Saturday, December 10th – Kristen and I got up early and drove up to Strasburg, PA to ride the train with Santa Claus and make a day of wandering some of my favourite places. Below is Engine 90, the steam locomotive we rode to Paradise!
Hee! The Strasburgians have built a TINY railroad! It’s a geniune steam locomotive, fed with coal and meanders around the train yard with about 15 people hauled behind it!
Ah, Santa. No time for us adults, and you make some kids cry – but for just the right children, he’s a little bit of much-needed magic (onboard at the Strasburg Railroad in Strasburg, PA) I Love riding on the train as documented by Kristen’s shot of my “stupid grin”. I was sort of stunned by the realization that I’ve been doing this for over three decades – it’s kind of unbelievable to me. Soon I’ll be able to take my nephew on this trip! Once he’s done with diapers and drooling, at least.
A tiny Corvette – because all Corvettes are belong to Jade. Something I’d never spotted before at the Choo Choo Barn – a poster sale! Each of those posters are just a bit bigger than a postage stamp and I spotted Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Terminator and Pulp Fiction..
Both at Dutch Wonderland and at the Strasburg Railroad there were a good number of little duos performing kids songs and Christmas tunes. I was sort of jealous of their stage and was kinda wondering how much it pays. It’d be kind of fun to spend the Christmas season afternoons performing Christmas carols on a moving train! There are all these RIDES at Dutch Wonderland and few of them make sense. You can ride hopping toads, whirling panda bears being chased by bees, “Crazy Planes” (we actually did that one, it was the one Kristen thought she could handle and it was a lot of fun to go on an actual carnival ride…_), turtles spinning on their backs, etc. I tried not to think about children ever coming to the realization of how odd it was to be riding inside of hollowed-out animals and instead just enjoyed watching the youngest of them scream. There was a kid on the panda whirl specifically who seemed completely terrified and wasn’t sure if he should try to climb out or cringe and settled for wailing and clinging to everything he could get his hands on. I’m evil for laughing, it’s true. We had timed things to get over to Dutch Wonderland as the sun was setting, and we got to meander around the park as the sky faded and the Christmas lights came on… And they are DEFINITELY Christmas lights, not holiday decorations – Dutch Wonderland makes no secret of their philosophical and religious leanings. Meh. I guess they try to balance it a little bit – this is across the path from the little church with the Bible inside…. The main reason we went to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA was to see the lights from the chair lift – and that was the last thing we did. It was absolutely magical even though the temperature had dropped to a windy 19 degrees. Gloves. Next year, no matter how warm it seems in the morning, I BRING GLOVES!!! Twrr. Merry Christmas. We had timed things to get over to Dutch Wonderland as the sun was setting, and we got to meander around the park as the sky faded and the Christmas lights came on…
