All Aboard with Thomas and Friends

“Day Out With Thomas is a family event that offers children and their grownups the opportunity to ride with classic storybook friend Thomas the Tank Engine[tm] at heritage railroads nationwide. Parents, grandparents and siblings join their aspiring engineers in the fun. The Day Out With Thomas experience will engineer miles of smiles for the whole family and introduce a new generation to the timeless excitement of railroading.”

So, I’ve already mentioned that this is what we did last weekend. I’ve already said we had loads of fun, and I even managed to post pics. (Amazing!)

It was a bit of a whirlwind trip. We left the house on Saturday at 1 pm and stopped for lunch even before we got on the freeway. By the time we hit Davis, Lucas was asking if we were almost in Santa Cruz. Fortunately, he managed to go to sleep somewhere after we passed Benecia. That made the rest of the trip go quicker for him.

We camped in Felton at Henry Cowell State Park, which actually is split into two sections. I didn’t realize it when I made the reservations, but we camped in the section that was the farthest from Roaring Camp, but still only a 5-minutes drive away. The campsite was FILLED with families with little children. Poison oak was shining invitingly and everywhere; it’s a lovely combination of red and gold and green at this time of year. So, we gave Lucas a botany lesson and quizzed him many times on the way to and from the restrooms.

Speaking of restrooms, this state part had the cleanest, most pristine restroom I’ve ever seen. It was all freshly painted. Nice.

We had pizza that night at a local pizzeria that featured organic salads and toppings, then returned to our “little paper house in the woods.” Lucas slept in his Thomas the Tank Engine sleeping bag, of course.

We woke on Sunday at 6:30 am, ate cereal, and struck camp (only about 12 hours after we set it up). We were at Roaring Camp by 7:45 am and watched as a worker hosed the Thomas engine down.

We and a bunch of other families road a train about a 1/4 mile down the track to the main event. The area was set up like an old west town/train yard. We got our pictures taken with Thomas. And we did our shopping in the gift store right away. (I’m glad we did because later in the day the place was a zoo.) We bought a sticker book, a T-shirt, and the Troublesome Trucks (two freight cars that, unfortunately, giggle with mischief)—$45. I figure we got away lightly.

Our tix allowed us to ride the very first Thomas ride and we were in the number 1 car, right behind the engine. The train backed up for a couple of miles, and took us back into the redwood forest. It was chilly and overcast and beautiful. We crossed a steel trestle bridge dated 1899. Then we reached a certain spot, stopped, and then returned along the same track, chugging forward.

Lucas was excited the whole time, but he was also cautious. His eyes were big as saucers and he watched the people. He didn’t smile too much, though. I think he didn’t feel very comfortable around all the people. Perhaps he was surprised to realize that other kids were crazy about Thomas like he is. Perhaps the reality of seeing one engine surrounded by fans was something of a letdown—In his mind, the engines talk to each other, have relationships and adventures, and even fly. Thomas is part of a whole magical world in his mind.

Apart from the Thomas ride, there were other “fun stations,” but they were only so-so. The bouncy house was cool. We visited the tatoo booth and Lucas got a Thomas tattoo on his forearm. They had face-painting, a coloring station, and a battery-powered train table. A teenager was manning the train table and he posted signs all over it saying “Do Not Touch.” He was funny; he was bitching to patrons about how his underling had left the train table for just a minute and some children messed it all up—they just destroyed his meticulously built trainyard. He he had to rebuild it all over again! I thought, Dude, this is an event for the under-5 crowd, all of whom love, love, love trains and Thomas. You built a Thomas train and then expected them not to touch it?!? Lucas stood there and watched the trains moving around the track with a wistful expression on his face while the teenager fumed.

We left the event at about 11:30 am, after we had pretty much done everything. We didn’t feel like eating the hot dogs and burgers they were selling, so we got in the car and drove 3 miles to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. We ate a picnic lunch from our tailgate (sandwiches with pickles, juice, potato chips, fruit, and cookies), then went down to the beach. Lucas played in the sand and waves for a while. He cried big crocodile tears when he realized he was too small to ride the big roller-coaster. (Ian has memories of being too small to ride that roller-coaster when he was a kid too.) We bought tix to ride the sky-gondola (during which we gripped Lucas as close to us as possible), and Ian and Lucas went on a spinning ride called the Starfish. (I was pretty sure it would make me barf, so I watched.) Lucas loved that one: He smiled from ear to ear the whole time. We got soft-serve ice-cream cones and then left the Boardwalk at 2 pm (just about 24 hours from when our trip started). Lucas was asleep within minutes of beginning our drive home. He woke up when we reached Dixon. Ian and I enjoyed the time in the car together.

So, it was a big day, punctuated on either end by a long drive. But we had a great deal of fun. I’m glad we were able to take a vacation that was all about doing things that Lucas likes to do. It was a special day and one I won’t forget. He’s still talking about how cool it was to ride on the REAL THOMAS.

In the car on the way home, Lucas suggested that we call Uncle Jon and invite him over to our house to see Lucas’s Thomas tattoo.

http://www.ticketweb.com/thomas.html

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