Trains, Dinosaurs, and Motorcycles--Oh my!

As promised, here is the recap of Evan's birthday adventure. He started his day by opening our gift...

...a brand new Thomas engineer cap. He was already beyond excited, and then we told him we were going to go ride a train! If anyone is around NC and has a train lover in the family, the NC Transportation Museum is a must see. It used to be a functioning rail yard, and now it is a museum for all things train. They also have an impressive historic view of all types of transportation from canoes to planes, including cars and motorcycles.

May 7 is National Train Day--who knew?--so it was a red letter day at the Museum. The Motorcycle Classic was also going on, and I think I saw more motorcycles yesterday than I have in my life. Since Evan's new hobby is looking for motorcycles, this was more than he could stand.

We started with a ride on a passenger steam train. It makes a 25 minute loop around the yard, and you can see all kinds of train cars parked on other tracks. They also have a really nice narration of the history of the rail and the train itself. Evan spent the trip looking out the window yelling, "Choo choo, motocycle, choo choo, motocyle, choo choo, motocycle..." I think you get the idea.

Then, we got to ride the caboose train, a train made of one engine and four cabooses. It only comes out for special occasions! We rode in the little red caboose, and I think I sang the song about a million times. Daddy and Issa sat on the top...

...but Evan and I took the lower seat.

After a lovely picnic, we headed to the round house. Evan and Daddy checked out all of the engines (I think there are twenty in the round house), and Issa and I made masks from Dinosaur Train. We also got to watch a brand new episode...

...and pose with the characters...

...and ride the turn table. We ended our day with one more ride on a diesel passenger train. It truly was a perfect day for our little train lover! Happy birthday, little man!