Day Out with Thomas

Wow, we had a good time with Thomas the Tank Engine yesterday!  I had maybe unwisely made our reservations for the 11:15 train ride and Dillsboro is about 3 hours away from here.  We left VERY early  yesterday morning, needless to say.  We picked David's dad and stepmom up (Rege and Barb) and got on the road.  I fell asleep partway through the ride and woke up when I heard David say, "Oh!  She closed her mouth."  UGH.  Someone took a picture of me sleeping too.  Not cute.  Unfortunately, I do not have a copy of that one.  We had to ride a school bus over to the train because Dillsboro is very small.  Maggie was WAY excited about riding a school bus.  I didn't tell her that it would become less fun the older she gets.   Thomas was pulling up to the "station" when we got there!

I was way more excited about Thomas's arrival than Maggie was, as you can see.

"Get excited, Maggie!  It's Thomas!  Thomas the Train!"

"I don't want to , Mommy .  He's just a train.  And I don't want to go near him, by the way."

As you can see, it was rather bright outside.  

At the area around the train, they all kinds of activities for the kids to do, like coloring, sand, bubbles, a bounce house, a petting zoo (I also enjoyed that more than Maggie),  a Lego Thomas model and lots of train tables for the kids to play with.  It was really cool.  Our train ride was about 25 minutes and went over a bridge and right by a river.  We also went by the train and bus used in "The Fugitive."  We sat in an open car and the breeze felt so good!  We went right up to a tunnel but we didn't get to go in it because Thomas is a coal engine and I guess we would all have choked.  I've been on the Great Smoky Mountains Railway ride before and we did go through the tunnel.  A bunch of prisoners dug it out and apparently the tunnel is haunted by the ghosts of the prisoners who died.  They didn't tell us that part yesterday though.  Hee.

Maggie with Grammy and Pap Pap.

Our family.

Again, I think I was having more fun here.

Maggie got some Thomas ink.

"But, wait.  I don't want to go home yet!"

After our train ride, we walked up to the Jarrett House and ate lunch.  Their chicken and dumplings put Cracker Barrel's to shame.  It was VERY tasty.  We poked around Dillsboro for a while and went in some antique shops and the type of general store that has a soda counter and creaky wood floors and grape and orange sodas in a galvanized tub of ice.  We let Maggie pick a souvenir from the gift shop and she selected a caboose train car that plays the Thomas theme.  Out of a hundred train cars to choose from, she picks the noisy one.  Well, like my friend Jane once said, "Sometimes batteries just die."  We went to see the goats and sheep at the petting zoo and got to feed them.  Well, everyone fed them but Maggie.  She was not ABOUT to do that.  Maggie also got a tattoo which she would not let me wash off last night.  I guess she wanted to brag to her friends at daycare today.

Then we headed for home.  During the ride, we were talking about birthdays and Barb wanted to know what we were doing at the Old Dudes birthday bash.  I said something about a Carvel cake and Maggie said, "I want cake," and I told her that we couldn't have cake yet and of course, she wanted to know why.  I said, "Because it's not anybody's birthday yet."  She said, "I ready NOW."  Hee.  Ah, the sweet tooth.  She fell asleep again on the way home and we were all able to sneak into the gas station and get cheetos and chips and a Snickers ice cream bar and she was none the wiser!

So, we had a super fun time yesterday.  If you live anywhere that Thomas is coming, I would DEFINITELY encourage you to go and take your kid(s).  Maggie had a REALLY good time and so did we!