Fort's Cancer Sux!!

Train Trip to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.

As most of you know, one of my duties at work is to help with the bookings of trips with the Private Luxury Railcar company my boss owns - www.cincinnatirailway.com - Its a blast, and Ive met tons of great people and Ive really learned so much about railroading along the way - a completely unexpected lesson in life! My boss allowed me to go on this trip to get a "Feel" for the Private Railroading experience. As it turns out, my mom ended up going along with us to DC so that made it even more fun! This is probably more pictures than Ive posted EVER, so Ill try not to get too long winded....

These pictures are from when we were just coming into DC. Above, you can see the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial on the left, heading over the Potamac River....Below was a frightening moment....that dome that we're sitting in is pretty high...and if you look ahead, there isnt a whole lot of clearance in the tunnel we're approaching....Ahhhhhh.....
Here...Cherry Blossoms. This was the extent of our involvement with the Cherry blossoms. We missed the Parade, missed the Festival, but did take this picture: you can see the Capitol Building in the background.
Oops....a little bit out of order here. Woke up in my cute little roomette somewhere in WV with some great scenery flying by....then mom came over and sat in my room with me for awhile before we headed over to the dome for breakfast.....




Here's mom at breakfast:


French Toast that no doubt had us promising each other we would walk five miles the next day....



We arrived Friday around dinnertime, and headed out for dinner at the Dublinliner...apparently the number one Irish Pub in the country. http://dublinerdc.com/ Apparently these people havent visited Haps, but whatever! :) Headed back to the train for a few beers. Brent, Chelsea and I all took a walk to the Capitol building at around 1am for fun. Went back to the train and headed to bed.
Saturday morning was awesome. We met up with my mom's high school friend Patty. She lives in DC with her husband and two daughters. Both work for the government and have an awesome place five blocks from the Capitol. It was an amazing home...right out of magazine! they took us to the Eastern Market. http://www.easternmarketdc.com/ if you ever go to DC, I highly reccomend it - Im a freak about the markets...Jewelery, fresh flowers and produce, furniture, and various other gift shops. We ate breakfast there - really cool set up...theres a line out the door waiting for breakfast, you get to what looks like a concession stand sitting in the corner of this building - give your order, walk down the counter, pick up your food. Theres a really long table with stools that probably seats 25-30 people, and even with the line, theres always someone getting up so you can sit down. I had a spinach/swiss/bacon omelet with potatoes. Another great meal! Here we all are having breakfast

Saturday mom and I went to the Holocaust Museum. Its pretty amazing. For a busy weekend, we didnt have to wait long. The entries are timed so we got there around 11a and had tickets for 12:15. The exhibit is three stories high and they let people come in at 15 min intervals. We headed for the line around 12, as the noon people were going. This snippy little college intern with a bigger mouth than me, keeps talking down to everyone...


"People.....a line, begats a line.....You're all going to be able to walk in at 12:15....the line is not necessary."

We keep standing there. So to the people in front of us, who turn around, we all nod in agreement. I quietly say to the people, "Geez Lady, its not like we're FIVE HOURS EARLY! We go in in 10 MINUTES! Give us a break!"


Then I thought about calling her a "Line Nazi", but then decided it probably wasnt the best place to say this.

Heres mom at one of the Smithsonian Museums, if my dad asks, we did go in and look around.

You cant tell, but these people are spelling out on the Capitol Lawn "80% By 2050" (Reducing Carbon Emissions) There was a guy up on some platform what seemed to be about 6 stories up, organizing the event, before an arial photo was taken. That night, my boss's family invited mom and I to dinner for my boss's birthday. We headed to Georgetown via the metro train on a rainy night and had a great dinner at Old Glory.




Another picture out of order..../
What a bunch of dorks....we all get off the train and we're all sporting our company fleece Jackets.
Sunday night, mom and I were invited to have dinner in the Chapel Hill (www.chapelhillrail.com). The Chapel Hill is owned by Dewitt Chapple, and you might be thinking that he named it that because of his name...but you'd be wrong. He went to college at North Carolina...hence...the Chapel Hill. His car is privately operated outside of our fleet, but Im on the phone with him all the time....he's a train knowledge LEGEND! Ive learned so much from him and he's always been so nice to me...our riders were not allowed back on his car without permission, so I was pumped to be invited. Originally my boss Karen was going to eat with me, but she gave up her spot so that my mom and I could head over there. Thanks Karen!


Below: Mom chills out with a glass of wine in the lounge area of the Chapel Hill. It was previously owned by Margorie Merriweather Post and EF Hutton. Click here to read the history of the car: http://www.chapelhillrail.com/history.html

This is the dining room that we ate dinner in. Excellent meal! Candelabras, Silver Platters, China, meals served with white gloves....unreal.
This is me with Dewitt - Thanks Dewitt!!!
As you may have been reading, the Nor' Easter is hitting the east coast with extremely hard rains. We started to get nervous as we traveled along the New River Gorge...there were a few frighteningly high waters as we traveled...and this was the worst of it - I learned later that the rule of thumb is that anything higher than 5" above the rails and you cant pass. we barely made it!!!

After dinner we headed back to our sleeping quarters, and woke up in the yard in Cincinnati, went home to clean up and headed off to work. What a great trip! Thanks to all who made this possible.