This past weekend we spent the day with Thomas. Not just any Thomas, mind you, THE Thomas. You know, the TRAIN? As I expected, S had entirely too much fun meeting the real, live Thomas and his trusty pal, Sir Topham Hatt.
I wasn’t even aware of this event until my dad told me about it. And he found out about it because his company has the honor of hauling Mr. Thomas all around the country this summer as he makes his appearances at railroad museums. I even found out that they require that Thomas be loaded on the trailer backwards so that his eyes are facing out and can greet little ones along the road! How fun!
Anyway, back to the day…there was so much to see and do and the 25 minute train ride was a great finale to the day. There was a Thomas storytime/book reading area, model train demonstrations, magic shows, a meet and greet with Sir Topham Hatt, temporary tattoos, an arts and crafts area…and that was just the indoors activities (nice and air-conditioned, too!). Outside there was a bounce house and a slide, a sandbox and jungle gym area, a hay bale maze, gift shop, food tent, and a nursing/diaper changing area. It was definitely geared for the little ones and staffed by very helpful volunteers. We were so impressed by how organized everything was. It was very well done. They even had photographers set up at the key locations to take your group photos, which you could look up later online or view in the gift shop….which reminds me, I still need to look ours up online.
S was elated to meet Sir Topham Hatt and was not afraid of her first real “character” experience. She went right up and held his hand. And when we got there, Thomas was making his rounds around the track and she was yelling and waving like he was her best friend.
You have to purchase your ticket for a certain boarding time. Ours was 12:15. If I had to do it again (and we likely will next year), I’d get a slightly earlier time for the train and get there earlier for the activities. Everyone was getting tuckered out by lunch time.
Plenty of restrooms and room for strollers, definitely a very family friendly event. It was so fun to see S so excited about meeting him. She was pretty tired when we got back to the car (kids were both asleep by the time we rolled out of the parking lot), but she said, “I want to come back tomorrow!” Oh, and parking…there’s a shuttle that you can take in, but we just parked across the street next to the school and walked the two blocks in to the museum. Easy peasy!
And in case you were wondering…I did not hear any of the stick-in-your-head Thomas songs during the day, just some nice, soothing music on the train ride. 🙂
They’re two they’re four they’re six they’re eight. Shunting trucks and hauling freight…
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