Kids Pics 2=4th of July

Coming home from 4th of July weekend at Cunningham's river house.

O enjoys a ride on the boat.

M takes a dip in the river.

M and mom lounge in the hammock.

Train Trip

As many of you know, we took the train from Marshall, TX to Rochester, NY with a layover in Chicago for our holiday trip.

Overall, the trip was good. There are definite pros and cons when it comes to train travel vs plane travel. Plane travel is quicker for sure but also more restrictive. You have to go through security, pack a certain way (ie. no liquids in your carry-on) and then you are stuck in a tiny space, completely at the mercy of the flight crew. You have to wait for the flight attendants to bring you something to drink, you are lucky if you get anything at all to eat and can only use the bathroom at certain times during the flight. Plus, everyone starts to get suspicious if you just want to get up and stretch your legs a bit.

The train is better from this perspective because you can move around and you have more space, you can get something to eat pretty much anytime during your waking hours and you can get water any time you want it (at least in the sleeper car). Plus you can bring onto the train your own food and drinks (including alcohol) to consume at your convenience. You can use the bathroom whenever you want to even when the train is stopped at a station. All this and no security at all.

It took approx 43 hours from the time we left our house until the time we arrived in Rochester. Yep, it was a long trip and I had troubles getting a decent sleep but we got to have some much needed family time just to hang out together.

I posted pics on facebook as we went along so some of these photos may look familiar. There are more pics on my facebook page of the interior of the train and our sleeping accommodations.

Here is a quick synopsis of our trip:

The name of our train. This cool poster was hung in the dining car.

The kids in the lounge car. There were 6 tables at one end then the remainder of the car had seats that were turned towards the windows. Every spot was first come, first served. Roughly mid-car was a set of stairs that took you down to the cafe. It was open for the majority of the waking hours and sold various snacks, drinks, sandwiches, salads, etc. The dining car had limited seating hours and a limited menu but it was fine for us. Meals were included in the price of the sleeper car.
M listening to her iPod and watching the world go by. I love this pic of her.

We woke up the second day in St Louis. It was 15 degrees outside as O is demonstrating here. Our sleeping car windows are behind him.

C also taking the above pic of O.

The kids and I standing in the doorway of the train.
Pulling out of St Louis we saw almost 360 degrees of the Arch! It was pretty at night (on our return trip) but we couldn't take good pics of it then.
While on a 7 hour layover in Chicago, we walked the 1.5 blocks to Sear's Tower (now named Willis Tower). Those are my feet as I look through the glass floor down to the ground that is 103 stories below! Then the whole family standing in the glass box that extends off the side of the building. That excursion and having some Chicago deep dish pizza at a nice little restaurant another block further took up nearly all of our time in Chicago.
The second half of our trip was spent in coach class (not a sleeper car). Most of the trip was overnight and, while the sleeper was much more comfortable and private, this part of the trip wasn't horrible at all. We were in the same car with people getting off the train either in Buffalo or Rochester so there was not a lot of activity overnight while we were sleeping. The lights were kept low and we had planned ahead with blankets to remain a comfortable temperature.

The return trip for the same leg in coach class was not horrible but less pleasant. When we left Chicago, the train was clean and fresh and we got off roughly 1/3 of the way on its trip to NYCity/Boston. The return trip had us waiting for 90 minutes (train was late due to weather) at midnight and getting on a much less "fresh" train since it was already 2/3 of the way into its trip from NYCity to Chicago. Again, not horrible but not near as pleasant. The thing about coach is you can't control the lighting or the temperature and there are always people walking by going to the cafe/dining car, the bathroom and getting on and off the train looking for seats. I think I slept for about 2 hours total. UGH.

Our Chicago layover was shorter this time plus we arrived an hour late so we just ate at the food court for lunch and were back on the train in the sleeping car for our final leg of the trip. If you look at the pic of O above, you'll see that the sleeping car has an upper level. We had sleeping accommodations in the upper level on our return trip. The upper level sways more and seems like a rougher ride compared to the lower level. Something to note for future trips. Amtrack trains are not the smooth, sleek trains we've experienced in Europe with fast rails and on time arrivals/departures. These are passenger trains sharing the rails with freight trains which have priority. Numerous times we had to stop and allow a freight train to pass from the other direction. Not the end of the world but so much different than passenger trains in Europe.

The kids LOVED traveling by train and it allowed us some great family time. While I was a bit grouchy (ok, maybe a lot grouchy!) from lack of sleep, it was a fun way to travel. We now have another travel option!

Afternoon in Galveston

Picnic photos

We took these yesterday at the engineering picnic at JSC.  It was so hot and we were there from around 11:30 am until 4 pm---right in the middle of the hottest part of the day.  As you can see from the pictures, they had lots of fun things for the kids:  games, face painting, petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy things, rock climbing wall...  They stayed busy!  We also enjoyed good food and O and I really enjoyed the pine wood derby.  Different people made and entered cars to specific guidelines and then they all raced.  There were 70 different cars entered.  It was fun to see the creativity and to hear the friendly banter between the co-workers who entered the race.

We are going to lay low today and recover all of the body fluids that we sweated out yesterday.  No big plans for Father's Day.  Since we had a big family day with good food yesterday, C considers it all he needs to celebrate.  Now a day of recovery before the week begins.

Train Weekend-the finale

You'll have to scroll down about 7 posts to begin this story!

I was re-reading my last post and wanted to clarify:  The actual time on the turntable was quick but the time from uncoupling to recoupling took a good 20-30 mins.

Here is the engine recoupling to the cars

O watching the tracks behind us
M watching out the window
O LOVES trains and enjoyed this ride
Happy kids as we neared the end of our ride.

Train Weekend-Train on turntable

The train uses its own steam power to turn the table.  They uncoupled the engine from the cars, pulled forward past the switch, switched the tracks then backed onto the table.  It took less than 3 minutes I'd guess to turn the entire thing around!  Then the engine went forward past the switch, they switched tracks again then the train backed back up to the cars where they recoupled and pulled us back to the Rusk Depot.  Here is a series of pics of the train turning on the turntable.

Ready to turn

Beginning the turn


Turn complete

Train Weekend-Train

The main reason for our trip was to take a ride on the Texas State Rail Road.  There were roughly 50-55 people, including us and the staff, on the entire train that included 4 passenger cars and a dining car.  The ride was awesome and included the amazing show of watching the engine turn around on a turn table.  This and the next two posts will have photos of the train ride/experience.

The view to the engine from where we originally sat.  

The train
C & I ready to ride.  M took this pic.
C and the kids ready to ride
Getting a cab tour before the ride.  It was HOT standing right there next to the fire (behind the round silver door)

Train Weekend-more stuff to do at the cabin

M feeds the turkeys

Smores!

Silly family

Train Weekend-stuff to do at the cabin

They have a great fire pit and provide the wood.  You can see the benches and a picnic table.  They even had heavy duty two-pronged metal whatchamacallit sticks  in the cabin to use to roast marshmallows/hot dogs/etc.

Emu
Feeding the deer
Family portrait on the porch
And again.

Train Weekend-cabin

There are two cabins onsite.  We stayed in the slightly smaller cabin meant to sleep 4.  It had 1 set of bunks and a queen bed.  The other cabin has 2 sets of bunks and a queen futon to sleep 6.  It would be so much fun to get some friends/family to go together for a long weekend!  (Hint, hint!!)

We LOVED the rustic feel and had everything we needed.  There was a sink, stove/oven, microwave, coffee maker, small fridge as well as all of the plates/utensils/pans/etc that one would need to make a normal meal.  Here are photos we took before we left but you can see a few more on their web site.  

Kitchen sink area

Microwave, stove etc on the other side as well as the dining table
The kids loved sleeping in the bunks.  After they climbed them for a couple of hours while we were getting dinner ready!  Such a novelty for them!
There was a tv with a dvd/vcr combo as well as a few family friendly movies.  The book shelf was also full of paperback books.  They suggested that if you took a book you leave on in its place.  There was a deck of cards too.  Lots of fun, no technology needed, stuff to do for a weekend.
Queen bed with bathroom beyond.  The bathroom had a toilet, sink and a shower.
We loved it!

Train Weekend-Animals

Since the photos are in high resolution, blogger will only let me upload 5 at a time.  I could change the resolution but I'm just too lazy.  So, I will break up the post to upload all of the photos I thought you'd all like to see.

We headed up north to the Rusk, TX area this past weekend for a quick family getaway.  We stayed at a cabin located on the property of Cherokee Trace Drive Thru Safari.  The area was just beautiful.  As a guest of the property, we had full access to the safari even during the hours that it was closed to the public.  The only request that they have is that you stay out of the fenced area after dark so neither the guest nor the animals get injured.  We arrived too late on Saturday evening to drive through so we planned on driving around on Sunday morning.  However, an incredible thunderstorm came through overnight with lots of rain and high winds not to mention lightening and loud thunder!  The kids slept through it.  C slept more than I did.  I was up about every hour or so.  I enjoyed the storm but I was beat!

Sunday morning we were unable to drive through the safari because some of the roads were flooded!  However, quite a number of animals came to the fence so we were able to see them and feed them.  There was a tree limb down nearby and the camel devoured the leaves.  She wasn't interested in the pellets we had!  We didn't get to see her up close but she was cool to see anyway.

You can see the camel pretty clearly here along with a few deer.  To the camel's left by the blue barrels is an emu!
Emu now on camel's right.