Eric and I headed up to Frederick, Maryland tonight to catch a Frederick Keys game. The Frederick Keys play in the Carolina League and are the Class A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles.
The players in position for the National Anthem accompanied by one of the local little league teams.
The Keys came out strong in the beginning of the game and then slowly lost steam as the visiting Pelicans from Myrtle Beach found their momentum and took off.
Keyote tried to rally the fans to stand behind the home team.
Eric and I showed our enthusiasm for the team.
After the game they had a very nice display of fireworks. Just the perfect ending to a very fun evening.
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.
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'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.
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
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
