For the Love of Trains

Rane loves trains; or for that matter, he loves any type of car, bus, tractor, truck, etc. Since Ella-Ann is in Kentucky having a blast with my parents and getting to do some fun things with her grandparents I wanted to do something just for Rane while I had him and Pierson by myself. I decided that we would head north to Duluth this morning to visit the Southeastern Railway Museum. So I really don't know what I was thinking. It was 95 degrees here today. Trains are outside. The sun was blazing. There was no breeze. Train cars have no a/c and are boiling hot. I pushed a stroller with Pierson in it but quickly realized that strollers don't board trains so I had to carry her in the boiling, hot, sweltering said train cars. At least one person had a ton of fun...Rane, and that was enough for me to endure all the painful heat!

There wasn't many people there, duh, so we had full run of the place for the most part. This was the absolute perfect place to take an energetic, crazy, running 2-year-old boy because he could pull on things, run up and down the train cars and around them, be as loud as he wanted and do whatever he wanted! He had so much fun and I had so much fun watching him in his element. It was certainly a boy thing to do and I loved doing it with him. I would have enjoyed it more had it not been so hot and I could've stopped and read about all the trains and memorabilia. We went inside an air conditioned room, just for the a/c itself, and I got to see china on display from the trains. They had little butter pat plates from all the railroads! I couldn't even imagine how luxurious that was back in the day...butter pat plates...fine china...on a train! Some trains were kept in mint condition and that was neat to see. We viewed state rooms with full size beds, bathrooms, kitchen cars with a 12-burner coal stove, dining cars, lounging rooms and state rooms. The highlight of the morning for Rane was riding on a train. He didn't move a muscle and was so excited! The very loud whistle about caused him and Pierson to jump out of their skin a few times but other than that he was in heaven!

We headed home around lunch and I was pooped for the day. The heat and carrying around poor little lethargic Pierson in the hotness was very tiring! It was worth it, though, and I know he wants to go back because he kept saying tonight that he and Daddy were going to go tomorrow!

Rane was ready to rock with the trains! I took this picture while standing in line for our tickets. He couldn't even keep his wiggly body still beside me. He HAD to run over to the train and touch it!

This was the first train car we were on and look how hot the kids already are!

Checking out the big stove in the kitchen car.

On our way to the gift shop to buy some trains! This was the coolest part of the day, literally. The only place where fans were going was in the gigantic warehouse where some of the nice trains were on display.

In one of the dining cars. I bought Rane a whistle and he couldn't put it down long enough for a picture. Poor Pierson, she was so ready to leave!

He's got a ticket to ride! He held onto that red ticket the entire way home too!

Checking out one last train before we headed home.