Day Out With Thomas

Michael has been bugging me for over a week now to do the blog. I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but I didn't realize it had been this long. I have lots of new pictures to post, but I don't think I'll do them all at once. I'll start with the pics from our Day Out With Thomas.
Thomas the Tank Engine came to Baltimore recently, and anyone who has ever spent more than an hour with Sean knows that he LOVES Thomas. And James. And Percy And Gordon. And all of the other engines from the wonderful Island of Sodor. So an opportunity to take a ride on a real Thomas train seemed like a two-year-old dream come true. It was. The event was hosted by the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. They make quite a little production out of this event. Inside the museum, in addition to the many large, old steam trains they always have on display,
they had different "stations" for the children to visit, and when you first arrive, each child is given a map. If they visit each station and receive a stamp on their map, they get a prize on the way out. There was a storytelling station, a Lego Land station that had a miniature railroad made entirely of Lego's, as well as a huge Thomas made of Legos,
there was a station with several train tables for the kids to play on, a gift shop station (which is little more than a shameless attempt to get you to spend even more money by forcing you to take your child into a Thomas Toys R Us wonderland), and finally a station where you can meet and get your photo taken with Sir Topham Hatt.
There were also areas outside where they offered face painting, balloon animals, a wooden train playground, and a moonbounce. The whole visit is topped off by a twenty minute train ride on Thomas the Tank Engine.
This little experience can be described in two very different ways. From Sean's point of view, this is the coolest thing ever. A ride on Thomas the Tank Engine for real! Can life get any better?
From my point of view- well, let's just say I was disappointed. I had done this as a field trip several years ago when I was still teaching preschool. I remember taking a nice train ride around Baltimore. For some reason or another, they no longer do that. Now, your "twenty minute train ride" consists of spending 10 minutes backing out of the station and down the track (very slowly), stopping and then another 10 minutes pulling back into the station. L-A-M-E. Luckily, Sean is young enough to not really notice the difference, but even Rex kept asking, "When are we going to go faster?" To top it off, the "train ride" takes you down one of the dirtiest, slum-like areas of Baltimore (and being Baltimore, that's saying a lot). We had wonderful views of rust and graffiti covered abandoned train cars and piles of garbage and old appliances that have been dumped in the woods over the years. The train even had to have a police motorcycle escort (which was more interesting to Rex than the actual train ride) to chase the homeless people and prostitutes off the track as we came along (maybe that's why we were going so slow). But Sean loved it anyway, and that is what matters. The huge smile on his face all afternoon was well worth the price of admission. And I was reminded, once again, why Pittsburgh is better than Baltimore in more than just football.