We started our journey catching Amtrak in Emeryville. Train leaves around 8:30 if memory serves me correct, and our original plan was to get off the train in Provo at 4:30am the next morning.  But in typical fashion, we ended up being stopping at about 2-2:30am due to the track breaking.  Yes, the track broke.  Luckily the engineer found out about it before we drove over it completely.   Adam decided that 2:30am was a good time to wake up, so we hung out while they fixed the rails.  We ended up exiting the train in Salt Lake City instead at 5:15ish am.

Since my son is obsessed with trucks, my parents got him a ride on backhoe for him to play with.  It was definitely the winning present this Christmas for him.  Later after dinner we had some fondue.

Photo courtesy of Shane, who tried to show I actually do work while on vacation.  Actually I was probably surfin the internet when he took the picture.

My Brother in Law & buddy Shane built this ice rink in the backyard.  Its big.  Like, we played 2v2 hockey on there.  It was a little crowded at that point, but it felt good ice skating outside at night in 10 degree weather.  NHL guys got nothing on us!

We included a mini photoshoot of Shane out on the rink.

In accordance with established family tradition, our trip involved trains.  In fact, trains seem to be a common theme in my family.  Ancestors worked on the railroad, rode the railroad, and loved the railroad.  We took a train ride up to Ogden, Utah on Frontrunner, to visit the train museum up there and enjoy the time together.

And dinner.  I apologize for those in the dinner picture.  I had a hard time picking the one where someone wasn’t making a weird expression, so I chose the one where almost everyone was making a weird expression.  And unlike the picture, we were all having a good time, dinner isn’t a somber time around my parents house.

Since we didn’t have much time to hang out at the train museum earlier, my parents & me/wife/kid drove up to Ogden & spent a fair amount of time out there.  Downside, was it was cold, very cold.  I made the mistake of climbing on the 833 engine from the cab to the front of the train and had a hard time moving my hands after.

Two images from my mom.  She’s getting good!

A couple more images from my mom.  For those who haven’t met me yet, I’m the guy wearing the hockey socks & black/teal long sleeve shirt.

Since it was Spring Break I went through the Amtrak & ACE (Altamont Commuter Express) schedules to find when the trains would be passing through some places I had in my mind that I wanted to photograph them at.  The only scheduling glitch I had was one train apparently didn’t run, so I sat in the middle of nowhere with no jacket as the clouds & wind came.  But the images I got were worth the 2 1/2 hour wait.

First place I went to was Alviso, which is on the border of the bay.  I went out looking for one or two particular images, and ended up with a couple completely different ones.

Next up I headed to Fremont to physically scope out a few areas, but none really stood out to me.  So I headed to my next area, Niles Canyon.  Due to “No Parking” signs on the side of the road, I had to park about a 1/2 mile from this bridge and hike back to it.  This is where I waited for the train that didn’t show.

My waiting was rewarded with the next two images.

I then headed over to Pleasanton for my next spot.  I had just parked was looking at images I had shot, and out of nowhere this freight train pulled through.

This was the image I wanted to get in Pleasanton, mostly.  All the cars decided to park about 10 feet behind the limit line, so I didn’t quite get the effect that I wanted.

Last but not least was my “goal” image of the day.  The image I really wanted to get was a train going over the crossing at Altamont Pass.  While waiting I saw the powerlines & really loved the color.  The setting sun gave me some beautiful colors for my last couple images of the day.

I had a project assigned in one of my photography classes, and I decided that it was the perfect time to go and use some trains in the images.  For the past while I’ve been using Google Earth to look at possible locations for photographing trains in a city enviornment.

This trip went pretty good, and I’ve got a few more places I want to try out as well.

After the zoo my dad and me drove around looking for some nice landscapes to photograph as well as anything else, and we noticed that after the fog had lifted, it had left everything covered in ice.

We photographed the California Zephyr (Same train we took to/from Utah) at around 9am in the morning.  The problem is this train was supposed to leave SLC at 11pm the night before.  Glad that wasn’t our train!