The Barkley Family

Okay...Back to the U.S. for a post:

The big Nevada sky welcomed us with a beautiful sunset.

After our blitz visit in Philly, we made our way West for Emily Alejandra's big debut with the family.  My parents picked us up in Reno with their new toy--a fifth wheel trailer--and we headed to Carson City to spend the night.  The next day was a destination luncheon with most of my mom's family in Virginia City.  We were riding an old steam engine train from Carson to Virginia City for lunch with the family and a brief tourist visit.  Instead of driving the hour from Reno to our house and then getting up at 5am to drive two hours back down to Carson City, we opted to camp at the train station.  As it turns out, since Emily was now on Philadelphia time, we were up at 5 am anyway, but it was nice to be able to relax in the trailer instead of jumping back in the car.  Even after three days, we were still totally exhausted from all the travel and cutting back on driving became a priority that would dictate the rest of our vacation.  

The train ride was a big hit.  About half of the family rode with us and we met the other half at the restaurant in Virginia City.  The ride was about an hour, we weren't moving too quickly; it was fun to think about what it must have been like back in the day when this iron horse was the fastest means of transportation.  I tried to imagine a cross country train trip with a steam engine.

The only very unpleasant thing about the ride were the tunnels!  It was a hot day so we all had our windows open, of course, and going through the tunnels we were forced to breathe the train's nasty exhaust.  Once again, I thought about some of those long tunnels on the railroad through the Sierras--not fun.

Virginia City was fun, though we really only had time for lunch so I should say it was fun to eat with the whole family.  There were many, many cousins of all ages, some of whom I had maybe only ever seen once or twice in my life.  And my dad's aunt and uncle came over from Tahoe to join us, too.  It was great to be all together, especially to be able to show off our newest member to the Barkely clan. ;)

I don't know how it got by us, but somehow we forgot to get a picture of the whole group!  Anyway, I'll leave you with some choice photos from the day:

Our ride to and from Virginia City.

...All aboard!...

Auntie Maggie...

and Auntie Lucy, too!

Emily really hit it off with cousin Brendan.  This was just the beginning.

A game of checkers post-lunch.

Wild Mustangs on the way back to Carson City.

Emily getting her lunch, too. ;)

My mom stood in for this picture of four generations of Gutry women (my dad has no sisters...)