We awoke to a sunny and warm day in Strasburg, PA. To see Hunter’s face this morning you would swear it was Christmas. He could not get the day started fast enough, so he could get to his beloved trains. Today was all about Hunter and trains. We greeted the day with an extremely average breakfast and Hunter and I tried to make the most of the free grub from the hotel. Mom got to enjoy her quite getting ready time. I would also have to say this was the first day that Hunter really started showing signs of being done with life on the road. I tried to set him up with some food at breakfast and a meltdown ensued because he wanted Mom. A guy walked by me and said, “Yeah that was us yesterday, and probably again today!” Not having Mom and his usual waffle set him off something good. I crammed some food in my face and we headed back up to the room.
Luckily the knowledge that he was seeing trains and his mom helped Hunter regain his composure and he was OK. After Emily finished getting ready we headed to the first stop of the day which was the Strasburg Train Museum. A few months back we visited the train museum in Green Bay which was really cool. We were hoping this one would be at least as cool as that and it didn’t disappoint. The first thing that we all thought was really cool is they had a room of all different toy train displays that kids could play with. Everything from Thomas, to Geo Tracks, to Legos, to you name it, they had it. Hunter was in absolute heaven. He would have sat there all day and played if we hadn’t pried him away from the tables.
The train museum was by far the best set up train museum I have ever seen. Not only could you walk by all of these trains indoors but you could also walk on a walkway above the trains and also there was a place where you could walk down steps and be under a train. There were a ton of displays and a number of trains that you could walk on as well. Hunter loved being able to go on the trains and walk through them. After we toured the museum for a couple hours it was time to catch the Strasburg Railroad train ride that departed every hour, just across the street. It was a nine mile train ride that was ridiculously over priced but a really cool experience. We got to ride in an open air car and take in the sites and sounds of Strasburg (which there weren’t too many of except horseys and bug-bugs). Hunter enjoyed the ride but was losing steam as we got close to the train platform. After we finished our ride we watched the engine couple with the trailers for its next ride. After the train departed we headed back to the hotel for a nice long nap.
After Hunter’s nap we decided to leave dinner up to Urban Spoon, and it found us a buffet that was a few miles from the hotel. Emily wanted to eat some good Strasburg Amish food and try some desserts so this seemed the best place to do both. The restaurant was called The Hershey Farm, subtitled a “smorgasbord,” and it really did have some great food. We ate way more then we needed to, but had a great time doing so. After dinner Hunter and I took a walk down the rock path as Emily looked through the gift shop. It was a beautiful night for a walk so we enjoyed it very much. Another great road trip day. Just watching Hunter light up as he went through the day made the entire trip worthwhile!
