Monday, May 10, 2010

National Train Day

Saturday the kids and I headed to 30th Street station for the 2010 National Train Day, on the El of course.  Amtrak scheduled a full day of exhibits, demonstrations, tours, and just fun for families looking at yesterday, today, and tomorrow of train travel.

MM and LB love riding the train, whether the El into Center City, New Jersey Transit into NYC, or Amtrak to Washington DC.   Seeing how people dressed for travel in days gone by was an eye opener for my kids who love their jeans and t-shirts.





After a quick lunch, we headed into the Amtrak information area seeing representatives of the Amtrak K-9 unit, the new ecological initiatives, and regional attractions.  The kids found the activity center and added to our collection of coloring pages, collectors cards, and anything neat which they could get for free.





Throughout the terminal were costumed interpreters from the mid to late 1800s.  MM was fascinated by the dresses.  She decided that wearing 3 to 4 layers of clothes including hoops, gloves, and hats, was more then she wanted to do every day.  As we were heading home after several hours, we met a strolling musician with his concertina.  Though he seemed to be heading off for a break, he was very willing to play a short piece.  I'm not sure which child was more fascinated by the instrument and its music.


This was a nice start to an otherwise quiet family focused Mother's Day weekend.  With everyone contributing to the purchase, last month we finished our holiday gifting with a Wii.  This is the first video gaming system to be of any interest to me.  To date everyone has played at least one game which required getting their backside off the couch.  Typically Mother's Day gifts are hand made items, flowers, and cards but this year DH found Wii Fit Plus, which I really wanted.  Of course who was the first person on the balance board - you know it - DH.  He was testing the equipment and software, I know.  I did get a round of Free Step accomplished with more steps in the same amount of time.   Let the fun continue....

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I'm glad to hear you've been able to go back to work.

A Mother's Day gift that keeps on giving! Anything that gets everyone moving is a good gift. Our tradition is breakfast in bed or at our fave restaurant and a trip to the mountains for a Mother's Day Snowball. One year we couldn't find snow. It is very fun deciding which roads to try to get to the snow.