strasburg railroad

we've had lots of out of town company lately, and it's been fun taking them to different tourist destinations. when the 3 big kids were little, we would take them to the strasburg railroad (i'm sure ticket prices weren't as high back then, but we had a friend who worked there who kindly gave us tickets so i never noticed...). this day we took karis' friend ashley, but nick wasn't with us since he had spent the night at patrick's.

pete was quietly concerned about the whole thing before we got started.
then when we saw thomas the train engine being repaired, he continuously wondered how he got sick and what they were doing to him (and what happened to his face? it wasn't a painted smile)

karis had the camera and saw this kid. she thought the t-shirt was funny.
(and we'll be homeschooling 4 this year! yay!)

halfway through the train ride, there's a nice, quiet picnic grove that you can get off to have lunch or play on the playground. we always do this, and that's usually a way you can differentiate between locals and tourists. it's not an advertised thing, so tourists rarely know it's an option.