With the promise of a bright sunny day it was high time I got out to capture some pictures of trains. My first stop was on Columbia Blvd near St Johns, right where the railroad tracks come out of a tunnel under Mock’s Crest. Union Pacific and BNSF both have lines here that line up to the bridge across the Columbia River. I thought this would be a great location and I’d have my choice of pictures.
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Category: Trains
California Trip Days 5-9: Santa Cruz Fun
Before the pandemic hit we had planned to take the kids and grandkids to Disneyland in the summer of 2021; but it became clear early on that wouldn’t be a good idea. As things started to loosen up in Spring 2021 we evaluated alternatives. Carla grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and came to Santa Cruz with her family when she was young; and the two of us came over for a day before we were dating. It seemed like Santa Cruz could be a fun place to hang out for a few days.
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Road Trip to Glacier Day 6: Whitefish MT Trains
Sweet irony! I planned the first part of this trip to follow the BNSF northern High Line TransCon (Trans Continental) but saw few trains and took no pictures. Then after changing our return plans due to fires we end up in a town hopping with railroad activity.
Road Trip to Glacier Day 3: Inland NW Rail Museum
When you read the future posts on our August trip to Santa Cruz, you’ll be able to compare and contrast vacations I plan and those Carla plans. My goal on this trip was to follow the old Great Northern railroad route from Leavenworth, Washington to East Glacier, Montana. On our fourth day we had a short drive from Leavenworth to Couer d’Alene, Idaho.
The fast way would have been to take I90, but that route doesn’t parallel the train route so we took the more scenic route along US Highway 2.
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Road Trip to Glacier. Day 1 – Columbia Gorge
I thought our road trip days were behind us. Our last long trip was driving coast to coast from Portland to New York and back in 2016 (you can review those posts here). When we got back we were exhausted from the fun we had, but also from driving 7,157.5 miles – that is a lot of car time. We both swore “no more”, but as always I got the itch to hit the road. Emerging from the pandemic shut-down Carla surprised me, telling me she also wanted to get out again and see the country. There is just no substitute I have found that allows one to see a lot of the country in a short period of time.
