Crabby McCrabberson Party of 4

It has been awhile since I've written here but it has been prety quiet on the travel front for us. I think we ventured out a couple times for some railfanning in April but nothing too exciting.

It is May and spring is in full bloom. May also means that my parents are in town for their annual vacation. They come down every May around their anniversary to spend a little more than a week with Eric and I. Today actually happens to be their anniversary (Happy 34th Mom and Dad) and Eric and I took them into DC and to Philip's Seafood Buffet for all you can eat...you guessed it....SEAFOOD! http://www.phillipsseafood.com/index.cfm?page=menus&id=11 I'm usually not a big fan of the kind of seafood you have to pull apart and break legs and work for the meat but man...those crab legs were soooooo delicious.

After we ate we strolled down to the Fish Market. This is a photo of one of the many vendors there at the market. You can get fresh fish and seafood to take home, you can get sandwiches, peel and eat shrimp and many other things to eat there in the market. It is such a cool place to just people watch too.



This is the view of the marina that is right there next to the Fish Market.



We strolled through the market and past all of the vendors. I like this picture of the (snow?!?) crab and the Maryland blue crab. Let me just say...the blue crabs are WAY too much work. ;)



They have everything from catfish to trout to crawfish and shrimp to large octupus and these baby octupus. For those of you from Michigan and you Red Wings fans...just think of chucking these little guys onto the ice. ;)



A coupe of booths down I decided to play with the color accent feature on my camera and took a picture of the blue crabs.



and then focused on the reddish/salmon color of the other crabs.



After we were done at the market we headed towards home by way of Maryland and White's Ferry. This is a ferry that runs across the Potomac River and ferries commuters and the like back and forth. It's $4.00 for a one way trip but truly worth it.

A few stops here and there and then we were home to relax and enjoy one another's company.

A hiking we will go....

Today was a very fun, hot and exciting day. My friend Jen and her friend Sara came to visit me from Minnesota for the weekend. We headed out today to Great Falls National Park to do some hiking (aka walking for me. hehehee...) and to just enjoy the beautiful weather. The falls were absolutely beautiful and full of life.



This is a picture of me, Jen and Sara with the falls behind us.



We watched some white water kyakers trying to work their way up the falls. I can't imagine the muscle strength they must have. I was tired just watching them. ;)

After we hiked some more we headed out to the mountains of western Loudoun County and to Bluemont Vineyard for some wine tasting. It was such a beautiful vineyard and the views were breathtaking.



Sara and I did the wine tasting as Jen doesn't care for it too much. :)



I ended up getting a bottle of the donkey which is a rose wine.



They have this amazing Strawberry wine I was thinking of getting but thought I'd wait to take Eric out there to try it. :)

After we were done we headed back to Leesburg and to the outlet mall for a little shopping. Then it was home for dinner and not long after we all crashed in bed.

It was such an amazing day with 2 very awesome people.

I'm like the US Postal Man.....

I'll brave all weather elements to catch me some trains.


Eric and I headed up to Dickerson, Maryland today to check out a new place for some railfanning. When we got to the car we had clear blue skies, but as I was getting ready to back out of our spot I looked left and saw some big dark clouds moving in rather fast. Eric said let's just go since we are already down here so we took off. The wind was a blow'n and the rain was a fall'n, but we found that it was tappering off as we drove past Point of Rocks on our way to Dickerson.

As we were crossing the Monocacy River we noticed traffic was stopped and a fire truck backing up towards us. As we came off the bridge we saw that cars were turning around and that the police had the road blocked due to trees that had fallen in the roadway. We got turned around and were going to find a different route but that was going to take about 40 mins. We decided to backtrack our way back to Point of Rocks.

We pulled in behind the station and got setup with the laptop and converted scanner so that we could monitor the rails for movement. About 20 mins after our arrival we were greeted with CSX 279 heading WB from Rockville with empty coal cars. We were so excited to get some action from the tracks coming from this direction for a change.



After the train passed I headed back to the car to escape the cold and wind. Eric informed me that we had some movement on the "hot tracks" as I like to call them and I headed towards the station to find my spot. I happened to notice the time and had a gut feeling that I was going to have a little disappointment. Sure enough. I got this great picture of Amtrak's Capitol Limited (enging 59) on a WB approach from Washington, DC.



The slight disappointment was that it wasn't a freight train which I truly prefer. But it was a train nonetheless.

After the train cleared I headed back to the car and we called it a day since the rails were looking pretty quiet and the skies were starting to look questionable again.

As always...it was worth the short trip from home. Next time we'll definitely check out Dickerson but will probably...more than likely end up at the ole Rocks.

A day of Junctions.

Today we decided to go scope out a new railfanning location down in Front Royal, VA called Riverton Junction. This area is along the Shenandoah River and both the NS and CSX lines. After a stop at RadioShack to pick up a roof top antenna (to strengthen our signal) we found our location and I started to find the perfect spot for taking pictures. While waiting for some traffic I played around with the settings on our camera to get this neat picture of one of the train bridges which crosses the Shenandoah.



This bridge combines the CSX and NS lines to cross the Shenandoah River.

This picture is of the bridge that carries just the NS line over the Shenandoah River. Just to the right on the picture you can see the diamond where the CSX line crosses to the other bridge.



After about an hour or so of waiting and no chatter on the radio we decided to head up to Shenandoah Junction, WV. We took US-340 all the way up to Route 9 and got there in about an hour.

We spent about 3 hours in Shen Junction and got word on the radio that we had a WB train on approach. I hopped out of the car and to my favorite spot in anticipation of a CSX rounding the bend. Little did I know that we were waiting on the Capital Limited (Amtrak). I must say that I was disappointed but happy to have had at least ONE train that day.

Here you can see the engineer giving us rabbit ears.



The day was a bit of a bust but I couldn't imagine spending it with anyone but Eric (well except for maybe my family). :)

A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles. - Tim Cahill

Hitting the Rocks...Point of Rocks.

Eric and I headed up to Point of Rocks after work today.



Nothing like the grinding of metal to ease the stress of a long week. Weeknights bring us the opportunity to see the MARC train and the multitude of rail commuters. In our short time up at Point of Rocks we had 3 MARC trains. I always love the looks we get from those commuting as we just stand and watch the train. There's just something so calming about the sound of the train...almost a feelng of freedom.

We were first greeted with a CSX intermodel heading WB. A couple MARC trains and an Amtrak later we got our 2nd freight train of empty coal hoppers. I took this picture of the train passing by the Point of Rocks station.



Night was fast approaching and the traffic was starting to slow. I took this final picture of the night of the signal towers and the sun setting over the mountains.



It was the perfect ending to a busy day. Just Eric, the sound of trains and me. What more could a girl ask for?!?

Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter. - Brad Henry

Shenandoah Junction, WV and Brunswick, MD

So after 3 days of being cooped up in the house with bronchitis I decided it was time to get Eric out and about. The day welcomed us with warm weather and sunny skies so it was time to do some railfanning. We headed up to Shenandoah Junction, WV our now favorite hotspot. When we arrived there were 2 other vehicles there and all red signals. We didn't have to wait to long until we got our first WB train.



The rails were busy that day with 6 more trains through Shenandoah Junction in about a 2 hour period. After our last train went through we decided to head out as it was starting to rain a little bit. We headed towards home by way of US-340. I had an idea of a possible place to catch some train action and headed that way. The place we headed to is a park like area right along the Potomac River north by northwest of Harpers Ferry, WV. The view of the tracks is slightly hindered by several very tall trees. Walking towards the road and a clearer view of the tracks I saw this very old and beautiful passage with a stream flowing through.



We took some time while waiting for a train to come to admire the beauty of the Potomac River.



We struck out on catching a train through here and headed on towards Brunswick, MD. On approach to Brunswick we saw a train slowly moving WB and were disappointed by this missed opportunity. We pulled onto the road that takes us down to the commuter lot where we park and saw that the barriers were down over the tracks. I put the car in park and jumped out and Eric got behind the wheel so I could investigate as to what was going on. I looked westward and saw that the train we originally thought we had missed was moving EB into the yard.



While I snapped some pictures of the train moving into the yard, Eric informed me that they were moving into the yard to couple with some additional cars. About 5 - 10 minutes later they got clearance to head WB. Their destination was Cumberland, MD and after further information on the radio revealed they had a 3 hour window to get to Cumberland otherwise the crew out be considered "outlaws". Here is CSX 4826 (lead engine) heading WB past the Brunswick Train Depot. I really love this shot and am very proud of it. :)



Another awesome day of railfanning with my partner in crime.

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. - Ray Bradbury

Birthday's in Baltimore

I celebrated my 29th birthday on Friday (February 1) and in celebration of my day Eric and I snuck off to Baltimore for the weekend. We got up early on Saturday and made the drive up. Traffic was very light which made for a nice drive. We checked into the Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bwish-renaissance-baltimore-harborplace-hotel/ and when we got to our room we were greeted with this amazing view.



After unpacking and admiring the view we headed to the National Aquarium. http://www.aqua.org/

We first went and checked out the Australia exhibit and then made our way towards the sharks, into the rainforest and finally to the dolphin show. This is what I was looking forward to the most.





Sadly my battery died right after this photo. I was so upset about this. I tried to enjoy the show but was mad at myself because I didn't charge the battery fully. Oh well I guess.

After the aquarium we wandered around Inner Harbor and then went and had lunch at J Paul's.
(http://www.j-pauls.com/) This place was very good. What was neat was they serve you FRESH soft pretzels while you wait for you meal. I ordered a rueben and it was the BEST rueben I have ever had. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to rest and relax. We had plans to go to Morton's (http://www.mortons.com/) that night for dinner but decided that we just wanted to enjoy each other's company in our room and have a quiet dinner. We went across the street to one of the pavillion's and picked up sushi and burgers and fries from Five Guys (http://www.fiveguys.com/). What a combination. But hey...it's what we wanted. :)

We enjoyed dinner while overlooking the city.



Sticking with the quiet theme we ordered room service for breakfast (plus we just couldn't leave that view).

After we checked out we headed for Ellicot City, MD and the Ellicot City B&O Railroad Museum (http://www.ecborail.org/).



We enjoyed walking back in time and learning about the history of the station and the B&O Railroad. We got a bonus of a CSX coal train heading EB. :)

It was an amazing weekend, with the most amazing man I know (aside from my dad ;) ). I always dread my birthday but Eric always seems to go above and beyond to make it a special day.

Full album of our trip can be found here:

Baltimore 2008

You can fall in love at first sight with a place as with a person. - Alec Waugh