At the end of June, we had a very special weekend away to Lancaster County. It completely blew our boys' minds! It was like Disney for train aficionados!
We visited the historic train town of Strasburg, PA for their annual "Day Out with Thomas" event. They have a real steam engine that is created to be just like Thomas the Tank Engine. It was our trip to see and ride on the REAL THOMAS. This was big! Huge! Since then, whenever the boys talk about their favorite anything (even something unrelated), they add in that their most favorite thing was seeing the real Thomas! Beau has acquired the cutest little expression since then..."I saw the real Thomas that I ever saw!" He'll adapt this to just about anything. Everything's now "real"! Also, since Thomas rode through corn fields, whenever we pass a corn field, Beau calls out excitedly, "Oh, this is where the real Thomas lives!"
We drove out to Lancaster on a Saturday morning. Upon arrival, we saw Thomas chugging away through the fields. Amazing! After parking and taking a yellow bus to the station (also amazing), we boarded the passenger cars for our ride on the real Thomas! The boys were stunned - rather stoic, in fact.
Afterwards there were all sorts of other train activities to participate in. They had small crank cars that we loved. We got to ride on a puffer-belly train twice. We went on a big crank car. We rode in another little open air train. And, we met Sir Topham Hat.
Plus, we got to wave to Thomas as he came in and out of the station a few times. The boys were just in heaven!
Other favorite moments included watching the boys slurp up a cold lemonade and seeing Lewis wave to Thomas across the corn fields. So sweet!
After the Thomas extravaganza, we drove out to Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse to visit an Amish Market and sample the goodies. We happened upon a local fair - totally local feeling event. The boys got to take a wagon ride, participate in a bike race, watch a volleyball competition and a tractor parade, and take a turn in the bouncy castle. We had the most delicious soft pretzels and then took a horse and buggy ride through the countryside. After dinner at a great, Amish diner, we headed to a lovely little secluded campsite in Lancaster County Park.
The boys were ecstatic to try their hand at camping! We set up, made a fire, and taught the boys how to roast smores. Lewis grabbed onto the concept and got very creative with roasting his graham cracker and chocolate as well. A whoopie pie from the market just topped off the delicacies. The night was wonderful, as long as quality of sleep isn't the judge of a fun night of camping! We learned that Lewis is a roller, and it's not fun to sleep by him if he's not penned in. We were reminded that camping in heat and humidity is OK, but not great. Finally, we learned that it's impossible to get excited little boys to go to bed quickly, particularly when camping on the summer solstice weekend (who thought that was a good idea!) with the most daylight possible. Likewise, it's not really possible to sleep much past about 5:30am when camping on that particular weekend.
The other highlight of the camping was the stream we discovered the morning after. We had planned on going for a walk, breaking down camp, and heading to a local church. However, on our walk, we discovered that our campsite was just above the most lovely little stream that was absolutely ideal for wading and splashing. We spent a delightful morning in the stream!
After that, we headed to brunch in Lancaster and then found our way to church. We capped off the weekend with a totally delicious local ice cream that we ate in the car, after which the boys promptly fell fast asleep. I don't think they could have been any happier about their adventures!
