pictures along the way. In Chinatown, we mainly shopped the many stores there, so we only have the one picture below. The rest of the pics are from The Museum of Modern Art and other parts of the city. San Francisco's Museum of Modern ArtAshleigh refused to move over one more step to the left! In hindsight, probably not a bad call, though I think it would have made for a funny picture. To be fair, Ashleigh took my photo with the same work of art. I call this work "The Art Critic"! Essentially, this is how I felt about nearly half of the stuff we saw. I guess modern art is an acquired taste. I did take pictures of the ones I liked. You can see them below. Only in San Francisco ... A psychedelic Lincoln! They had a number of Andy Warhol pieces there. I am not a huge fan, but here are my two favorites from the ones they had. Maddie finally let me take a picture of her! I think my picture taking might have embarrassed her. I'll try to get my last set of pictures up tomorrow.
Here are the last of the pictures from the Sierra Nevada mountain range. In the shot below, I liked the way the clouds and the sky looked behind this tree. To give you some idea to how high up we are here, that white line in the photograph is the wake of a full-sized boat! That's the last of the pics from this mountain range. Tomorrow, I will start with pictures from San Francisco.
Today I read a new book called ''The Sword In The Stone''. Long ago every one wanted a king. A tall fat man said ''I will be king.'' A short, thin man said ''I will be king!'' A tall thin man said, ''I will be king!'' A war soon followed. The people asked a wizard named Merlin, ''Who should be king?'' He waved his arms and a great sword in a great stone appeared. Merlin said that ''whoever pulls the sword out of the stone will be king.'' Every one tried to pull the sword out from the stone, but failed. Finally, a boy named Arthur pulled the sword out of the stone, and became king.
Ashleigh On Friday morning, we awoke on the salt flats in Utah. Not much to see really, but I decided to put up a few pictures anyway. I will also have some of the pictures from the Sierra Nevada mountain range below. The Salt Flats & The DesertSome people lost interest in the salt flats rather quickly! A more normal-looking desert landscape soon followed, though. The Sierra Nevadas!Soon, the desert gave way to the start of the Sierra Nevadas. I am not sure where they actually started. The whole process was rather gradual. Here is a picture from where water we could see signs of water again. Note that water had been visible for a while... It just took me a while to get a decent picture of it! More from the Sierra Nevada Mountains tomorrow!
I had a lot of fun on the train. We were going to San Francisco. When we arrived, I tossed a coin into a wishing well. I wished that we could have more train trips. I dunked my feet in the pacific Ocean and I dug in the sand looking for shells. I did not find any. Outside of a store, I found a toy leopard. It was a rainbow leopard. Daddy bought, it for me.
Ashleigh I took a lot of pictures on this trip! I hope you like them. For those of you who would rather read our posts, keep scrolling down for our old ones. Or just wait til next week for new ones without all the pictures. This was our first vacation in a number of years, so please bear with us and our pictures!
This is a continuation from the last post! We were still climbing higher at this point. The picture below was taken through the roof of the viewing car I was in. It shows just how much higher the mountains were compared to where the train was traveling. Yes, the picture above is showing full-size trees that are below us! God's CountryAgain, those are full-grown trees you are looking at in that shot. With a real camera, instead of an iPad, I may have been able to better catch the sheer immensity of what I as looking at. This may or may not be the Boulder Dam. The Boulder Dam is in Nevada along the Arizona border. As far as I know, we were not that far south, but I could be wrong. The only other dam I could think of is the Granby Dam, and I am not sure whether or not this is that dam either. I guess my problem is that I can't tell one damn dam from another! Not having WiFi to figure out where I actually was also hurt.
This next section will be pictures from the Rocky Mountains. I am not even going to try and explain what you see here. It is (for the most part) too beautiful for words. I will say that my pictures can't really capture the majesty of the scenery or the gravity of how high we really were. The Amtrak train, at its highest point reached an altitude of just over 9,200 feet. Even then, there were peaks that were soaring over our heads. At some points, we could look out through the top of the viewing car and not really see the top of a wall of rock that we were passing. All said, I highly recommend riding the California Zephyr west out of Denver. The scenery is breathtaking and really needs to be experienced first hand. Needless to say, this post will have the most pictures attached from our trip, but doesn't even come close to holding the hundreds of pictures I took while in the Rockies. Pictures In The Foothills (so to speak)The graffiti visible above is on the side of old ore cars which have been purposely placed along the side of the track to work as a wind break. Winds in this area are known to reach upwards of 115 miles per hour and trains had been derailed in the past due to the power behind those blasts. Believe it or not, those are supposed to be buffalo. Someone on the train yelled out that those were buffalo and that the leader had the hump, but I really don't know. Those could be cows for all I know. I have always wanted to see a buffalo, so I put that picture up just in case. From the distance we were from the herd, I think it was just wishful thinking. Rocky Mountain High!It is really hard to show how high we really are. In this pic, all of those green blobs are actually full-sized trees! More to follow in the next post!
After leaving Chicago, there is not a lot of different things to see until after leaving Denver. Below are a few of the pictures I took on the way to Denver. First up is a picture of Iowa. Now Nebraska. Ashleigh in Nebraska. It seems to have more cows than people! Heading into Denver. A couple from Union Station in Denver. Our train from above the tracks! Don't get too excited... just a sign to remember where I was. Heading for the Rockies! Adios, Denver!
On Tuesday, July 5th we left for a cross-country trip across the U.S. by rail. We started in Boston and completed the journey in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Amtrak does not have WiFi on its trains running west of Chicago. My next few posts will be a catch up for the days we were travelling. I am going to add lots of photos to these next few blogs, showing off the beauty of our country. The Rocky Mountains were truly stunning! This post will focus on pictures from Boston to Chicago. And so it begins. Not much to see that is new or interesting as we leave Boston. So here is a picture of my Mom and Ashleigh. In upstate New York, we get our first view of how much of our country really looks. While the coastlines are highly populated, the interior of the country is largely farmland, and reasonably empty, except near the major waterways. This is a bridge over either the Eerie Canal or the Mohawk River... Likely the Eerie Canal. Unfortunately, I didn't know what I was looking at when I snapped the picture. I do know we were still in New York when I took the photo. This is a shot crossing the Mohawk River. Dusk on the river. Sunrise west of Toledo. Not everything is corn fields and rivers though. We also passed a number of industrial properties. Here are three examples below. Every once in a while, the sun hit the window in such a way that the picture comes out looking really freaky. I call this next shot "Ohio On Acid"! Sometimes, it is fun watching others trying to line up the perfect shot. I'll finish today's missive with a shot of Maddie trying to line up a photo.
On Tuesday we leave on a cross-country train trip.I have always wanted my daughters to see the country, and I could think of no better way to do it than by taking the train coast to coast.
We leave from Boston on early Tuesday morning, and arrive in California Friday evening. Over the course of our trip we will see some of the prettiest shorelines in the U.S. On Tuesday, we'll start in Boston and travel through the Berkshires, eventually stopping in Albany. We'll switch trains there and roll through the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The train parallels the Eerie canal for a stretch and then rolls along the Mohawk River. Finally, we'll travel along the south shore of Lake Michigan right up into Chicago. In Chicago, we switch trains and then it's off to California on the California Zephyr, which is known as one of the most beautiful train trips in all of North America! After passing through the great plains, the train will go up through the Rocky Mountains and then ramble on through the Sierra Nevadas. On Friday we will eventually pull in to Emeryville California and a short bus trip into San Francisco. We'll stay in San Francisco until Tuesday morning, and then fly back to New Hampshire. Needless to say, over the next week, we'll be posting a lot of pictures from as we cross the United States, and give our thoughts on the trip. Bon Voyage readers! Our traveling posts will start on Tuesday. |
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