The journey is sometimes enough of a destination...

 

Being that Daniel has Pete's genes, he is a huge, huge train fan. Not a day goes by that Dan doesn't ask to see the trains go by, and since we live near tracks he gets to see them more days than not.

But he'd never ridden one before as a means of getting from point A to point B. Sure, we've ridden the train at Stone Mountain, he's driven a diesel engine, and ridden a few other tourist trains. Still, it's nice to have a destination.

We told Dan on Thursday that he's get to ride a train today. This child has talked of little else since. He woke me up at 6 am today - not wanting to eat, not wanting to take a bath - just "Ride TriRail!"

So, we took the train ride down to TriRail's Rail Fun Day, held at a train station a half hour south of us. We got to the station an hour before the train was scheduled to leave.


 

Dan, as always, made a new friend.

 
 
 

The train was packed, which we hadn't expected on a weekend. We had to stand, but luckily found a place near a window. Dan kept saying, "We on TriRail! We on TriRail, Daddy? We on TriRail!!" Both of my boys were very, very happy.

 

 


When we arrived at the station the festivities were in full swing. They had lots of activities for the kids - face painting, balloon animals, arts and crafts - none of which Dan wanted to do.


Except for the cookie decorating.

 
 
 

Still, we found ways to amuse ourselves until the return train...


 
 
 
 

We managed to get seats for the return ride, which pleased Pete. And Dan found some more new friends...

 
 

The day was gorgeous and we had a ton of fun.

 

And now he sleeps...