See what's chugged into Huntington!

Forty-two trains!!  I took pictures of the ones that were clustered in the central downtown area and am going to use this LINK to view a map that shows the location of all of them.  Of the 30-ish that I saw, some were really great, some were a little strange, but all were fun to see.  Chicago had its cows, Lexington had its horses, and now Huntington has its locomotives.  These are a the result of a collaborative effort to beautify the city, give local artisans a chance to "strut their stuff" and raise money for Cabell Huntington Hospital's new Hoops Family Children Hospital (the link above and THIS one will tell you a little more about it although they aren't as informative as I would like.

Once again, I took the pictures with my phone and the sun was very bright so most of the time I had no idea how I was doing.  And I've only made these medium size so I could get two side by side but you can click to enlarge them. 

So, a nice treat for Mother's Day.  And such a lucky mother - three wonderful children that make me laugh, make me proud, and seem to enjoy spending time with me.  I had cards, calls and flowers.  And was feeling so mellow after all my picture taking that I decided I would treat myself to a Mother's Day lunch at Le Bistro.  I had thought about it on Saturday and looked on line to see if they were open on Sundays and they're not.  But while I was out taking pictures there was a sidewalk sign outside their door saying Happy Mother's Day! and so I thought "okay!" and had a nice meal there with a glass of cold white wine.  That is my favorite Huntington restaurant .  When Backyard Pizza reopens, it may be a tie, but the nice thing is, they're two fairly different venues - BP more casual than the LB with very delicious food but not as "gourmet-ish".

And speaking of Mother's Day - I almost forgot.  The Sunday newspaper had an article about how so many memories of our mothers involve the kitchen and I laughed out loud (truly) when I read "...featured some of her family's great recipes (like her mom's buttermilk pancakes with carmelized bananas and vegetable soup".  I'm not totally sure I would care for the carmelized bananas topping but I'm certain I would not care for vegetable soup topping! :)

It did inspire a memory that comes back to me fairly regularly when I'm fixing a big dinner for family or friends (which in my tiny kitchen doesn't happen much anymore).  It was Thanksgiving or Christmas and my dear mama was fixing the big dinner with all the trimmings.  Pretty much all available surfaces were covered (our kitchen wasn't very big either) and she went to take the turkey out of the oven, saw that the plates were sitting on top of the stove keeping warm, picked them up to move them, looked around and couldn't find a spot for them. She lifted them up over her head and I truly thought she was going to throw them on the floor!  I must have been young enough to not know that she wouldn't actually do it.  A tense moment in Hazel's kitchen.  She was a good cook though.  And to this day, her gravy I will never match, her potato salad I get close enough to suit me, and her scalloped potatoes were even better than my grandmother's!

Funny how I always come back to food - started out all about trains, end up with memories of my mom's cooking...