Ashtabula Ohio

Continuing our trip to Ashtabula Ohio down to the coal unloading docks and the harbor. Here is the lift bridge over the river in the process of lowering. A boat is docked waiting for the next time the bridge will lift.

You can see lots of loaded and empty coal trains along with a lighthouse and Lake Erie in the background

After the coal cars are unloaded the coal is put on this big conveyor belt, and carried across the river where it is dumped onto a huge coal pile awaiting lake freighters that will take the coal to it's destination..

Back at the garden that surrounds the maritime museum are many beautiful Hydrangea bushes.

It was really hot and humid Saturday. No rain though. Thankfully it had cooled down at night.

Walking with the dog yesterday evening I saw this Pearly Crescentspot Butterfly. It's only about 1 1/2" across. It's a new find for me.
By the way, does anyone beside me notice it's getting darker earlier in the evenings now? :( A few weeks ago we took a trip to see the coal trains at the Ashtabula, Ohio harbor. On top of the hill above all the unloading facilities there is a small Maritime museum. In the flower bed outside are several of these gorgeous Daylilies.

Looking down on the river below I thought this was a water front restaurant, but I'm not sure.

The sign on the lift bridge tells when the bridge will be in the up position so the boats can pass through. They blow a very loud horn before it goes up.

The bridge in the down position.

This section of town down by the water has these pretty hanging baskets from all the lamp posts.

A shot of the bridge from farther away.

On the way up the hill to the museum the streets are all brick and very steep.

As we were leaving the bridge had just come back down and you can see the huge weight at one end.

Tomorrow, I'll post more pictures of this beautiful area and some of the bridge as it lifts up.

Day Trip #2

Continuing on with our Ashtabula trip. This is the pond where all the ducks, geese and the 2 swans were. A couple Canada geese slide in for a landing.

The Mute swan doing a bit of preening.

A good look at those big wings.

We then went to Point Park in the city of Ashtabula, Ohio. It sits way atop of a hillside, and you can look down on the huge railroad yard of coal cars coming up from down South to be emptied at this facility. There is also a Marine and Coast Guard museum. It doesn't open till Memorial Day.

This is the front of the museum.

All the loaded coal cars are in the big yard to the right of this shot. They are then unloaded and the coal is put on a conveyor belt and carried across the river to a mammoth coal pile. It is then loaded into freighters and shipped on the Great Lakes. No freighters there that day.

This is the area where the coal comes off the conveyor belt and is piled into these huge mounds. There is a very large dozer on top this coal pile pushing the coal over the edge.

On the back of the museum is the front portion of a tug boat.

Also from our vantage point we can see the draw bridge that will allow all the big boats access from the harbor out to Lake Erie.

I still have more pictures, and I'll put them on sometime this next week.

Have a great Sunday all.