California State Railroad Museum - Mommy and Owen date!

Owen and I had a mommy-Owen date last Saturday. We went to Old Sacramento and went to the California State Railroad Museum. We also took a ride on a train and got lots of yummy food! We had a great time, and I was happy to be able to spend so much time with just him. Anyway, here are the pictures from our trip!

Owen in the fireman's seat in the cab of one of the trains.
He LOVED learning about what everything was for and what
everyone's job was.

This train - the "Huntington" - is the oldest engine owned by the museum.
Owen loved learning about the different kinds of trains, and how to
distinguish them. See that funnel-shaped smokestack? Owen calls that
the "chuffer".... he watches a LOT of Thomas the Tank Engine, and they are
always "chuffing" along the tracks - so naturally, the smokestack is a chuffer. Cutie boy.

Pretending to buy us tickets.

This museum was AWESOME. We spent about four hours there,
and easily could have been there much longer.

Cool model railroad set. There was a huge display about toy trains, as well
as a whole room dedicated to Thomas the Tank Engine train tables. Owen
 would have loved to spend more time playing at the tables, but although
the museum was not crowded, that area was a madhouse. Waaaaay too
many kids. We only stayed for about 5 minutes.

This train had a bunch of telephones in front of it, where you could listen
to a recording talking about the history of trains in the area. Owen thought
the 20 phones all lined up was so cool. I had to drag him away several times. 

Can you see my tiny little guy standing by the sign? This train was HUGE.
This is the one where he got to sit in the cab.

Waiting for the conductor to let us on the train. Part of the museum is an
 "excursion train ride". They have a bunch of old cars that you can
ride in. We chose to ride in the first-class cabin. Owen was still a free rider,
and my ticket only cost $5 more for the first class.... and it was totally worth it.
We sat in nice plush seats in an air conditioned car and were served lemonade
and cookies, and we had a private observation deck that we could go out on.
WAY better than the open cars with bench seating (especially during allergy
season, when that wind and heat would have killed me!)

 Waiting for the train ride!

Waiting for the conductor to punch our tickets.

Free cookies and drinks!

At the half way point, they switched the engine from one end of the
 train to our end so we could go the other way. We got to stand
there and watch them hook up. So cool!

The train driver!

Owen thought the horn was too loud. :)

Eating lunch!

The turntable at the museum - we got to see them turn a train around and pull it into the museum!

The dining car!

The Pullman sleeper car. They had the lights turned down and the
windows covered in this one, and made the whole thing rock so it felt
 like you were actually on a train. It kind of freaked Owen out...
 but we still went on it five or six times. :)

Golden Spike! One of them, anyway.

Mini donuts to finish off our day!