The Silveri Story: First train ride up the coast to Zoomers

Today was a very exciting day! Today was Tatum and Ty's first train ride! Ty absolutely LOVES trains and has a few favorite books about trains that we read almost daily. One is called The Whistle on the Train which is a beautiful pop up book that sings to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus, but putting in all things about trains. Tatum loves this book as well so we sang the song all the way to the station! We bought out tickets, crossed this high, exciting bridge...

and waited at the tracks, looking as fashionable as possible. :)

The suspense was killing us but the kids did a great job of waiting patiently on the right side of the yellow line.

And then the train arrived!!

The train was a double decker so we headed upstairs and Garrett sat next to Tatum...

and Ty and I shared a section. The seats were so roomy and even had a part that would flip out and hold your legs up! If only planes could be as roomy and comfortable!

All along the train experience we kept singing the song. Here's where we were singing, "The Conductor on the trains calls tickets please, tickets please, tickets please..." Ty loved his hat and kept pointing and saying Conductor! :)

We also enjoyed these tables! The kids loved them since they were small and clearly meant for kids, as Tatum told us. There was a concession stand in another car and the concession man, Mr. Brown, kept making humorous announcements over the loud speaker, enticing us to visit him and buy some snacks. So Tatum and I went down through the cars to see Mr. Brown and buy a bag of chips. She loved crossing the threshold where the trains connect. I took Ty with me to the bathroom at one point and we had to cross into another car and he didn't care for it one bit. :)

I tried to catch a picture of Doheny, the campsite in Dana Point we use to camp at a lot when I was little. We use to run out to the train tracks and put pennies on the track and wait for the train to flatten them. I'm sure they've fenced off the track at this point but such wonderful memories. And the view from the train all the way up the coast was beautiful.

We made it to Zoomers, a little zoo where we got three trays of veggies to share with all the animals. Here's Ty feeding the Zonkeys (I think that's what they were called). A cross between a donkey and a zebra. Ty was afraid of them since they were pretty big and quick to grab the food out of your hand. I think most of his food landed on the floor. And you couldn't catch Tatum even close to these two, she'd have nothing to do with petting or feeding most of the animals. :)

The zoo had turkeys, roosters, an ostrich,...

llamas, turtles, goats and sheep.

They also had a few things to climb on or ride on...

Her favorite activity at a park! Ty and Tatum were taking turns climbing the ladder up and riding the slide down the front of this structure while Garrett and I lounged on the hay bales behind her here in the picture. Suddenly we noticed a woman picking up our crying son from the ground by the slide and we ran over. Tatum told us a boy had pushed Ty down the slide which caused him to catapult off the end into a hay bale. Nice! But as we walked away, the mother brought her son over to have him apologize which was nice. But that was the end of sliding for us for the day, probably for awhile. :)

They also had a large box filled with corn that Ty loved!

And I took a shot at feeding the Zonkeys again.

Then we went into the pin of bunnies, hamsters and guinea pigs. The kids loved it! Ty loved the bunnies and they were so friendly, sitting still to let him pet them. He's a big cat lover and the bunnies acted very similarly.

Tatum found a guinea pig she loved and he sat on her lap for quite awhile. Glad they got their fill of bunnies and guinea pigs because we're NOT getting another pet anytime soon!

Then for the best part of the day (according to Tatum). Each kid got a horse ride, so fun!

Ty and his horse leader had quite a conversation about horses. I wish I knew what they were saying.

Ty loved it! Yet another pet we will not be getting. :)

Then we hit the train ride...

and checked out the old horse carriage...

We finished up our fun at the zoo, had lunch at a small sandwich shop and then headed back over to the station to catch the train back home. They had some old train cars that were fun to look at...