Headed Home

These are just some fun pictures on our train ride home on Amtrak. We really did enjoy taking the train - and we plan to do it for a day trip to The Museum of Science and Industry this summer - which will be FREE to get into because of our Childrens Museum membership (gosh I love that thing).

Now.....I found it a bit surprising.........Union Station is so much larger then our train station. They had us get on the train very much the same way you board a plane - all go in a gate - then let the older people and families with young children board first - so we were whisked straight onto the train. Now this treat is a double edged sword. Good because we don't have to stand in line, wait and listen to the badgering of our children - not so good because we get on the train and settled before everyone else and have to wait about 30 minutes and listen to the badgering of our children. "Can we get a snack?" "Can we go walk around?" "Where is the bathroom?" You get the idea right? What I found surprising - like I said - we were first on - the other guests had the option NOT to sit near us - but they didn't take it. Foolish foolish foolish people. They did not use their common sense. Look at the facts - it was 7:30pm. We had 3 children. They had museum souveniers (these were being tossed in the air so they were clearly visible). The parents looked WORN OUT so would be no good at keeping them in line. I saw these people look at us - so they could see the facts - and then I watched them sit down. Foolish foolish foolish.

We did do our best to keep them quietish - I took an oodle of pics while we sat. If you have kids and a digital camera you know what I mean - the whole - You take a picture and they then say, "Let me see" and you show them. You can keep this going until your battery dies or you make the mistake of agreeing to let them take a picture and you have to take the camera back after it is dropped or flung into something. This is what I did. Then.....once the train started moving BigGuy took them all to get M&M's. After that we just used their treat against them - "To keep your M&M's you need to have a quiet voice" - positive reinforcement right? Instead of, "We will take your M&M's away if you are noisey". Eventually everyone quieted down - just as we pulled into our hometown train station - and we were home....