A Train Adventure

So in case I haven't mentioned it before Alex has a little train obsession. A few weeks ago he apparently had a dream in which we went to a train store to "get a train for me, and a train for Jacob, and a train for Mommy, and a train for Daddy, and a tunnel - a really long tunnel - and a railroad crossing and gates for the railroad crossing". He was severely disappointed when instead of going to the train store we went to school. Severely disappointed. He told anyone that would listen that he was supposed to the train store and not school and basically spent the entire day being grumpy. He was over it a couple days later, but it caused Chris to revisit an idea he'd been playing with for awhile.

For years now we've been hearing about the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. It is right by the Amtrak station and there is a train that runs directly from here to there. It takes about three hours. Less than half a mile away is a hotel where we could get a discount because Chris's sister works for Hilton. And a little over half a mile from THERE is the state capitol. As it happens, Jacob has quite an interest in states and their capitals. So we decided that Labor Day weekend would be a good opportunity to go check it out: Amtrak up on Saturday and visit the capitol, spend Sunday at the train museum, Monday in Old Sacramento until it was time to take Amtrak home. What we didn't realize until the trip got closer, is that over Labor Day weekend Old Sacramento (where the train museum is) celebrates Gold Rush Days. I have never been happier to be without a car than I was on this trip between road closings and the sheer number of people who wanted to be at Gold Rush Days.

The week leading up to the trip was a little ominous. On Monday, as I was headed to daycare at the end of the day, I got a call saying Alex had a fever. Jacob's best friends had the same symptoms (on the previous Saturday and the other the same day as Alex). Luckily, it seemed to be a short-lived virus and by the next morning he was tired but fever-free. After a long nap on Tuesday he was back to normal. But obviously Jacob wasn't getting through this unscathed. Thankfully, his fever appeared on Thursday afternoon and by Friday afternoon he was back to normal. And since Friday was already a teacher inservice day I had already taken the day off from work.

The trip up could not have gone more smoothly. We dropped our car at Chris's office because it was a shorter light rail ride to the Amtrak station and didn't require a bus ride from light rail. Once on Amtrak we sat at a table for 4 and ate the lunch we'd brought with us. We had some activities for the train but one of the benefits of being on the train is that we could also get up and walk and that there were interesting things out the window. When we got to Sacramento we walked through Old Sacramento to our hotel. Fun Fact: for Gold Rush Days they bring in LOTS of dirt so that all of the roads are dirt roads instead of paved roads. As we were walking a horse pulling a carriage got very close behind us and made Jacob VERY nervous. Alex didn't miss a beat: "Don't worry Jacob, horses don't eat people."

After dropping our bags at the hotel we walked to the capitol. The building itself made Jacob uncomfortable and I'm not really sure why except that it was big and quiet and not brightly lit. It was definitely more interesting for Chris and I than it was for the boys but they did well. We walked back and took advantage of the hotel pool which was very exciting. Especially since it was about 95 that day. The next day we walked into the train museum Alex wanted NOTHING to do with it. The first gallery has a locomotive in it and it took some convincing that it wasn't "live". He was horrified that people were walking in front of it and he was sure that at any moment it would blow it's whistle. Once we got past that hurdle we all had a great time. The museum did not disappoint. The main gallery is in a roundhouse so we were able to see the turntable outside and each track had a different car on it. We got to see an old sleeping car, a dining car, and a postal car. We even got to use a handcar. And upstairs there was an entire section of train tables with wooden train sets (mostly Thomas, but also Chuggington) for the kids to play with. We got there when they opened and left an hour before closing, though we did take a break to go get lunch. While we ate lunch we got to watch a Gold Rush Days baseball game and see the horse-drawn firetrucks. Another trip to the pool and a train ride along the river finished off the day.

A window in the middle of the model train

On Monday, we left our bags at the hotel while we explored Gold Rush Days. We had seen a lot of the festivities in the previous days but we rode on one of the horse-drawn wagons, tried bowling, and checked out the old schoolhouse. We even got a large bottle of sasparilla to take with us on the train. The boys and I headed to the train while Chris went back to the hotel to grab our bags. We got to the station about the same time and then waited to board. The trip home was rather more interesting than the trip out for two reasons. The first is that there was a little girl (three years old) that was basically given run of the place. She was literally doing somersaults in the aisles and I'm pretty sure she didn't even have an indoor voice setting. But for the most part she was happy and she was getting off after only a couple stops. Except that about 5 minutes from their stop, the train broke down. The engine just straight up died and took the electrical system with it which meant to air conditioning either. After awhile with no information we were told that anyone getting off before Oakland (not us) would be put on the next train. Thankfully our train died in an area with lots of tracks so this was a fairly easy transfer. We were in car 4 and they were loading the new train from car 1 so everyone had a bit of a wait. We had put most of our things away just in case but we weren't exactly prepared when they suddenly decided that ALL of us would load onto the new train - starting with our car. So we threw our stuff into backpacks and loaded onto the VERY crowded other train. Because it was the end of the holiday weekend, our train had been full and the other train had been full. Ironically, it was the above-mentioned three year old's father that got us space at another table - though at first I was sharing a two seat bench with Jacob, Alex, and the three year old. I read them The Little Engine That Could which was a very popular choice. Within a couple stops we had a lot more breathing room but we were running between an hour and a half and two hours late. The boys handled it like champs - better than a few of the adults - and we were very glad to have our car closer to the station and to not have to take the bus. Especially since it started raining while we were waiting for light rail. Alex was asleep when we got home and I got him upstairs and changed into a pullup without waking him up. Since the boys only go to daycare on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays we had a day to recover.

Except, of course, for Chris. Not only did Chris have to go to work on Tuesday, but he also started a new job! The position is within the same company, but he is now a sales engineer instead of a software tester. This is a move he's wanted to make for some time - even before he started working for his current company, in fact - but it's hard to get into a customer facing position when you don't already have it on your resume. Now that he's established in the company and the powers that be know him, it was a natural progression for him. So he is very excited about this new opportunity.