Since my dad suffered through the coldest Thanksgiving ever to see us last year, I thought I would try to make up for it by cramming as much stuff as possible into the week he is staying here. The obvious first choice was a train ride and we had heard nothing but rave reviews for the Coastal Classic - the one from Anchorage to Seward. Since I was only sending them on it one way (it gets back at 10:45 PM!), I decided to send them Gold Star - and let them take Thomas along.
I know Dad loves train and all, but he might have been more excited that I was letting the grandparents have alone time with Thomas than anything. And Thomas is totally into trains right now, so I figured he would be excited enough to not throw any surprise fits on my parents.
Honestly, I am not sure who was more excited about the choo-choo, Dad or Thomas. Mom was obviously in charge of taking photos since I wasn't along for the ride. I was driving down to Seward with Henry to ensure we had wheels in Seward and to avoid having to ride the train back. Love is getting up at 5 in the morning on your day off to take people to the train...
Dad was pretty impressed with all of the turns and switchbacks on the train - necessary to get up some of the hills with limited amount of running room. There were multiple times where the train was doubling back on itself enough to get some photos of - impressive as short as the train was!
Thomas was such a trooper, but he finally crashed at the end. Apparently my dad makes a great pillow. :)
I managed to time it almost perfectly, I managed to get to Seward right before the train arrived. And can I just say, I love the colors of the Alaska railroad. I mean, I know they are also the state flag colors, but the colors just look so good roaming through the Alaska wilds - or on a cloudy morning in Seward.
The railroad trio arrives! Don't they look like they had a good time?
We managed to get into our room a little early with the grand plan of getting Thomas a nap on time. Yeah, apparently if he has a super short nap sometime in the morning he's not interested in sleeping at all. So we instead we hung out for awhile and plotted what to do the rest of the weekend - also known as Nonni got in some extra snuggle time!
Of course those plans got derailed about five minutes after we got in the car and Thomas was fast asleep. So instead, I decided we should take a drive so Thomas could get a decent nap in. He happened to wake up right around when we got to Moose Pass and their tiny fudge shop. Thomas was *not* impressed with "Morris the Talking Moose". However, all of us were impressed with the fudge - yum!
The next morning we decided to take a trip to Exit Glacier. Mom, Thomas and I went last year, but due to my not warning my mom of our plans - she didn't have hiking appropriate footwear. This time we were ready to head toward the glacier. And dad volunteered to carry the heavier of the two boys, so we were set!
True to his form, Thomas fell asleep as soon as we got partway there. This obviously made him much harder to carry up the hills, but Dad never complained. I offered to switch kiddos since I am pretty used to carry the boys, but he trucked him up the hill anyhow. That's what granddads are good at. :)
Supposedly this trail was going to lead up to the edge of the glacier, but this was as close as it got. But it was still pretty cool! Especially when you came over the last hill, the wind coming off of the glacier was super cold - it was nature's air conditioning. Henry wasn't super impressed about the chill, so we didn't stay there too long.
Thomas managed to wake up just in time to see the glacier up close. He may not look impressed in this photo, but he did seem to think it was cool!
Thomas decided he would prefer to spend some time walking back down the hill. It made for a slower trek down, but it sure is nice that he can go for longer distances these days.
Then off to the Seward Sea Life Center (after another failed nap time...) - Thomas really seems to enjoy this place - though each time he's most excited about something different. This time he was hard to pry away from the boat at the entrance. Maybe the little guy wants to be a captain?
Henry was happy as always. Nothing seems to upset this guy. Love it!
He loves the birds and was super excited about the ducks this time. The ducks jumped out of the water to say hi - the lady next to Thomas ran away from the ducks but he was just excited they were closer. :)
Look at the beautiful Seward scenery behind my super happy parents. What a perfect day!
Woody the Sea Lion was in typical form, doing his laps around the enclosure. I played around with the camera for quite a while trying to get a good photo of him as he flew by. Not bad, if I do say so myself! I think he was so excited because he just had a little baby - who is currently unnamed but according to my member emails is doing great!
Thomas was obsessed with the scale right next to Woody. Its a little display to see if you can reach Woody's weight with a group of people - 1200 pounds I think. Several groups would try to reach it and they always had an extra toddler trying to help them out. I'm not sure why he was so excited - I think he saw another little kid jump on the scale and thought that would be super cool to do over and over again. Toddlers!
He also spent a lot of time watching Woody do laps. Woody is so big, how could a toddler not be impressed?
And before we could leave, we *had* to go back to the boat. Who am I to deny the little captain his time at the helm??
The place we were staying had a super random wolf skin in the room. Which I thought was pretty odd, but my parents thought would make for an "interesting" photo. Thomas was not too thrilled about the "dog" skin. That was about the best facial expression I could get out of him!
Henry could care less though - like I said, nothing fazes this guy. He was just happy people were interacting with him. Love that smile! (The wolf still creeps me out though.)
On the way back from Seward, we detoured through the Whittier tunnel since my dad loves trains so much. We all thought it was cool when we went through it last year, so I figured he would love it even more. Thomas just recently became obsessed with tunnels (due to my awesome tunnel building skills with couch cushions the other day). He apparently told mom and dad to "go back!" after every tunnel the train went through. So the tunnel was also a hit in his book. And of course, I timed it just perfectly so dad could see another train. Go me!
And one last stop in Girdwood for lunch before heading home. Of course, he didn't touch his grilled cheese even though he usually loves them. That's fine, I traded part of my sandwich for his. I still love grilled cheese!
Home again! Nonni and Grandpa brought Thomas a belated birthday present that is a super cool car tent. They, of course, have not set up tents much recently and had a heck of a time trying to figure out the poles. Instead of helping, I decided to giggle and take photos. Hey, we all grow older - we don't always grow up. ; )
I did end up stepping in at the end and helping the finish it up. Thomas really liked playing in his new tent. Especially after Grandpa put his Elmo couch in there. That boy loves his cars and Elmo!
Last, but not least - I couldn't let my year anniversary pass by without some sort of small celebration, so I made myself a brownie cake. Can you believe it's been a year already? I sure can't!