SF3751 Trip to San Diego 2010

So, I've mentioned this in previous blogs...but thought I should go into more detail of our adventure.

We were looking for something to do for mother's day weekend. We found out their was a railroad days event planned in San Bernardino that weekend. Perfect. Great fun for us to spend together as a family. As Bryan was on the page for that...he saw a link that said "ride the 3751" (or something like that) and we discovered the excursion to San Diego was the next weekend! We were able to get tickets and were SO excited for the trip.

We planned it all very last minute but it worked perfect! We picked up the SF3751 in Fullerton and headed for San Diego. We had to make a stop at the Pointsettia station to take on water and be serviced. Nicholas was 2 1/2 at the time and he was having a blast! He fell asleep for about 20 minutes on the ride, but that was it. He was just mesmerized by the whole ordeal.

Once we arrived in San Diego...we took a bunch of pictures of the San Diego Station. We love the historic stations! We grabbed a trolley to our hotel. Quickly dumped our bags there and headed to the Padre game (yep...huge Padre fans). Nicholas lasted until the 7th inning before he konked out :) Poor kid. Next day was a SeaWorld adventure. Our last minute planning worked out perfect and we had a great weekend!

Nevada Northern Winter PhotoShoot

So I realized I never posted about our trip in detail to the Nevada Northern Winter Photoshoot.

I found out about a scholarship via their Facebook page. I had to enter 3 pictures that I had taken. Here are the 3 that I submitted:

My Favorite Picture of all:


This was a photo I took during our steam excursion on the SF3751 to San Diego in 2010.


This is also a photo from the excursion to San Diego.


About a week into January I was sitting at the computer and got notification that I had a new email. I read it and while reading it I just kept saying "oh my gosh" "oh my gosh"... Which had caught Nicholas's attention and he kept asking "what?" "what?".

I was beyond excited for such a great opportunity to be able to participate in such a great event. We met up with Mark at a local train show in Anaheim and worked out the details. We planned our trip and it was here before we knew it.

We left So. Cal at 3:30 in the morning. We arrived in Las Vegas around 6:30 am. It was a great drive with no traffic. We stopped for breakfast and headed back on the road about 8am. I was very concerned that the drive was going to be boring on the next stretch of the trip on what looked like a lonely highway. But, was pleasantly surprised. It was beautiful! We arrived in Ely Nevada about 11:30 or so. We quickly checked out the hotel and then headed to the Museum.

We were surrounded by lots of train enthusiasts and this was just a start to the fabulous weekend ahead. It was long days of being up early in the morning to get the great shots in the engine house as the locomotives were getting ready and then a morning full of shooting pictures. Then lunch. Then on to an afternoon full of pictures. We were blessed with sunshine & great weather for most of the weekend. Sunday we awoke to fresh snow on the ground. This was such a nice change to the backdrop of the photos! It was the first time that I had ever seen it snow too!

I took over 2500 pictures!! It was very difficult to edit them all, but I eventually got it all done. I am so thankful that a friend let me borrow a camera for the event. Hopefully one day soon, I'll be getting a camera of my own. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the weekend. I hope you enjoy!










I was so thankful for the opportunity to join such a wonderful event with so many other great people who shared a common interest. I think at first the other participants may have been a bit annoyed that I had a 4 year old around...but they soon realized how much of a true rail fan my young son is. He took in every moment he possibly could (as did I and my husband!). Upon leaving the night photoshoot on Friday, he said "Mom, this place is cooler than Disneyland!" I was taken by surprise by this...but delighted at the same time. *He has been to Disneyland and we did the train around the park quite a few times!* I told Mark (the director at NNRY) what Nicholas said and he told Nicholas that he was his favorite kid! :) We cannot wait to go back to Nevada Northern Railway. It will always hold a very special place in my heart. Also check out this page on my blog. It also has a few photos I took from the 2nd day of the photoshoot.