A Day Out with Thomas the Train

I was wondering the other day if there was a place where you could actually ride Thomas the Train. Well, about a month after I first asked myself this question, I saw an ad on PBS for "A Day Out with Thomas the Train" where, lo and behold, you can ride Thomas! Hello, Luke's 3rd Birthday present. Nice to meet you. I bought the tickets about three weeks ago, so I had been patiently waiting for this day to arrive. I just couldn't wait for Luke to be able to see Thomas in person!! And Luke did not disappoint me. He LOVED every minute of it. He screamed with delight, he squealed, he was just about as cute as could be! Which is pretty dang cute, people! And yes, even though the tickets were a little pricey for the three of us (Thanks again Mom for coming!), they were definitely well worth it in the end :)

Here are the highlights of the day:

You had to select your train ride time when you bought the tickets, so I chose 9:45am- I figured earlier is better because he would be shutting down by about 1pm, which was totally true. We actually got to the Florida Railroad Museum in Parrish, FL about 8:45. It took us about an hour to get there and we got the real scenic backroads and zero traffic as well. Excellent!

Here is Luke ready to leave the house in his new Thomas threads. Choo-chooo!



When we got into the parking lot, we could see the Thomas the Train engine sitting on the tracks. Luke pretty much freaked out and could not wait to get out of the car to see him. It was so cute!

He was thrilled to finally get close!



But until it was our turn to ride the train, Luke enjoyed some inflatable fun. And he REALLY enjoyed it. The inflatable slide is one of Luke's weaknesses. Like a moth to a flame, he cannot resist!!!




But look who was coming down the track! It was the star of the show :)



We got to sit right behind Thomas in the open-air car. Luke was loving it!



I was just about to stand up and take a picture at the halfway point in the train ride (you know, when the train stops for a few minutes) when the train decided to move and I was almost lurched overboard. So I sat down real quick :)



After the train ride, we hit the activity tents. They had train tables galore, storytelling, and a few other things. Like....

Thomas tattoos! or Stickers! as I refer to them...




Sandbox tables!



Ball pits!



More train sets!




Then it was time to meet Sir Topham Hatt. I really thought Luke would freak out when it was time to step up and get his picture taken, but he was freakishly excited! We had to hold him back. He kept holding Sir Topham Hatt's hand and looking up at his face. It was totally precious :)





Ice cream was the only way to get Luke to take a break from all the activities. Who could resist a giant cone of homemade chocolate ice cream?




We then got in line to have our picture taken with Thomas! The cutest thing in the whole world was when were about 10 feet away and Luke looked really serious at me and asked, "Can I please touch Thomas' buffers?" So cute!

Here we are with Thomas!



I am a little disappointed that my eyes are closed on this one, I was sure this was the money shot that I could enlarge to hang on the wall above Luke's bed. Maybe I can photoshop my head from the first photo onto my body in this one.



The day capped off with Grandma Bingham getting Luke an awesome Thomas balloon. We love Grandma :)



And of course Luke fell asleep before we were in the car for 5 minutes. Poor little guy was wasted! But I can rest well at night knowing that Luke had total wish fulfillment for his 3rd birthday. It's a pretty sweet feeling :)