Rocky Arbor, Mirror Lake, and the Portage Railyard

 

This morning Travalon and I went to Crema Cafe, since we hadn't been there in a while, and we sat outside. There was a music festival (free!) at the Overture Center, but it was so nice outside that I had to get out into the woods, so we went to Rocky Arbor State Park and walked along the scenic path. Travalon took many photos.

The roots of this fallen tree looked like an art installation:

This was a rock sticking out of the water. Here are several views.

This pattern in the rock was so intriguing:

Then we went to Mirror Lake State Park, and I asked the people at the boat rental if they happened to have a copy of the photo of Travalon and me that was taken in October 2017 and was on the website in March of 2020, but they pointed out that was a long time ago, and they also think the woman who took the photo was someone who stole a lot of money from the business and fled to California. Sigh... it was a great photo. Here are some photos of the park from today.

Our next stop was the Portage railyard, but nothing was happening and the Railyard Bar right by it wasn't opening until 4:30, so we went to Silver Lake for about twenty minutes. It's very lovely.

I don't know why this one is so tilted.

Here you can see the sand castle collection someone had created on the beach.

We went back to the Railyard Bar, and they were just as friendly as Travalon had said. One of the bartenders seemed to be a true train nerd, and he told us the Amtrak Empire Builder heading east was going to arrive in five minutes, so we ran out to watch it arrive. Bonus: right after it left, a freight train left too. Travalon made videos which I need to compile and edit, so watch for that. Here are photos of the train graffiti we saw in the railyard.

Here are some very old engines.

Here is a more modern one.

This is the Norfolk and Southern engine that pulled out after the Amtrak train left.

This is the little depot where people can wait in bad weather. There isn't even a bathroom! As Travalon said, it's basically a bus stop.

More engines.

Then we went back to the bar and had something to eat to sustain us on the long ride home. We took the long way, the one that takes you on the Merrimac Ferry. Here are some photos from the ferry.

As if all that weren't enough, I have some DuoLingo bragging to do today:

I owe this blog several train videos (and the hummingbirds a full feeder, as they keep reminding me) so watch for that in the coming days.

Famous Hat