The B&O Railroad Museum Roundhouse. This building was spectacular inside. The woodwork in the ceiling was gorgeous. I couldn't post some of the pics my dad took of the inside and the lovely old engines as I had to sign an agreement not to publish photos from the museum. I've never had much of an interest in trains (although I'm learning a lot because of M & J's interest), but trains are part of my history: My Grandfather Myers worked in a roundhouse like this one during World War II.
Thomas himself pulled our train
Sir Topham Hatt waved at Mercy. We could have had her picture taken with him, but the line was enormous, and as much as she wanted to go stand beside him, she didn't have the patience to wait. So we had to be satisfied with a wave.
Mercy and mommy in an old boxcar.
On the train. Zion, along for the ride. He pretty much slept all day on Nana or Papa's shoulder.
On the train. The glazed-over look (or hundred-yard stare, as Benj calls it) does not bode well for good behavior.
On the train. Mercy and Daddy.
Two exhausted children, ready to head home. They don't look happy in the pic, but they had a lot of fun. Mercy asked if we could go back to see Thomas "tomonow."As you may have gathered from some of my comments in previous posts, both Mercy and Judah are obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. It's not a bad thing. I actually enjoy reading the Thomas stories to them--they're gentle, wholesome, and teach a good work ethic. Plus, it gives me no end of amusement to hear Mercy say "Well, bust my buffers!"
Before Benjy went back to work from his "paternity leave," my mom and dad took us all to the B&O Railroad in Baltimore for A Day Out with Thomas. There were coloring activities, balloon art, story and movie times, train tables, a chance to meet Sir Topham Hatt, and the highlight of the day: a ride on Thomas.
We left the house at 6:15 in the morning (yes, I'm THAT good!) and met Mom and Dad so they could ride with us. We arrived at the roundhouse in downtown Baltimore with no problems (thanks to a friend's GPS) and with plenty of time to dress and feed the children (Okay, so maybe I'm not THAT good...we left by 6:15, but the littles were still in their pajamas and I packed breakfast). When we walked into the roundhouse, there were about a half dozen train tables set up with the the Thomas and Friends engines. We could have stopped right there. Judah didn't want to do anything else the rest of the day. He literally stood at the tables for hours. When it was time to head to the platform to get on board Thomas, Judah actually threw a fit because he didn't want to leave the train tables--even to ride on Thomas!
The funny thing was, neither Mercy nor Judah were impressed with the train ride. They wallowed around, fought over Mercy's balloon flower, and whined. As my friend Regina says, it's amazing how quickly toddlers can turn warm fuzzy family moments into big stinky meltdown moments. Anyway, it is true that we weren't exactly observing the lovely countryside on the little trip...more like the backside of a dump in the armpit of Baltimore. In fact, about the only thing of interest that we could point out to the kids were the four armed police officers on motorcycle that accompanied us on either side of the train for the whole ride. I naively wondered out loud why the police were riding beside the train when my dad answered that a train full of parents and toddlers being hijacked would probably be bad for business. Oh. Nice. Clearly, I wasn't thinking about safety when I booked tickets for Baltimore. Fortunately, we made it back to the roundhouse without needing the policemen's services or seeing any crimes which would have necessitated our being placed in the witness protection program.
When we arrived back at the station, we headed out to the parking lot to eat lunch/change diapers, etc. I only include this bland detail because when we went out to our truck, Benj wound down the windows since it was an unseasonably warm day. About 20 minutes later, when we were finished eating and ready to go back inside, the windows wouldn't go back up. Our battery was dead. Just like that.
Benj called our State Farm agent, and they called a Baltimore State Farm agent, who gave him the number of a local towing company that could jump start us (Ah, I miss AAA). Mom, Dad, and I took the children back inside where they played until they were ready to drop over of exhaustion, while Benj waited outside for the service man. After the truck was running, Benj called me and said that he needed cash to pay the guy (then State Farm would reimburse us). We never carry cash, so I was heading for the ATM when my dad handed me two twenties, which was $10 more than what I needed. I took it to Benjy, and he said that he hoped the service man could make change. He couldn't. Seriously, he would only accept cash, but couldn't make change. I was beyond annoyed. If he thought I was going to say "Oh, just keep the change" for a tip, when he was charging us an exorbitant amount to jump our vehicle, he was sadly mistaken. So I marched into the gift shop and changed the bills. After that ordeal, we were ready to head home. Well, everyone was ready to head home except Judah. It was WAY past naptime, and he had a complete meltdown when we made him leave the tables. Fortunately, although his behavior was atrocious, I didn't feel embarrassed because I was surrounded by two year olds throwing fits. Benjy was waiting out at the car, and he said EVERY group that came out of the roundhouse had at least one child screaming his/her head off, so we were in good company.
I had a similar experience with Laila when we rode the train at the zoo. She threw such a massive fit because she did NOT want to ride the train; she wanted to go see animals. I actually had people glaring at me and shaking their heads like how dare I MAKE that poor little frightened girl do something she didn't want to do! Well, I had paid for the tickets already and I'll be darned if I was going to be out the money just because she was mad! Plus, Devon wanted to go and had to be accompanied by an adult and I can't split myself in half. Anyway, we hadn't been on the ride 2 seconds before she realized how fun it was and then we got to experience a second enormous fit when she had to get off at the end of the ride! Frankly, a mom can't win for losing most of the time!
ReplyDeleteNext time - try a day out with Thomas in Lancaster - much nicer train ride! We used to do this when Laney was younger - now it is time to take Ben! Miss you!
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