The second part of photo series of our trip to Chicago in November 2011. The first part can be found here.
Tag Archives: Transportation
Chicago – Part 1
In November 2011 Lou and I took our first trip to Chicago. It was only a brief stay, 4 days in total before we flew onto New York and Philly. The flight from Manchester was supposed to be direct, but due to apparent strong jet-stream winds meant that before we had even left the ground we were told we would be diverting to JFK for refuelling. Unfortunately this meant that we were going to be a number of hours late arriving into Chicago.
However, the diversion to JFK didn’t pass without event as clearly the communication between the airline/cockpit and ground staff wasn’t up to scratch as they proceeded to start unloading our baggage. A few bangs on the window by some startled travellers and a shout from the cabin crew fortunately meant that by the time we did arrive in Chicago, at least we had our luggage!
I’ve decided to split the photos into two batches and this first set covers our departure from Manchester and first day or so in Chicago. The main set of photos can be found on my Flickr site.
Barry Trotters Train!
The North Yorkshire Moors railway runs between Whitby on the east coast of England, to a market town called Pickering, approximately 20 miles inland. The station of Grosmont is, give or take a few miles, half way between the two. Grosmont is one of the key stations on the line serving as the starting point for many of the scheduled services, as well as for the specials that run throughout the season. Growing up not far from Grosmont, I have fond childhood memories of being taken to see the trains by my Nanna, who incidentally was born and raised in the town. Now that I have children of my own, I am reigniting those memories by taking them to see the steam and diesel trains.
As well as providing a fantastic opportunity to take pictures of steam trains, the surrounding countryside, in my opinion, is some of the most stunning in the world. To add weight to support this outrageous statement, is the little fact that some of the scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed on location on the NYMR!
To clarify why I’ve chosen an unusual post title. Well, for some reason whenever my son asked to watch Harry Trotter I would respond with ‘Barry Trotter’ in a fake mockney accent. Needless to say he didn’t find it very funny…but I still do it anyway. What else are Dads for apart from to be annoying?!
A day at the seaside…Welsh Style!
Today the Johnson family went on a little road trip to the West Wales coast and visited a small village called Barmouth. There are a number of reasons why we decided to go, but one of them is that I am now the proud owner of a Canon 7D and felt it necessary to get out and put it through its paces, secondly, we’ve never been to Barmouth and finally, Ben has been obsessed with going to Wales for the last few weeks. The last point is quite interesting because we only live about 20 minutes from the Welsh border and although I’ve been cycling in Wales many times I don’t think Ben has ever been – from what he can recall! The reason for Ben being so obsessed with Wales recently is down to his teacher. She hails from the Land of the Dragon and has been telling the class all about Wales and even brought in Welsh cakes to celebrate St. Davids day (the Patron Saint of Wales for those of you who didn’t know!). Oh, and the other reason Ben wanted to go was because he thought that Wales was the only place you could get Welsh cakes and since he liked them so much, he just had to go and get some.
Barmouth is a small fishing village on the West Coast of Wales situated in the county of Gwynedd. Whilst watching the BBC program Coast one evening they ventured north up this stretch of coastline and I was taken by the beauty of it and thought, I want to go there and take pictures. I was particularly impressed with the bridge that stretched across the estuary providing what would be a vitally important transport link back in the day. I wanted to go here because the thoughts in my head were telling me I would come home with some stunning sunset images of the bridge and village. Needless to say the day we went it was cloudy and dull, although the conditions did not totally ruin everything. We had a great day out and will definitely be going back once the weather picks up…
There is a second part to this post which I will upload very soon…The Young Photographer!
Clear to land runway 27L
Taken one summer evening at Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Dave Johnson's Photography 