My husband and I took the brood to the Sacramento Railway Museum this weekend. I had been looking forward to this trip for about 6 weeks now. I could not wait to see the look on old baby's face when he saw real life choo choo trains!
The first thing we did was watch a movie about the railways in the US. Old baby was so much fun - he kept shouting "CHOO CHOO TRAINS!" and "Puh Zat?" (What's That?) and anything else he could recognize "MOON!", "COW!". The volunteer who did the introduction before the movie started was so cute - he couldn't have been more than 17 years old. New baby started crying as soon as we sat down, he was ready for a bottle. The volunteer looked at me and said in a stage whisper "you can step outside if you need to". I almost snickered at him, but I kept myself in check. What was a crying baby going to do? Distract people from the gripping plotline? There were probably 10 other people in the theater besides us, half of whom were young
children. I don't think anyone was going to be asking for their money back - oh wait, that's right - it was FREE. As soon as I got the bottle ready he settled in to feed and all was well.
We tromped around looking at all the beautiful engines, some were just spectacular looking. The museum has changed a bit since I was there last. Of course, we're talking 15 years at least since I've been there. The mannequins they use startled me from time to time. I would round a corner and apologize for almost running into a person who ended up being a mannequin! One of the problems I had was keeping old baby from climbing onto all of the trains. Most of them only had a velvet rope closing them off, and he didn't understand why he couldn't climb on.
We headed upstairs to look at all the model and toy trains. This ended up being a very bad idea, as they had the entire Island of Sodor set up with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends! Old baby was in the zone linking up about 15 trains and pushing them along the track. He could have played there for literally 15 hours. After 20 minutes, we decided to move on, and that's when the cranky 2 year old tantrum started. We were able to quiet him momentarily at the gift shop, and mommy plunked down some cash and bought him two trains, a wooden track and a wallet to hold all of the Thomas cards that come with the trains.
I thought maybe we were going to be able to grab some lunch, but old baby decided to break away as we got outside and ran directly into the street. My husband and I were both flabbergasted that he ignored both of us yelling at him to stop and just took off like that. Luckily, we were not on a main road and there were no cars coming. My husband explained to him that either he could walk holding hands the rest of the time, or he would be carried. This set off the tired cranky boy, and we decided to skip lunch and just head home. I felt so badly that the day had ended this way. We tried to cheer each other up on the ride home, and old baby zonked right out.
I hope I can take old baby there again soon - maybe make an earlier start next time so we can leave closer to his nap time. The Amtrak leaves from Suisun, which is just a short drive, and goes to the Railway museum. That sounds like fun to me!
The first thing we did was watch a movie about the railways in the US. Old baby was so much fun - he kept shouting "CHOO CHOO TRAINS!" and "Puh Zat?" (What's That?) and anything else he could recognize "MOON!", "COW!". The volunteer who did the introduction before the movie started was so cute - he couldn't have been more than 17 years old. New baby started crying as soon as we sat down, he was ready for a bottle. The volunteer looked at me and said in a stage whisper "you can step outside if you need to". I almost snickered at him, but I kept myself in check. What was a crying baby going to do? Distract people from the gripping plotline? There were probably 10 other people in the theater besides us, half of whom were young
children. I don't think anyone was going to be asking for their money back - oh wait, that's right - it was FREE. As soon as I got the bottle ready he settled in to feed and all was well.
We tromped around looking at all the beautiful engines, some were just spectacular looking. The museum has changed a bit since I was there last. Of course, we're talking 15 years at least since I've been there. The mannequins they use startled me from time to time. I would round a corner and apologize for almost running into a person who ended up being a mannequin! One of the problems I had was keeping old baby from climbing onto all of the trains. Most of them only had a velvet rope closing them off, and he didn't understand why he couldn't climb on.
We headed upstairs to look at all the model and toy trains. This ended up being a very bad idea, as they had the entire Island of Sodor set up with Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends! Old baby was in the zone linking up about 15 trains and pushing them along the track. He could have played there for literally 15 hours. After 20 minutes, we decided to move on, and that's when the cranky 2 year old tantrum started. We were able to quiet him momentarily at the gift shop, and mommy plunked down some cash and bought him two trains, a wooden track and a wallet to hold all of the Thomas cards that come with the trains.
I thought maybe we were going to be able to grab some lunch, but old baby decided to break away as we got outside and ran directly into the street. My husband and I were both flabbergasted that he ignored both of us yelling at him to stop and just took off like that. Luckily, we were not on a main road and there were no cars coming. My husband explained to him that either he could walk holding hands the rest of the time, or he would be carried. This set off the tired cranky boy, and we decided to skip lunch and just head home. I felt so badly that the day had ended this way. We tried to cheer each other up on the ride home, and old baby zonked right out.
I hope I can take old baby there again soon - maybe make an earlier start next time so we can leave closer to his nap time. The Amtrak leaves from Suisun, which is just a short drive, and goes to the Railway museum. That sounds like fun to me!
posted by Robyn at
9:09 AM
1 Comments:
Hooray for Train Museums! (Not that I am biased or anything working for the railways now).
My parents took me when I was a kid to see all the old locos and to be honest, i've been a bit fascinated ever since. However, it is located about a 3 hour drive from where I live now, so I have never gone back.
Maybe when old baby is a wee bit older, like um... maybe a year, he might appreciate it a bit more and have a bit more understanding of velvet ropes and things.
But those places ARE fun, for any age! :)
By
Squishi, at 6:18 AM
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