Merry Members' Night Festival of Lights Train Adventure
Last night was "Merry Members' Night" at our zoo & park complex - the one night members get in free to see the Festival of Lights (everything is covered in Christmas lights throughout the park!), drink hot chocolate, have s'mores, & of course ride the train - all for free!
Waiting to board:
(Will was too busy drinking his hot chocolate. :-))
It was a gorgeous night - a festively cool 61° but not freezing for me! - and we were just early enough to be at the front of the pack! JB & the kids got our place in the train line while mom & I got us all hot chocolate. We got on the 2nd ride of the night - WOOHOO!
About five minutes later, adventure ensued...
The wheels of the back car of the train jumped the track just enough to get misaligned, so we were "stranded" in the forest of Christmas lights! JB helped to get the train back on the track, and I killed time with the kids, trying to get their pic in front of a big gingerbread man in the woods where we stopped.
The kicker - he was a *flashing* giant gingerbread man, so I kept snapping pics until I got one with him actually lit up behind them. :-P :-D
JB & the "big, strong men" got it back on the track, but the zoo park sent vans out to bus us all back to the front, so they could check the train & "make sure" it was fine. [It was.] When we got back to the station, all those poor people were *STILL* waiting in line! I felt awful for them...but we went on, roasted marshmallows, and got more hot chocolate. [FWIW, the train did come back & start making runs, again, but the line was sooo long, we would've been on the 10th 20-minute run to see the 2nd half, :-P] so we just enjoyed driving through the rest of the lights on our way out. We had a ball singing the complete 12 Days of Christmas, as that was a light theme, and they had all 12 tableaus. (I loved the turtledoves - two turtles with wings ;-) and we were cracking up over the nine ladies dancing, who looked like a cross b/t hula & bellydancers. :-D) Yay, memories!!!
Waiting to board:
It was a gorgeous night - a festively cool 61° but not freezing for me! - and we were just early enough to be at the front of the pack! JB & the kids got our place in the train line while mom & I got us all hot chocolate. We got on the 2nd ride of the night - WOOHOO!
About five minutes later, adventure ensued...
The wheels of the back car of the train jumped the track just enough to get misaligned, so we were "stranded" in the forest of Christmas lights! JB helped to get the train back on the track, and I killed time with the kids, trying to get their pic in front of a big gingerbread man in the woods where we stopped.
JB & the "big, strong men" got it back on the track, but the zoo park sent vans out to bus us all back to the front, so they could check the train & "make sure" it was fine. [It was.] When we got back to the station, all those poor people were *STILL* waiting in line! I felt awful for them...but we went on, roasted marshmallows, and got more hot chocolate. [FWIW, the train did come back & start making runs, again, but the line was sooo long, we would've been on the 10th 20-minute run to see the 2nd half, :-P] so we just enjoyed driving through the rest of the lights on our way out. We had a ball singing the complete 12 Days of Christmas, as that was a light theme, and they had all 12 tableaus. (I loved the turtledoves - two turtles with wings ;-) and we were cracking up over the nine ladies dancing, who looked like a cross b/t hula & bellydancers. :-D) Yay, memories!!!
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