We celebrated the end of school and the unofficial start of summer last night by road tripping up to Citizen’s Bank Park to watch the Phillies play the Marlins. Unfortunately the Phils couldn’t seem to get on base, but we had a great time. Tommy kept track of the game in his program while Teddy chatted up and completely charmed the woman sitting next to him, pausing only to watch the Phanatic do his crazy dance on top of the dugout. The evening was warm with a lovely breeze, we had great seats behind home plate, and as we were leaving, I snagged the boys some free cotton candy from a vendor who was throwing his leftovers away. We’ll be moving a little slow today since we didn’t get home until after 11, but hey, that’s OK, it’s summer. What a delicious feeling.

I was inspired recently by Amy at The Never-True Tales, who produced a list of 30 vows for her summer. After being out so late, I don’t have the energy to even think of such an ambitious list, but I do have ten items and they are:

1. Meet as many of my travel blogger friends in person as I can in New York City, England, and Vermont
2. Visit at least one amusement park (and maybe, just maybe, it will be Legoland – but don’t tell the boys yet)
3. Take a family camping trip for the first time
4. Eat local ice cream in every new place I visit
5. Read all of the travel books that are piled up in my office
6. Get a new family picture on the Prime Meridian
7. Go on an early morning hike to Sunset Rock
8. Find new, cool stuff to do on our long summer car rides
9. Ride in a punt on the Thames
10. Enjoy (gulp) turning 40 – yes, “enjoy” is the word I want to use

What about you? Any summer vows? Whether your answer is “hit the road and see where it takes me” or “sit on my porch and dream of distant lands” I’d love to hear what it is!

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Have a wonderful, summery weekend!

This was one of those weeks when my intentions exceeded my output in a big way.

Actually, wait. I take that back. Let’s try a different, glass-half-full tack on that opening: This week I was so busy gathering material for my blog that I didn’t have time to sit down and write posts. But all that means is that there’s a lot for my dear readers to look forward to! For example, I’ve still got lots to say about our recent trip to Lancaster, including our visit to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (pictured above) and our stay at the Willow Valley Resort where we dined at a traditional smorgasbord (I may need to make a midnight run up there for some mashed potatoes once this post is live). And then there’s the time we’ve spent in Wilmington, Delaware lately hanging out at the fabulous new Delaware Children’s Museum and enjoying moussaka and rice pudding at the Greek Festival. Plus, I’ve been putting together a great plan for our upcoming trip to England.

So there may have been fewer posts than I would have liked. But trust me, it’s not for lack of family travel fun – and I promise, I will get to describing all of it. And next week I’ll have a surprise to reveal about Tommy and my next destination – and what vehicle will be riding in. Until then, I hope you enjoy this picture – somehow it seemed appropriate to the subject matter to make it black and white. Doesn’t Teddy look tiny next to those engines? They are really huge. I like the fact that I caught him mid-air and you can actually see his Scooby Doo Crocs in all their glory.

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby.

Although our stay at Willow Valley was graciously paid for by the resort, we bought our own food including dinner and breakfast.

When you think of Pennsylvania Dutch country, it may well be horse-drawn buggies that first leap to mind rather than trains. But it is in fact a great place to visit if you’re a train buff. You can ride in a train pulled by a steam engine at the Strasburg Railroad, learn how that steam engine works (and climb inside one that’s stationary) at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, and visit the National Toy Train Museum if the real ones don’t do it for you.

Tommy has always loved trains, and since these attractions are all less than an hour from where we live, we’ve taken various opportunities over the years to visit some of them. But one that we had overlooked until now was the Choo Choo Barn in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. And let me tell you, you don’t have to love trains to enjoy a visit there.

Why is it fun to see little tiny replicas of real things? Got me. But since my childhood obsession with dollhouses, I’ve always loved to look at life in miniature. And this 1700-square-foot display offers a huge number of different tableaux, many of them animated. Anyone who likes to see teeny versions of real-life stuff (and I’m pretty sure that’s everyone) will enjoy a visit here.

I knew it was going to be a hit with Tommy when we walked in and immediately saw a baseball game with tiny players running the bases and a ski mountain with a working lift.

And to please my animal lover, there is both a zoo (the hippo’s mouth opens and shuts and the giraffes nod their heads)

and a circus.

Travel-With-Kids-Tip: Some of the display is a bit high off the ground. Teddy spent a good part of the time on Matt’s shoulders so that he could see. We did notice that some people carried step stools with them, but they weren’t prominently advertised at the front desk, so you need to ask if you think you want one.

There’s also lots of fascinating “real-life” stuff like construction sites with moving bulldozers, a car accident, complete with backed-up traffic,

And a house on fire being busily tended to by a crew of firefighters (the picture doesn’t show it, but there are actual glowing flames).

And of course there are also trains chugging around continuously, passenger cars that you can see in, freight trains marked “Pennsylvania Railroad” and “B&O” and even some that are pulled by engines who will be familiar to all Thomas the Tank Engine fans.

Travel-With-Kids-Tip: To keep younger family members occupied while you look at the display, you might make up your own scavenger hunt or play “I Spy.” It can be hard for young children to pick out small details and this will help keep them focused.

Every five minutes or so, the room goes dark as day turns into night and the entire miniature landscape is illuminated. Lights come on in the houses, the baseball field is illuminated, and this fountain shimmers with rainbow hues:

The layout is definitely set in Pennsylvania and includes local landmarks like Dutch Wonderland, a famous Lancaster amusement park,

And the windmill-shaped Dutch Haven Restaurant.

Travel-With-Kids-Tip: We didn’t eat there this weekend, but on previous trips to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania have enjoyed lunch at Isaac’s, which is in the same shopping center as the Choo Choo Barn. They have a great kid’s menu (and whatever the New York Times says, I do like those sometimes) and I highly recommend any of their sandwiches served on pretzel rolls.

There are also several Amish farms, and the animation that may be my absolute favorite: A barn raising, complete with tiny hammers moving up and down.

Travel-With-Kids-Tip: To keep the display clean and in working order, the Barn closes for cleaning from the beginning of January to the beginning of March; plan accordingly.

But to my mind the absolutely best thing about this display is the down-home, roadside attraction feel. The original layout was started by George Groff, a returning World War II veteran who bought an electric train set to share with his son. It expanded over time and in the early 1960s, when George needed money to send his kids to college, he started charging admission to see it. It’s now owned and run by his youngest son, Tom Groff, who is dedicated to the layout, spending months every year sprucing it up and adding to it.

There’s nothing slick about the Choo Choo Barn. It’s amazing and intricate but doesn’t feel commercial. You can tell that the whole thing started because someone just really liked to play with trains. Lucky for us, he generously decided to share that delight with the rest of the world.

We were invited to visit the Choo Choo Barn and given free admission. But I’ve not doubt we’ll be back as paying customers to show it off to visiting friends and family. It’s pretty cool.

I had already been planning to write a post recommending the Sheraton Four Points Philadelphia as a great place to stay if you’re flying in or out of the Philadelphia Airport. For one thing, it’s incredibly convenient and very close to the airport – one exit north on I-95 and right across the street from the airport’s long-term parking lot.

The rooms are stylish in a we-went-shopping-at-IKEA kind of way, with nice linens and toiletries. There’s free Internet and comfy pillows. The shuttle to the airport takes five minutes and runs 24 hours a day. And the price for parking can’t be beat: $7 a day in their gated lot (even if you don’t stay there, you can park there, which I now intend to do every time we fly out of Philly). It was also affordable: I was able to find a room for just over $100 on Expedia.

In addition to all of these practical considerations, this hotel now has my undying gratitude because they took such good care of an important member of our family: Lovey Bear. I wrote earlier about how in the early-morning daze of getting the boys ready to go to Los Angeles, I left Teddy’s special lovey in our room. As a parent traveling with small children this had to be my number one travel nightmare come to life. As soon as I realized what I had done, which was the minute we boarded our plane, I called and pleaded with the warm and reassuring voice on the other end to make sure that the LB was retrieved.

Over the course of the next ten days I spoke with three different people on the housekeeping staff and all of them were beyond kind and concerned. They were careful to call me back with updates and made me feel like they understood the gravity of the situation. Because we were gone for so long and because several people were involved, there did end up being some confusion about just where the LB was and he wasn’t waiting for us when we returned, late at night, from Arizona. But the next day they located him and Teddy and I headed up there immediately after preschool to pick him up.

When we arrived, he was waiting at the front desk: “He’s been talking about you all morning,” the lovely young woman working there said to Teddy with a wink. Accompanying him was this note:

It was a little confusing to my boy – since LB is embroidered with the name Teddy, the staff naturally assumed that this was what we called him. But Teddy was thrilled as you can tell. Do I really need to say that all of us slept much better that night?

If you have an early morning or a late night flight out of Philadelphia I unreservedly recommend the Sheraton Four Points. I may start staying there just for the heck of it – I’m sure Lovey Bear would like a visit with his old friends. (Just a friendly reminder that I’ll always disclose if I’ve been offered a free room. I stayed at the Sheraton on my own dime.)

I share these pictures as part of Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Have a great weekend!

Since I got the entire family excited about skiing at Mad River last month, I decided that I should start exploring some of the ski areas in eastern Pennsylvania. My hope is to find a place where next year we could maybe buy a season’s pass or discount card so that we can spend some weekends skiing, keeping our legs in shape for trips to the bigger mountains.

First on the list was Bear Creak Mountain, almost exactly two hours from our front door and very doable as a day trip. So on the Saturday of the Presidents’ Day holiday weekend we were up and out the door at 7 a.m., Pocono-bound.

I had signed both the boys up for the morning ski programs for kids and was impressed by how well-organized they were. Although there was a crush of people waiting in line when we got there, we found that it moved quickly. The people behind the desk were friendly and efficient. While parents signed a release, they gave each child a lift ticket and a bib with his or her name before moving them quickly into a large room where they were sized and matched with any equipment they needed.

Travel-with-kids tip: If you’re interested in the kids’ programs at Bear Creek and are planning to ski on a weekend, you should reserve spots online. We saw several people who were turned away because they hadn’t done so.

For $80 apiece the children got all of their equipment including helmets (which they were entitled to use all day), a two-and-a-half hour group lesson, and an extended-day ticket that allowed them to ski until 10 p.m. When we picked them up at noon, each of their instructors gave us a written report card and also took the time to tell us exactly what the boys did and what they needed to work on.

Since the ski school personnel took over suiting up the boys, shooing away the parents and telling us to return at lunchtime and no sooner, within fifteen minutes of arrival we were childless and able to get our own tickets and rental gear. We were up on the “mountain” (more of a big hill really) soon after, enjoying the great packed powder.

One thing that impressed me about this ski area was the way they use multiple lifts and clever divisions of trails to segregate novice skiers, hot-dogging snowboarders, and those who just want to ski. There’s a lift for beginners and a terrain park for the boarders with lots of jumps, steps, and other toys aimed at those who want to be airborne.

It’s not a big place, and it was pretty crowded the day we were there. But I never felt overwhelmed by the crowd or unsafe because of it. Although I do wonder how skied off it gets when the conditions aren’t as perfect as they were thanks to the storms that dumped feet of snow during the previous week. There are lots of snowmaking guns, but with all of the people going down on boards, I’m guessing it probably gets icy.

The trails are aptly marked. There are a few legitimate black diamond trails with some nice moguls. The only wish I had was that the runs were a little longer – it often felt like my legs were just warming up when I hit the bottom of the trail. But I’d have to trade time in the car to get more vertical, and I’m not sure I’d want to drive more than 4 hours for a day trip.

We ate lunch in the Mountain Eatery, which is the main cafeteria and a very nice space with picture windows overlooking the slopes and big stone fireplaces. The food was surprisingly good – I had a fantastic buffalo chicken cheesesteak and Matt and Tommy had very tasty hamburgers. But lunch for four people came in at $42, so I think I would be inclined to bring lunch next time. Other eating options include the Grille , which has a pretty decent looking pub menu,some fancier fare, and a full bar. There’s also the Trail’s End Café, which judging from the menu offers a good mix of soups and salads – but it’s located in a different building, away from the main lodge.

Travel-with-kids tip: The Waffle Hut, which dispenses Belgian waffles topped with powdered sugar or other toppings sits at the bottom of the one of the chairlifts. We didn’t try them, but they smelled great and I’m guessing they make for a fun mid-afternoon treat.

After lunch I took some runs with Tommy for the first time (you may recall that at Mad River, his grandparents kept him to themselves). He was tired, so we only did about three runs, but I was impressed with the progress he had made. His instructor was completely accurate in his assessment that he needs to work on his “French fry” turns, keeping his skis and legs together as he traverses. But he’s definitely skiing – if we could get out more often, he’d probably be an intermediate skier before this season was over. I’ve enjoyed few things more in my life than cruising down the hill in his wake.

While Matt, Tommy, and I were out in the afternoon, Teddy hung out in the daycare center, which was just fine with him. It wasn’t a big space (and was dominated by a large TV) but he had a good time and the young women who worked there were very nice. For $6 per hour, I was satisfied.

Travel-with-kids tip: If you’ve got a child who’s a non-skier, you might consider the snowtubing park, a big sledding hill which has a carpet lift. It costs $28 per day on the weekend and is not included in the price of lift ticket. Bear in mind that your child must be at least 6 years old and 42 inches tall.

We were at Bear Creek on a holiday weekend and it was busy, although not as busy as I expected it to be given the tremendous amount of snow that fell the week before. And they are clearly prepared for crowds. Every area of the resort, from the ski school to the rental area to the lifts was more than adequately staffed with cheerful young people who kept things moving at a good clip.

Although I found the kids’ programs to be a good value (especially since my kids needed equipment) the adult lift tickets and rentals were pretty pricey. Matt and I paid the same price for ourselves as we did for each of the boys and of course neither of us got a lesson. We were paying peak rates, since it was a holiday weekend.

I liked Bear Creek. It has a friendly vibe and nice terrain. But given the limited size of the area and the fact that we don’t always get great snow down here, I’m not sure I’d spring for a season’s pass next year (it was $1600 this year to get an unlimited one for the entire family). I think I’d be more inclined go for the discount cards, which would give us each one free anytime lift ticket and decent discounts on both weekday and weekend tickets.

I’ll also be looking into purchasing equipment for me and Matt and leasing it for the boys, because after another fun day outdoors on the snow, it’s clear to me that we’re now official a family of skiers!

Bear Creek Mountain is located in Macungie, Pennsylvania, about an hour from Philadelphia and 90 minutes from Wilmington, Delaware.

So now that I’ve got my family on skis and (for the most part) loving it, I decided to do a little research into ski areas that are easily accessible from northern Delaware, where I live. I’m not looking to replicate our experience in Vermont –there just aren’t high enough mountains to do that in these parts. My modest criteria were thus:

1. The vertical rise be at least 500 feet
2. All equipment, including helmets, be available to rent at a reasonable rate (we don’t own any of our own yet and the helmets we used in Vermont were borrowed)
3. They offer instruction for kids and adults
4. It be less than a two-hour drive from our house – I don’t want to pay to spend the night

Searching online, I easily found three ski areas that met most or all of the items on my list: Spring Mountain, Roundtop, and Bear Creek.

Spring Mountain Ski Area offers a vertical drop of only 420 feet and has only 8 trails. For a very reasonable $70 I can purchase a equipment, a lift ticket, and a two-hour lesson for Tommy. But the lesson is at a set time in the afternoon with no flexibility. And there doesn’t really seem to be a program that’s appropriate for children Teddy’s age, unless I want to pay $55 for a private lesson (which doesn’t include equipment or a lift ticket – and that would run me an extra $32 and $29 respectively).

Round Top is a little farther away, but it has 16 trails and 600 foot vertical. Surprisingly, their lesson prices are similar to those at Spring Mountain, which is considerably smaller (I guess at Spring Mountain you pay for the proximity to Philadelphia). For $71 Tommy and Teddy could both get rental equipment, a 90-minute group lesson offered at one of three times throughout the day, and an all-day lift ticket. Matt could also take a group lesson at various times during the day, although the cost of this (and whether equipment and lift tickets are included) is not listed on the website.

I think the winner is Bear Creek Mountain. Like the other areas, it bundles the cost of equipment rentals and lift tickets in with its group lessons for kids, but they also offer a similar program for adults. For $80 I can buy a Discovery Program pass for Matt, who had several days of lessons at Mad River but could use some more instruction. Instead of just one straightforward lesson, this gives him the opportunity to participate in ongoing lessons throughout the day on an as-needed basis. They offer a similarly flexible program for kids, or I can choose to sign Tommy and Teddy up for more formal group lessons for about the same cost. Online registration and helmet rentals are available as well. The price is a bit higher, but the flexibility and the larger number of trails – they have 21 – justify the cost.

I won’t be taking a lesson, so for me to rent equipment and buy a lift ticket costs me $72 at Spring Mountain, $97 at Round Top, and $100 at Bear Mountain. We’re planning to go over the Presidents’ Day weekend, which means these are premium rates – all of the resorts I discuss above have cheaper deals midweek.

I will of course offer a detailed report of our experience once we’ve spent a day there. I’m hopeful that skiing on a small mountain will let all the newbie skiers in my family (which is everyone but me) get lots of practice. If we’re going to commit to this sport, and I think we are, we’ll need to find a place to go that’s an easy day trip so that we work our legs in between longer visits to Vermont (and possibly points west – hey a girl can dream, can’t she?).

If you’ve skied at any of the resorts I list above, I’d love to hear about your experience there – especially if you have any insider tips!

Ski week will continue tomorrow when I talk about how to get your kids (and spouse) on skis and zipping happily down the mountain with a few side notes about how to save money and how to keep everyone fed and happy.

When I’m in Philadelphia with the kids, I really like to go to lunch at the Reading Terminal Market. It’s chaotic and crowded and not for the faint of heart, but if you’ve got kids who like food and enjoy a wide variety of choices, it really can’t be beat.

I never try to remember where anything in the market is, choosing instead just to plunge into the rabbit warren, stopping often to admire whatever catches my eye, whether it’s the cases chock full of every cheese from Morbier to Gouda, the gorgeous coral of salmon steaks resting on a glistening bed of ice, or row upon row of Amish pickles and jellies.

Travel With Kids Tip: Visiting the market is a fun activity unto itself; there’s lots to see. We like to get there a little ahead of the lunch rush and stroll around to view all of our dining options before committing to what we want to eat.

Not planning any extensive family travel anytime soon? No worries: the food options here serve as a one-stop lesson world cultures covering as they do everything from whoopee pies to pad thai. Last time we were there the boys decided they wanted crepes and bellied up to the counter at Profi’s Creperie.

Surprisingly I wasn’t in the mood for French food and ate a bowl of chicken in red curry sauce instead from the Little Thai Market.

There are some full-fledged restaurants complete with table service, although the majority of vendors sell their food strictly to go. And if you don’t feel like buying a hot lunch, you can also assemble quite a nice picnic of antipasti or mezze items accompanied by fresh and crusty bread.

Travel With Kids Tip: There are tables and chairs in the middle of the market, but they tend to fill up at lunch time. If you are visiting with more than one adult, send a scouting party ahead to stake a claim while another person makes food purchases. This would work especially well if you’ve got a stroller, which might get awkward in the narrow aisles.

If you’re feeling expansive, you can let the kids pick a dessert once they’ve finished lunch. My boys always like to spend a long time looking at the candy on offer in a gorgeous display at Chocolate by Mueller (where you can also sometimes see the candy being made). This is a merchant with a good sense of humor (and a bad taste in puns):

The boys didn’t choose a dozen chocolate noses, but instead opted for a dinosaur lolley pop and some candied citrus slices.

Lunch isn’t your only option at the market – from Monday to Saturday it opens at 8 and closes at 6 and it’s open from 9 to 5 on Sunday – so it makes a great place to pick up breakfast or dinner (to say nothing of a snack or a cup of coffee). If you’re staying somewhere that’s got a kitchen, you could even pick up some things to cook. When we go there I tend to find myself mourning the fact that we’re playing tourist and wishing I could shop for the fixings for a fancy meal – I could cover everything from the soup to the cheese course and also pick up some gorgeous flowers to decorate the table.

Travel With Kids Tip: If you are staying in Philadelphia overnight, this is a great place to pick up a bottle of wine and a dessert to share after the kids have gone to bed. (I recommend the cannolis at Termini Brothers.)

The Reading Terminal Market is located a few blocks east of City Hall in Center City Philadelphia right by the Pennsylvania Convention Center – convenient to both the historic attractions of Old City and the museums along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

I share this post also as part of WanderFood Wednesday (so many memes – so little time!) over at Wanderlust and Lipstick. If you stroll on over there and check out the posts about food from around the world you’ll likely soon find yourself hungry. Bon appétit!

Photo of inside of the market courtesy of Geoff Livingston on Flickr.

Photo of cheese courtesy of camera_obscura on Flickr.

Our three-day trip to Pennsylvania last week included a flying stop in Bethlehem, which after two visits has already become a family favorite. The primary reason we were there was to attend the first annual Peeps Fest, sponsored by the makers of those sticky marshmallow candies, Just Born.

The festival itself was fun with the kinds of activities you would normally find at this kind of event: a clown making balloon animals, live music, crafts, a moon bounce. But there were some unusual touches that reminded visitors who the main sponsor was including the Peep Mobile, Peep limbo, Peep-in-a-spoon races, and my kids’ favorite – Peeps s’mores.

The highlight for me was the dioramas created by local elementary and high school students using candies made by Just Born, which include not only Peeps but Hot Tamales and Mike & Ikes. Themes for the dioramas included children’s literature,

movies (this one was titled “Indiana Peep in Raiders of the Lost Ike”),

television programs,

and current events (including a recent transit strike).

The winner was a real knockout called The Museum of Modern Peeps:

The twelve students who won got to drop the giant fiberglass Peep just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.

Peeps Fest ran for two days, December 30th and the 31st. We attended on the 30th and found it a little pricey ($6 for adults, $4 for kids 6-12). To get in on the 31st, you had to buy a button for Bethlehem’s First Night celebration. If they hold it again next year, we may be back just to see the dioramas. What I’d really like to do is visit their factory, but unfortunately it’s not open to the public. Guess I’ll just have to make do with this virtual tour.

There’s a surprising amount to do in Bethlehem and there are still things we haven’t seen. I have a feeling we’ll be back in the spring.

Living in northern Delaware, I’m very lucky to have my pick of wonderful museums all within an easy hour’s drive of my house. There is a wealth of art, history, and horticulture to be found – and that doesn’t even include all that Philadelphia has to offer. It’s hard for me to choose which one I love the best, but a long-time favorite has to be the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.

Housed in a gorgeously restored grist mill, the museum showcases art by generations of the Wyeth family, who live and work in the area, as well as landscape art and American illustration. It’s a great art museum for kids because it is small and intimate and much of the work is accessible even for the very youngest children (Tommy was fascinated by the paintings there when he was four months old). The boys always enjoy the swashbuckling N.C. Wyeth paintings of pirates and patriots, which served as illustrations for editions of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and other classic stories. And I love the more austere and contemplative work of his son Andrew, whose paintings showcase the fields, barns, and streams of the Pennsylvania countryside.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: The museum is run by a nature conservancy that works to preserve what remains of the open space around it, a rolling landscape that is one of the prettiest you’ll find anywhere in the United States. If your child tires of the art indoors, go outside for a stroll on one of the walking trails along the nearby river and meadows.

The museum is especially fun to visit at the holidays, when a huge model train exhibit takes over one entire room. Five trains run simultaneously on nearly 2000 feet of track, making for a large and intricate display that will fascinate even children who aren’t crazy for trains. Last year the layout included numerous towns and villages, waterfalls, a switching yard, Santa Claus, and a tiny drive-in movie, which was showing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: The train display is popular and can get very crowded, especially during the week before Christmas. It’s best to arrive right when the museum opens at 9:30 a.m. Or, you might wait until after New Years – the trains will be on display until January 11. Kids under 6 can visit for free.

There’s so much to see in the train display that we usually spend close to an hour peering at it in the dim light. Eventually we manage to coax the boys away away to see the other big holiday attraction, the display of “critter” ornaments hung on Christmas trees of various sizes. I love these adorable creations made by volunteers using only natural materials and glue. Especially wonderful is the care and detail that goes into each of the thousands of little figures: Angels, owls, peacocks, reindeer, and even to our especial delight, little chicks. Every single one has its own personality, and each is made with materials harvested in a sustainable way – seeds shaken out and sowed in the ground where they are found, dried leaves carefully clipped, and any leftovers saved for later use.

Last year a choir from one of the local schools began to sing while Teddy and I looked at the ornaments on the trees in the main lobby. Someone played the piano, “Hark the Herald Angels” filled the sunny space, and the air glowed with anticipation and good will. It was a perfect holiday moment.

Travel-With-Kids Tip: If you’re looking for last-minute holiday gifts, the shop here is surprisingly big given the museum’s relatively small size. They have a particularly good selection of books about art for kids. You can also buy “critter” ornaments.

We are planning to brave the crowd and visit the museum next week on the morning of December 23^rd. It’s sure to be a wonderful beginning to our winter holiday. New to us will be the exhibit of illustrations from various editions of Alice in Wonderland as well as the display of antique dolls. Charming as these may be, I expect most of our time will be spent watching the trains whoosh magically past.

The Brandywine River Museum is located on Route 1 in Chadds Ford, PA and is open every day but Christmas at 9:30 a.m. Normally they close at 4:30, but from December 26 to 30th, they will be open until 6 p.m.

There was a time in my life when trains, specifically Thomas trains, were more than just a mode of transportation. They were members of our family. We told stories about them, built tracks and houses for them, watched the videos and sang the songs they contained (the first song Tommy knew by heart was a little ditty called “Down by the Docks” from a story about Cranky the Crane – I could only hope when he sang it in public that people didn’t think we actually hung out dockside).

So it was with great anticipation in 2004 that Matt and I brought Tommy to the Strasburg Raiload near Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Day Out With Thomas, a traveling event that gives children the chance to see a “real live” Thomas and to ride a train pulled by him. I’m not sure who was most thrilled when Thomas pulled into the station, steam blowing into the blue September sky.

Of course, once you’re on the train, you don’t see Thomas anymore. You do get to sit on velvet seats in a gorgeously restored car and ride for about ten minutes out into the middle of a corn field that (if you’re lucky) is being plowed by an Amish farmer and his pair of brown horses. The experience is probably fairly authentic to the stories except that Thomas doesn’t run into a ditch and require Terence the Tractor or one of the other characters to rescue him.

Was it crowded the day we saw Thomas? I think it’s possible that every toddler from New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania may have been in attendance. But the Strasburg Railroad does a good job. They time the rides so you know when you’ll be getting on. And they offer activities other than the train ride; we were never bored or overwhelmed. There’s a minature steam train to ride on, art and craft activities, and model trains to play with and watch. Oh, and you’ll have the opportunity to buy one or two piece of merchandise of course. Just try resisting. I double-dog dare ya.

Thomas is going to be back in Strasburg from June 12 to 20, 2010 (visit the Strasburg Railroad website for information about purchasing tickets).

Although Tommy is really too big for Thomas and Teddy really isn’t that interested in him, I bet if I suggested that we go to Day Out With Thomas they would jump at the opportunity and actually, so would I. Because there’s just something magical about trains. Today, for example, they’ve taken me on a ride through time back to when Tommy had chick-fuzz hair and chubby legs.

For Photo Friday at Delicious Baby. Please visit there to see many other terrific travel photos.