Listen Intently

The groom, Ryan, with my mother

I’m a little slow with this blog update, sorry.  On December 6, my cousin, Ryan, got married to the lovely Ashley in a beautiful ceremony overlooking the Pacific Ocean from Maui.  It was my first visit to the islands, and the timing couldn’t have been better.  I was fresh off of teaching a photography course and didn’t want to get back into the regular schedule very much.  I enjoyed, way too much, my opportunity to work with the students in my course.

So I began the process of “hurry up and wait.”  I drove to the Detroit airport and hurried to the line to check by bag.  Then hurried from there only to wait at the security checkpoint.  Then down the hall to wait at the gate.  Hurry up and get in line to board, only to wait in the jetway for those in front of you to find their seats and load their bags.  Then the ultimate wait, sitting in a airplane seat for 6 hours getting to Seattle.  And waiting only to repeat the process in order to get to Maui.  Oh, these things do make me long for the train.

Finally, I made it to Maui.  It lives up to its promise.  Weather, beautiful.  Beaches, soft and sunny.  Ocean, clear, blue and glorious.  I could get used to this.  Daily, I walked along the ocean-front path, a 3-mile roundtrip powerwalk to get the day going.  Then would sit along the beach, read, and just relax.  Not bad.  Our rooms and the wedding were at the Four Seasons Resort in the Wailea area of the island.  We ventured to Lahaina for dinner one night, but spent much of our time not far from the resort.

Myself, Uncle Bruce, Dad and Mom

We did venture out in the resort’s outrigger canoe, a fun experience punctuated by seeing spinner dolphins, a site not often seen this close to shore.  Humpback whales were also spotted, both from beachside and from our whale-watching trip Saturday morning.

Despite the long trip home, glorious memories reside from this wonderful trip.  Mostly from getting to spend a lot of time with my extended family, time that I wouldn’t trade for another few days in paradise.

I took many of the “required tourist” shots in D.C. today.  Click on the photo on the right to see multiple photos.  Lot’s of walking — in three hours I walked from Union Station to the WWII memorial (past the Washington Monument) and back.  Probably about 2+ miles or so.  Uploading the photos now…

About to get on #19 The Crescent to go to the Big Easy.  All Aboard!

This is the way to start the day.  Way back when I was training to be a cabin counselor, our training director got us up at dawn one morning, and read us a story about how to start the day.  No, being on a train isn’t anything like being on a canoe on the middle of the lake at dawn, but…let me back up a bit…

I hopped on board Amtrak’s Capitol Limited in Toledo at about 12:20 AM for my first adventure in an Amtrak sleeping car.  I have to admit that I didn’t get much sleep.  Just a bit too excited about starting off my vacation.  I stayed awake as the train progressed east over Sandusky Bay, finally got a bit of sleep before Cleveland, but woke up to the bright lights of the station, parked right next to Brown’s Stadium.

Dawn woke me up around 5 AM as we approached Pittsburgh.  Jaded as I am by my previous Amtrak experience, I was quite surprised to be arriving fifteen minutes early.  Alas, our earliness was a good thing, as a medical emergency on board used up all of our layover time and then some.  The ride aboard the Capitol has been very pleasant, since losing time in Pittsburgh, we’ve been fifteen to fifty minutes behind schedule, but the padding will, as of now, allow us to arrive into Washington, DC, on time.

Since Pittsburgh, we’ve followed the Youghiogheny River all the way up the mountains, a winding railroad journey through quiet, green and beautiful countryside.  On the way down the other side, we picked up the Potomac River and, basically, are following it all the way into DC.

My first sleeper experience has been aboard Superliner #32109, the “South Dakota.”  Special thanks to Nathan, our car attendant, who’s helped to make this a comfortable ride.  It’s now time to explore DC for a few hours, then hop on the Crescent for the overnight journey into New Orleans.

All Aboard!