A multimedia extravaganza starring Zeke (born January 2005) and his little sister Talia (born December 2006), lovingly put together by their father!

Monday, September 24, 2007

A "day out with Thomas"

Over the past six months or so, Zeke has become a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, a TV character with an enormous range of licensed products you can buy. I think he sees a fair amount of Thomas at the daycare. (We try not to think about how much "movie time" there is there; he definitely doesn't see TV at home.) I have a certain amount of ambivalence about this. I don't remember growing up with a lot of brand-name characters as important elements of my imaginative life, but I could be wrong about this. Anyhow, though, about an hour from here, there's an old steam railroad that's been maintained in daily operation. It's in Amish country, in Strasburg, PA, and it's a pretty significant tourist draw. Three times a year or so they stage a "day out with Thomas" event. We decided sort of on the spur of the moment (i.e., the night before) that we'd try to make it. Zeke was probably more excited than I've ever seen him about everything; it was pretty charming. So, we got up early this morning and drove out there. It was a raging success. Zeke loved it. He was patient waiting in line (though since we arrived at 8:30 a.m., this was pretty manageable). He was so excited that he basically didn't eat anything till the afternoon. Unfortunately most of the photos I took were blurry. Of course I made a video as well but that was also out of focus. I'll see if I can salvage anything over the next couple of days. But in the meanwhile, here are some nice shots.
Trains in Strasburg, PA ("Day out with Thomas")
The trains.

Zeke on the train (mosaic)
Photos of Zeke riding.

To see all the pictures from today at full size, click here (there aren't too many more than this).

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