Colorado - Railroad Museum

Those kids love 'em their trains. Thanks to a great suggestion by our friend Joyzelle, we met her and her 1-year-old boy, Alfred, at the Railroad Museum in Golden, Colorado - about a half-hour west of downtown Denver and home of the Coors Brewery. There were hundreds of old and restored train parts to explore.


Holden is a train:

Joyzelle and Alfred. Unfortunately, not pictured, is her husband Nick. We did get to see him back at their home in Denver for dinner, but he was busy with work during the day:
This was a highlight, a bell on a string:

Where Happy Happens

Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood ... Billy Joel summed up pretty good what we were feeling come the end of December. A month of festive dinners, parties, shopping and wrapping left us feeling weary. To remedy our harried souls, we packed up and headed to San Diego on New Year's Day for a mini-vacation that was big fun.

We opted to shun the usual San Diego destinations, like Sea World and the Wild Animal Park, in favor of simpler and cheaper fare. We began at Balboa Park, a beautiful area filled with culture of all kinds, including museums and craft shops. We arrived just as the Railroad Museum opened, and it was a hit with the train-loving boys.
There is a special exhibit of a Lego train set that really had the kids excited.


Outside, it was a beautiful day for some fountain gazing.
After seeing all those model railroads, we were ready for a ride of our own.
We finally have two boys who love the carousel.


Making the ride more exciting was the chance to grab the brass ring. Certainly a wonderful metaphor to life.
Reaching....
Got it. Kevin and I both won free rides.

Holden's been asking to go swimming for months. Considering we don't have a pool and it's not summer, that's a tall order. One of the conditions in hotel shopping was that it have an indoor pool.
Riley got his brave on and, by the end of the trip, was swimming with his floaty without hanging on to Mom or Dad. He also was jumping in and going under without us catching him.
A beautiful San Diego sunset walk from our seafront hotel the Gas Lamp Quarter for some Mexican fare was a lot of fun.

They never, ever stop moving.
Another day, another trip to the swimming pool. Look at Riley - all by himself!
More trains. We thought we'd take a little ride on the San Diego Trolley. Since we weren't sure where we were going, it turned into an hours-long adventure. It's all about the journey, and not the destination, when it comes to the kids and the trains.

Trains!

Denise had to work on Friday so I took the boys on a train ride. We took the green line to the blue line to the red line to Union Station Downtown. It's the best way to turn a 30 min drive into an hour and a half trip. Our goal was to see the big trains at the train station, but it was really just about the trip. We did this a couple of years ago and the boys didn't even make it up the ramp before they were terrified by the noise of the big trains. This time it was still a little loud but they loved the big trains. We may have to come up with a little longer trip soon.


As we were walking back to the car, we had a special treat. There was a freight train parked under the Metro Link station. It was even better when we got to watch it go by the house a little later.