A Genuine Steam Engine Ride

Our adventure this weekend was to ride a 100 year old steam engine at Roaring Camp Railroad. Chase was mesmerized by the steam engines sounds and the visual impact of the steam spraying and puffing. James said, "I could have thought of lots of things to do today, but I couldn't ever come up with something this wonderful."

That sure made me feel good about coming up with the idea. Especially since the last time I went there was when my children were little and there was an accident on Highway 17, we sat in 100 degree weather for hours, finally took some tiny road off the highway, wandered for what seemed like hours, to finally arrive and eat a horrible meal in a dusty, hot picnic spot, be attacked by insects and MISS the train. I vowed never to come back. Oh well, what's a vow? This time couldn't have been better. It was a beautiful, cool day and the giant sequoias were majestic as we gazed skyward and the train chugged it's way up to the top of Bear Mountain. The sun's rays pierced the leafy heavens that towered hundreds of feet upward.

After the train ride, we walked a nature trail through the redwoods. We hid in the hollows of burned out sequoias and found the tree John C. Fremont camped the night in. Once you crawled through the small hole at the bottom you entered a 15 foot wide and 30 foot high hideout. Cool! We stared at the cross section of a giant trunk that marked when Jesus was born, when the civil war started, and other amazing facts all told in the rings of the tree. With a music cd about lonely peas and crabby crabs to sing to all the way home, it couldn't have been better.