There is this little known place just east of Edmonton that is all about trains.
The Alberta Railroad Museum is a wonderful place tucked in amongst the trees and farmer fields. The first time I heard about it was from my Dad; he took my Grandpa one summer and they both thought it was an amazing place. This intrigued me as Owen and Brandon love trains, then at the beginning of summer a great magazine came with the newspaper one day. This magazine was filled with all these cool places to check out around Edmonton. The St Albert Farmer’s Market (which sadly we didn’t make it to this year), Prairie Gardens (we’ll chat about that in my next post)…so many places to discover right in your own backyard. Not to get off topic, but I have found that now that I have children, I am constantly on the hunt for places to see and things to do in and around Edmonton that are free or relatively inexpensive or offer a really unique experience. In my years before kids, I would have recycled that magazine in a heart beat, not giving it a second look – funny how kids have that way of helping you to re-focus on the little things, the small details, the important stuff. Getting back to the Railroad Museum….I researched the place and worked to find a day that we could go and when I checked out the website, one of the first things that caught my eye was, Grandparent’s Day. Well if that doesn’t make the decision, then I don’t know what could! How much more perfect would looking at trains be then if Grandpa and Grandma could be there too! Thankfully the day worked out for Grandpa S and Grandma K (Aunty Claudette came along too – she likes trains, don’t you know!).
There were so many train cars and you were able to walk through them and see how it would have been like to travel by train – a little cramped for us tall people.
Brandon checking out what it would be like to be a train conductor, complete with his Thomas the Train hat.
And Owen showing us the way through….
Grandpa explained to all of us how the mail was delivered by train, pretty amazing.
Brandon and Grandma K – where to next?!
Try explaining to a 3 and 4 yr old, this is what we used before computer’s….where’s the screen??
A little lunch break to recharge. Grandma and Grandpa’s plates look much more tasty.
Off to see more trains, really there were a ton of them to check out!
Now this is what it’s all about — All Aboard!
Then we all got to go on a real train ride (we all know Daddy was there, right, he was the one behind the camera).
That was one long wonderfully exciting day!
