Worth the Wait

I know, I know... I am so bad at blogging. But I knew that this post was going to be a lot of pictures, and I wanted to be able to tell the whole story... as it is, I have INBA at my elbow, wanting on my lap to see the train pictures. A mother can only do so much, so this will have to do.

Here the boys are in Cumberland, MD. We are at the rail station that their Grandma used to arrive to when coming to see her Grandparents. Her Grandfather was the conductor on the railroad, he would pick her up in Pittsburgh on the 11 o'clock train and take her, sleeping, into Cumberland. A lot of nostalgia as she told the boys about this, again.
Anyway, this is a brick relief. Isn't it the coolest thing you have ever seen? Ok, maybe the second. Either way, it is neat.



And I thought it nice to know that just up these stairs, a steam train would make my little boy's dream come true. At least I hoped. He has been pestering me since June to go to Colorado to ride a steam train from Durango to Silverton. Well, Cumberland is a lot closer and it is a steam train, too. I thought he might be distracted.

No. No such luck.



But this was his face as the engine steamed into the station. JOY, AWE, HAPPINESS. Score one for the Mom and Dad.

See, I am so thrilled for my child that I have gone this far without mentioning how FREAKING cold it was. Ok, by some standards, not so cold. I understand that it could have been colder. Not the point. Cold for me. And disappointing mostly because I had talked myself into believeing that wool socks will protect me. Not so much, not that you will be able to take them from me. I am cold. All the time. I would cry, but I am afraid of ice.



Anyway, this is a view of the country side. Very beautiful and we obviously missed most of the colors.









And then there is the view provided by the Mister leaning out the side of the train.

This is what happens when you let the Mister go wandering around by himself. And he didn't even come back with popcorn.











Here we are in Frostburg. It was sleeting. yuck. but we found a nice little coffee shop at the top of the hill that made Ghiradelli hot chocolate and really tasty vanilla lattes. It makes the cold more bearable.

by the way, that is my MIL, Me, INBA and Eldest.




We got to see them spin the engine around on the roundtable. I was not particularly enthusiastic about waiting around to see that, but WOW, that is something to see. I suppose it is the sheer size of the engine and the steam and smoke and noise that just becomes overwhelming.








INBA doesn't care for the cold, either. Or the noise for that matter, but what he was really mad about in this picture... Daddy made him turn around and look at Mommy. So much less interesting than the train.









For a kid who says he wants to drive these things when he grows up, he needs to be less sensitive to the noise. It is really something to be around a train like this. Just the pollution from this engine was staggering. It took 3 tons of coal to go 15 miles. It really makes me stop and think about a busy station with many trains coming and going. Makes me appreciate what we have, even when we can do better.






Knitting news... Peapod is complete. Somebody's something is complete. I have another pair of sparkly socks on needles (plain stockinette) and I am making my niece a matching outfit with her bear. This is the bear sweater. I am so proud of this!!! It isn't in the round, but I used the 2 stitch patter out of the back of the Big SVen and I love love love it!!
So that gave me the confidence to start on the big girl part.




It is Navy Blue and I am using leftovers of pink that I used in some clog socks, cream from the Orca mittens and green from the frog sweater. I don't feel so bad about the big bin of odds and ends now.