Train & Alexandria Pics

Like I said yesterday, I finally went on my first train ride, to Alexandria, VA! Overall I thought it was pretty cool. It was interesting seeing the landmarks I know from driving from the train's perspective. I was surprised how smooth the train took off, I guess I expected it to be a little jerky like a plane. I did get a little motion sick though, it felt like I had a knot in my throat for half the trip. It caught me a little off guard when the train would jerk to one side as it switched tracks, but I got used to it after a while.

We had to make several stops on the way and I thought the differences in the stations were pretty cool, though I didn't get to photograph them all. My favorite was the Ashland Station, it was a little brick colonial-style station.

To pass time, when I wasn't feeling motion sick, I started reading my copy of Dan Brown's new book, The Lost Symbol. It grabs your attention pretty quickly and I'm already having trouble putting it down. I definitely recommend his books, in my opinion they could all be made into movies. My professor was also reading a copy of the book on her kindle. Those are pretty cool, basically you can buy e-books, load the info on the kindle, and have multiple books stored in there. It is supposed to replace textbooks one day. I could have used that back in middle school, my book-bag easily weighed 30lbs.

For those who were wondering this is what a kindle looks like, its really thin too.

When we got to Alexandria we went through Old Town Alexandria. There were tons of shops and restaurants. Pretty much all of them were brick and looked colonial. They were beautiful. We were walking too fast for me to get pics of town, though. We also went to the Torpedo Factory Art Center, which was sweet. There were three floors of artists' studios and galleries that were open to the public. Most artists were there so you could see how they worked, talk to them, browse through their galleries, and buy their work. I bet it would be incredibly inspiring to be surrounded by such great artists and art everyday, I really wish something this cool was in Richmond. Not to mention it overlooked the Potomac River, so the people on the waterfront side had amazing views out their studio windows. If your interested in checking out the Art center, their website is www.torpedofactory.org.

Here are the Pics, most of them are from the train stations.

Ashland Station:

Quantico Station:

Fredericksburg Station:

Alexandria Station:

Even the Phones had a Colonial touch!

River we went over, though I don't remember which one...

Masonic Temple aka the Lighthouse just outside of the Alexandria Station.

That's all for now, Enjoy.