Train of Lights

The Holiday Train of Lights offered free tickets at Phil's work. We chose our travel night based on the weather forecast, and it turned out to be the perfect night! Since it was a weeknight, not very many people came out (which was great for us, maybe not so much for the train company). When we arrived, the engineer asked Alex and Zachary if they would like to see where he drove the train, so we got to check out the engine. It was very loud in there, so we didn't stay long, but it was really cool.
Since it wasn't crowded, we were able to walk up and down the length of the train and go between cars. Each car was from a different era of rail travel and beautifully decorated.

There was an open air car, which would have been a very chilly way to ride, but provided a great opportunity to see the lights on both trains as they passed. The boys also enjoyed watching the scenery go by.

The train route was an out and back journey, so we passed the other train twice, and had to wait at the switch to get back on track. The second time we passed, a special guest transferred trains.I've left this photo un-cropped, so that Zachary and his skepticism could be included.

We changed into jammies before heading home, expecting the boys to be exhausted. Alex fell asleep fairly quickly, but Zachary was a chatter-bug for most of the way home. We are now fielding constant requests to "do that train light thing" again.