Toby, Mavis, Rusty and other trains

As many of you know, it has been raining A LOT in California. I have been through a couple of droughts, and I realize that California needs all of the rain and snow fall we can get - but the girls are getting cabin fever. Amelia actually came right out and told me last week that she was bored. So I racked my brain and tried to come up with something fun that Amelia and I could do in spite of the wet, chilly weather.

Months ago, while traveling up north, I noticed that there was a railroad museum along the road. The museum is only open weekends in the winter, and the hours make it nearly impossible to bring both girls (unless Diana misses her nap), but I knew Amelia would love it so I took her out there this afternoon.

When I told Amelia we were going out to see trains, she was mildly interested. It took a while to get her coordinated and dressed, but she was smiling when she got in the car. I told her we would have to get gas before we drove out to see the trains and she said, "First the bookstore, then we'll get gas." That's when I realized she thought we were only going to see the toy trains at our local Barnes and Noble. I told her that we were going to see great big trains and her interest was piqued.

Arriving at the museum I discovered that the tickets for admission were much more expensive than I had anticipated. But when the ticket vendor explained the train schedule and how Amelia and I could catch rides on both an antique street car and an old railroad car, the ticket price suddenly became reasonable. Amelia was excited too - she loves trains and always wants to ride them. Until today, the only train she had ever ridden was a BART train.

The volunteer train conductors could tell that Amelia was very anxious to ride the train and allowed us to hop aboard while they switched the train from one track to another. They asked Amelia if she wanted to ring the train's bell, but she nervously declined stating she could do it when she was older.

We took our first ride on the wooden street car. Amelia and I were the only passengers and the trip lasted a brief 15 minutes. Shortly after the first trip we boarded a second train for a 45 minute ride through the countryside. Two boys, a little older than Amelia, and their parents were along for the ride as were a handful of others. When the train reached the end of the line the conductors again offered the kids an opportunity to ring the bell and blow the train's air whistle. When Amelia saw the boys head for the front of the train she followed. And when the train stopped at a street crossing, she asked (and was allowed) to get up and ring the bell one more time.

Of course, Amelia was her funny, young self today - just like any other day. While the train was stopped on the tracks so that the railroad volunteer could tell us about the train's history Amelia became impatient. After a couple of short minutes Amelia waved her arms in the air and said, "Let's keep going!" (or something to that effect). It reminded me of our last dinner at a Chinese restaurant when Amelia, noticing that there was no more baby corn in her vegetable chow mein, called to a waiter saying, "More baby corn!"

Very funny, but a little bit embarassing.

Anyway, Amelia closed the place down, as she often does. She had a lot of fun and compared all of the engines we saw to those she knows from Thomas the Tank Engine. She was especially excited to see an old engine with black and yellow stripes (see above) that reminded her so much of Mavis.

Tomorrow it will rain again, but Amelia and I had a great time today.

Lisa