Today was the big day. In more ways than one. We went to the California State Railroad Museum on I Street in Sacramento. We managed to get out of the house only a few minutes late and with minimal fuss, and my parents actually weren't ready by the time we got there. Evidently there were people (my neice & nephew, I suppose) zipping around the house shoeless while trying to finish getting ready. As well as Rachel did getting out of the house, she did even better on the drive up. She had a little snack, spent some time playing with some toys, and dozed or spaced out most of the way up. Awesome.
The train museum was a big hit, as expected. Dick was in heaven. Rachel and her cousins were in heaven. I took pictures of the kids, my father took pictures of the kids. Especially of the kids playing with the Thomas the Tank toys in one area. After a while in the museum, we walked over to Fat City for lunch. Then Dawn and Dick went back to the museum with Corwin & Tycho to do some souvenir shopping while my parents and Rachel and I got a free tour of the old Sacramento train station. We think we figured out that one of the locomotives in there was in the museum's round-house when we were here last, which was when I was around 14; at least that's as close as we can figure.
At the restaurant, Rachel, Corwin & Tycho did a lot of drawing. Rachel started showing us something that we didn't know she could do yet. They must be working on it at school: tracing letters. I wrote Ariel for her and then, while I wasn't looking, she traced it. This was a big hit, at least for me; I thought it was really great! I made a point of writing letters nice and big for her, and she was happy as a clam until our lunch came.
We also got to take the 40-minute steam train ride along the Sac River. Rachel had a ball, and didn't even get upset when the engine pulled up not 10 feet behind us and blew it's whistle!
The trip home was interminable; even longer than the original Ladykillers, which I watched with John & Dan last night. When we finally got home, we BBQ'd teriyaki marinated sirloin (about 24hrs) and vinaigrette marinated broccoli (sadly marinated only a few minutes). The beef was fantastic. Dick and I even broke out the digital thermometer fork he gave me for father's day. It seems to work pretty well; I'll have to try it more often and only cut into the meat when the thermometer seems to indicate that it's ready.
When I picked him up at the airport on Thursday, I didn't have the foresight to check the arrival time before leaving or to bring something to read with me, so I actually wound up walking over to terminal 1 where there's a store that's not behind the security checkpoint. Picked up a copy of Bicycling magazine and read some of it. I'm working on reading an article by some New Yorker who decided to ride his bike everywhere for 30 days, no matter the time of day (or night), the weather, the distance, the destination, the attire, etc. Obviously, he lost some weight and got in better shape. I don't think I'm in a position where I can commit to that much biking, but I would like to start riding more. I am going to try to head up Spruce toward Tilden tomorrow sometime. Already have that on the agenda.
And now, since I feel as if I was hit by a train, rather than just having ridden and looked at them, I am going to bed. Good night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment