Last week, David and I went out to Roseville to a model railroad exhibit. Now David is a big fan of railroads, and some of you may remember that we took a trip in 2006 up to Clear Lake and stayed at a bed and breakfast called Featherbed Railroad Company.

At that b&b, we discovered 8 cabooses laid out in the property, all of them completely refurbished into little cottages. There were hardwood or carpet floors, beautiful wood inlay ceilings, some had hottubs, others did not, large feather beds and tasteful furnishings.

I had chosen the “Orient Express” themed caboose, and you can see some of the pictures here.

But anyway - David got tickets for the model railroad event in Roseville, we packed up our cameras and headed out. Now I am not a railroad nut like David is, and I warned him not to be disappointed if I didn’t get as excited about the exhibit as he did…but I have to say, I had a really fun time.

As soon as we arrived, we realized that the clientelle for these events was not exactly “our crowd”.

There were some very…interesting people there, but I suppose it takes an interesting person to have the patience to create some of the grand exhibits we saw.

The first stop was at the Sacramento Valley Live Steamers. They had a train set up and were taking people on a little tour around the grassy plot. The train was very cool…but…I don’t know - the people riding it just looked silly.

We passed by the consignment booths, because we weren’t there to buy anything, and went into the first of many display buildings. In the first one, there were four or five model areas set up that completely filled the room.

The detail on the models was absolutely incredible. Little plastic people visited little plastic shoppes and stores, and the train zoomed right on by with little choo-choo sounds.

This model also had a very cool “Amusement Park” portion, with little rides and such.

In the next building, we saw even more wonderful detail, and a lightrail exhibit. The time it must take to create little signs and features like this…I just wouldn’t have the patience.

And people really take this stuff seriously, as can be seen by this $350 engine available for purchase…

But the absolute coolest thing of all were the cemeteries. This is the last picture I will include in the blog post - you can see ALL the pictures from our trip here.

We were just amazed at the incredible detail of the cemeteries, and there were even vendors that specialized in selling “cemetery kits”. I have to say, these were our favourite parts of the models…given how fanatic David (and me a little bit) is about Halloween, it’s not surprising. So here is a shot of the coolest cemetery there…

By popular demand, the third, and hopefully final, installment of LOLHEATH.

After my recent trip to Arizona, I obviously had to fly home…here is a little photo montage I’m calling, The View from the Wing.

Here’s the first shot of the gorgeous cloud formations that littered the morning sky. And when I say morning, I mean way too early to be awake morning.

Next up - right off the wing tips and into the fluffy clouds.

Silicon Valley is a mass of humanity. It’s hard to believe that none of this was here just a couple hundred years ago.

Are we really such boring people that we have to build every house to look exactly the same?

The fog/haze was very thick as we landed in San Jose.

On our way to Sacramento - more of the same….clouds everywhere.

But as we came into the Sacramento area, I did notice a pretty nice house out in the middle of nowhere.

Landing was boring, so I didn’t bother with any pictures. Thankfully, I’m now home and can relax after a very stressful week…I need a vacation.

Ok, so this is the couch I have to deal with. I will admit that yes, I did lay on it last night while watching MythBusters.

It was actually relatively sort of comfortable.

Now, I don’t mean comfortable like “Oh I’m going to go out and buy one of these really quickly because OMG it’s comfortable.” Yeah, not like that.

But…it’s ok, especially since this suite is only $60/night. Yay for corporate discounts. So let’s take a look at the pattern.

WTF.

It’s red, it’s black, it’s white. It’s a mess. It’s so absolutely busy that I almost can’t look at it without having a seizure. It’s like one of those first person shooter games that flashes images at you so fast that you need to shove a spoon between your teeth so you don’t chew your tongue off.

So let’s get a little closer and see what’s going on.

That’s right.

A whole lot of busy patterns that sort of look rather native american.

Now I am very fond of native american art, but I’m not sure if this qualifies. To me, this look like an american version of native american artwork.

I can back this up, however, because all of the artwork in the entire room is native american-esque.

Example, this is the art above my head when I sleep at night. It’s some sort of native american pueblo or something, with water bearers wandering around.

I really have no idea what it is, I’m making this stuff up, but hey, they put it in my room so I have to do something with it.

Anyway - I have to be up at 4:30am to get to the airport and on a plane at the crack of dawn. Not looking forward to that…

I shall now spend the rest of the evening watching Kathy Griffin, and Queer Eye. Because that’s what on TV. I would watch Borat which is on free HBO, but the guide won’t tell me what channel is HBO…and I’m really tired of flipping through 70+ channels of nothing.

It’s 9:07pm where I am, but I’m not in Pacific Daylight Time.

The remote control pictured at the lower left of this photograph controls one of two televisions that are currently available to me.

This is where I will be sleeping tonight. This depresses me. It’s barely a full size bed.

Thankfully, there are two of them in case I decide I don’t like this one.

And really, with such glorious artwork above my head, how could I not?

And, while I’m watching MythBusters, I will be sitting on this absolutely stunning sofa.

Polyester covered foam never felt so good.

If only the lamp on the other side of the sofa worked.

I just got here and I already want to go home.

Anyone want to call and chat?