Ridin' That Train: Cabin John Miniature Train and Park

At the suggestion of one of our playgroup mommies (seeing that I never looked up from the serious train table at playgroup yesterday), we took a trip up to Cabin John Miniature Train and Park today.  Now, mommy generally refuses to do anything that takes us on I-495 or involves going to Rockville (the suburbia starts to suffocate her quickly and just generally reminds her of being pregnant and going to Buy Buy Baby -- the first time she went when she was pregnant with me she started crying hysterically -- "we can't actually NEED all this *bleepin'* *bleep*, can we?"  oh yes, you do), but word was that this train was worth it.  And it was.

We headed straight to the train when we got there because it looked like rain.  You can actually check the Train's FB page (of course you can) to see how it's operating that day -- and even though it said it was full-steam ahead, the clouds said otherwise.  The apathetic 17-year old conductor "yelled" "All Aboard," (more like, "um, yeah, i guess all aboard or something."  I told him "you are wearing a baseball hat.  you're not a conductor.") and we took a really sweet little ride through the woods.  The "conductor" even tooted the horn a few times.  It was a pretty good ride for $1.75 (2 and under are free -- so only mom had to pay) and we lucked out -- ours was the last ride of the day - it started to drizzle.

After we fed "Porky the Litter Eater" trash from mom's bag (there was A LOT of it in there -- see, dad, that's why mom never cleans out her bag - she KNOWS we'll need all that junk for something), we hit up the playground.  Shaded by lots of trees in the woods (but filled with mosquitos), we found play trains, tractors, a treehouse, and some "pretty serious" slides.  Cam proved herself to be quite the daredevil - launching herself down slides (and was also somehow able to climb right back up them -- between the humidity and her persistence she hauled herself up some doozies), stairs, and whatever else got in her way.  Seeing as there are no real qualifications to be a "conductor," I took it upon myself to conduct the play train and all activity surrounding it.

There were plenty of bathrooms, a pretty dirty but workable water fountain, and tons and tons of picnic tables.  Next time we'll bring our lunch since we barely made it home on the leftover snacks in the bottom of mom's bag.

(Fortunately, since mom was beat after the train and playground, 

my meerkat Robbie was on hand to drive us home)