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June 17 + 18 2005 | Sasha and Dada went on a pre-fathers' day road-trip to check out some train-related sites in Pennsylvania.... But before we begin.... a Sasha up-date. Sasha's still a happy, friendly, creative, adventurous boy. He turns three in a few weeks; he is using his little toilet often; he's also using more and more words, and being witty when he uses them. Earlier in the week, I was reminding him that he was going to initiation at his Day Care named Ms. Elba's. "You're going to Ms. Elba's tommorrow," I said. Sasha responded, "I miss the farm. I miss cows and pigs." I looked at him, quizzically. "You've never been to a farm!" and then it dawned on me that he was using the pun "Ms. / miss." I laughed. He laughed back, very pleased that I got his joke. Right before we left, he said "Sasha wants to fly like a kite," which I thought was a very well-developed sentence, using a simile...... Lisa is out of town for a few days, so Sasha and I hit the road for some train-related fun. (When Lisa took a trip with Sasha on Amtrak, he started calling vacations "trip Train" regardless of the mode of transportation.) For weeks, we've been telling him, "you're gonna get to sleep in a caboose," and that came true on Thursday, about 160 miles from NYC at the The Catawissa Railroad Caboose. This is a site at a former train station, with 13 cabooses refurbished as little hotel rooms. Well, not so little, the one we stayed in (the Yellow & Green Reading) was built in 1948 and was 35 feet long!
Sashua was calling the little blue train above "Thomas" (which was probably an accurate choice, since I suspect it actually was a small engine for pushing cars around the yard), and he called the big black one "Gordon" (it actually reminded me of the train in Buster Keaton's "The General" .... and man, it was BIG!). When the real freight trains rushed by - on a track at the edge of the yard on the other side of the red one - Sasha was frightened by all the noise. He eventually went out to watch one pass because I held him safely. I suspect these Catawissa cabooses and engines were sad that they were on disconnected tracks, and couldn't go out for a fast ride up and down throughout Pennsylvania.
After playing for a while more around the Cabooses, we loaded up the car to drive the hundred miles to The Strausburg Railroad. Sasha knew he was going to ride a steam train, but there's no keeing secrets from that boy. As soon as the car was stopped, he said "Where's Thomas?" Well, here he is (Steam Train Ride #1):
I'm not sure if shoveling coal was included in the ticket price?
Train Ride #2 was in a caboose hooked up to the little burgundy shunter.
Steam Train Ride #3 was on the regular Strausberg line, a 45 minute trip out to the lumber yard and back. Sasha enjoyed looking out the window, the wind in his face. He was very happy as the steam whistle blew. TOOOOOOOOOT!
After the ride, we looked at the EVEN LARGER locomotives at the museum
...and then posed for a photo in front of Thomas. Earlier in the day we tried to take this photo, but once we got to the front of the line, I discovered that Sasha thought the line was to get ON Thomas. When we had to sit on the bench, Sasha was not pleased and that photo was just Sasha screaming! So, the 2nd time worked out much better and we got a really cute pix together....I think Sasha looks a lot older than his (nearly) 3 years in the 3rd photo below (Brit-Pop star, possibly?)
We drove about 100 miles to Langhorne to spend the night at "Aunt" Nicki's house. On the way, Sasha was saying "Dada is a car engineer. Sasha is a train engineer." and "Dada, let's crash the car!" Sasha wacthed one of his fave films, "The Nightmare before Xmas." The next morning, Nicki and Sasha discuss the finer points of monster / cat etiquette. Not shown: walking in the woods, the little mouse, Sasha playing in the back of the Mini before heading home....
Happy Dada's Day... |
