Meeting Thomas the Tank Engine

Ever since Nikolas was two and became a Thomas the Tank Engine fanatic I have been wanting to take him to the Thomas Day Out in Hood River. I have been putting it off each year, though, because the tickets are a bit steep. Now that Nik is five I decided this was the year to do it as his excitement for Thomas is starting to diminish.

This looked like the real deal to me, but apparently I'm an amateur Thomas connoisseur as Nik and Luke both said, "That's not the REAL Thomas."
Say WHAT??!! How could he be any more real?
Oh well, what do they know. They're three and five.

They still enjoyed themselves on the train and Nik was pretty proud of his Jr. Engineer certificate.
Nikolas thought he was pretty cool getting to meet Sir Topham Hat.

While the boys had fun and it wasn't too terribly painful for Tone' and I, I will give a disclaimer to all those thinking of going someday in the future. Here it is: the train was so packed that Tone' didn't even get a seat and if we had been with friends we would not have been able to sit together. The train ride, in my parent opinion, stunk. Half the windows were so full of condensation that we couldn't even see out of them!
You have now been warned.

It was, however, memorable.