Being the mother of two boys, I have done my fair share of train related stuff: Read books about trains. Gone to the train museum. Built dozens and dozens of train tracks. Watched movies about trains. Ridden on a steam engine through the redwoods.
So you may well imaging my feelings when I found out Jude's last field trip of the year, was to yet another train museum. Well, truth be told, I was kind of excited too. Turns out I really like trains.
They weren't excited at all.
All week long the the clouds had drenched the valley. I was more than a little concerned when I woke up Wednesday morning to more rain. Nonetheless I packed our lunches, jackets, and umbrellas, loaded up the boys and headed for the foothills. By the time we arrived the sun had broke through promising to be a perfect spring day.
The poppies were growing up between the old tracks and abandoned train parts. I loved the contrast of the flowers among all those rusted out parts.
We had the BEST tour guide! He was relaxed, loved being with the children, and he was careful to keep all the information at the level of a 5-year-old. By the end of the tour of the roundhouse, he had all the children whistle trained. One blast- stop. Two blasts- go forward. Three blasts- back up. Man, I need to get me one of those whistles.
The roundhouse was amazing to me. I think I had more pictures of the inside of the roundhouse than I did the class. Actually, I'm certain I did.
After the tour of the roundhouse and other points of interest we embarked on a 40 min. train ride through the foothills, popcorn and rootbeer in hand.
We ended the day with a picnic on the grass. The last few minutes the dark clouds pushed in an let loose on our happy gathering. We scooped up our lunches and ran to the car, soaking wet with big smiles on our faces. Another sweet childhood memory planted firmly in the minds of my boys.
Do your kids like trains? What activities do you do with your kids that creates memories?
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Comments (1)
Both my family and my boyfriend's family enjoyed riding the local WK&S trains. We went there last year to relive the memories.