Sunthing Special

Okay, so it doesn’t take a “day”, more like a couple hours. Having a train-loving daughter, this was our third year attending the Day Out with Thomas at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Tickets for a 35-minute train ride on “Thomas” cost about $20 each, including fees. But there is a bunch of other stuff to do that you could do for free even if you didn’t buy a ticket to ride the train. Like, storytelling, temporary tattoos, inflatables, a maze, a model railroad, magic shows, photo opps in front of Thomas and with Sir Topham Hat, a little playground, Thomas toys to play with.

Personally, I don’t like Thomas. I find him annoying, though I guess it could be worse. My daughter, who always surprised everyone because she was so into Thomas and it’s more of (though not exclusively) a boy thing, actually isn’t into him so much as she is in just trains in general. In fact, her current dream job when she grows up is “train engineer”. Yes, the tickets are a bit pricey. But when you limit the number of people going (in our case, to just two) and skip the food and photos they want you to buy and stuff in the gift shop it helps lessen the economic damage. And it is a special memory we will always have. I especially treasured today since I knew this would most likely be our last time ever doing this. Passages.

TIP: If you go, go as early as possible. Trust me on this.