Scattered Thoughts . . .

Saturday morning, we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then made our way over to the train show.  Breakfast was delicious!  If we had a Cracker Barrel nearby in Vermont, I'm sure I would gain twenty pounds due to all the 1950's-style breakfasts we would add to our life!  Naturally, I had to order the sampler plate for breakfast so I could get a taste of everything again.  It was delicious, as always...  especially those fried apples! We sneaked in to the show from the backside which allowed us to avoid virtually all of the traffic jams of cars trying to get into the show.  We found this route from the backside of town by accident one year (the one time getting lost turned out to be a positive thing) and it turned out to be a very happy accident. So now, every year we sneak in from the back side and by-pass the long line of cars waiting to get into the Big E.  We typically arrive before the doors open but we planned it well this year so there was no waiting out in the

The first thing the kids wanted to do when they arrived at the hotel was jump in the pool!  Mom and John had to check them into their room first though.  I was sitting in the lobby lounge area and had a chance to re-introduce Lukey and Kenzie to the rest of our train show group...  particularly to Jake and Dylan.  While everyone was swimming in the pool, I secured the two big tables in the lounge area so we could all relax with a few drinks and dinner.  After a short swim session, everyone congregated in the lounge area for our first night of the extended weekend... On Saturday, after the train show, we had time to squeeze in some pool time before needing to head to dinner.  Personally, I could have used a short nap but I wanted to capture a few shots of the kids in the pool so I fought with my eyelid actuators and managed to keep my eyes open (partly open but open enough) so I could shoot some photos in the pool house... The kids def

While Sheila and I drove down to Springfield, Massachusetts for our annual train show extended weekend this past weekend, Liza, John and the kids hopped on an Amtrak train to meet us there.  Sheila and I arrived early, did some shopping, had lunch, did a little more shopping, bumped into Frank and Christine while at the Holyoke Mall and then headed to the train station to pick up everyone.  Lukey and Kenzie were counting the days as the weekend approached mostly because they were excited about the Amtrak journey.  The only other time they were on Amtrak was for a short day trip when we all headed to Brattleboro for a nice lunch on the Connecticut River.  That was a few years ago so they were ripe for another train trip! The Springfield Union Station is newly renovated so we wanted to take a look at the station anyway so meeting them at the station was actually convenient for us.  The new station is clean but, disappointingly, it lacks any sort of usual railroad station architectura