New Hope Valley Railway

I read about the New Hope Valley Railway in the newspaper many moons ago, and it sounded like a lot of fun for the family.  They only give rides on the second Saturday of every month, though, and it seemed like for months on end we would have something else scheduled on that day.  It was true for this Saturday too (Alice's classmate's birthday party) but since the party coincided with naptime and it was the train's last run for the season, we opted to ride the train.  It turned out to be the perfect way to spend a cool but beautiful fall day in sunny North Carolina.

The train station was about 25 minutes away.  Earlier this week we finally moved Simon out of his infant car seat, so now we have the pleasure of looking behind us and seeing both of our kids.

We arrived early enough to have some time to watch the model trains.

 The train itself was several open-air passenger cars, each with it's own tour guide.

Simon was a bit sleepy and snuggly in the beginning.

The train ride was about 20 minutes long, then it stopped and the steam engine came around and hitched on to the other end to pull us back to the depot.

After we got back to the station, we spent some time looking around at other old trains, and exploring the inside of a caboose.

Then we went back to the area with the model trains and had a picnic lunch, and let the kids wander around.  Simon was so tired by the end that he fell asleep just a couple of minutes after being put back in his carseat.