I love this train!

There is a steam train in Tilden Park in Berkeley. It is a real, live, working steam train – albeit a bit smaller. We took the little Bean to take a ride. Stopped off for some Ethiopian food for lunch – Emma was not the biggest fan, although she ate enough. I loved it!!! I kinda love food in every language though…

Anyway, we ate our fill of chicken tibs and we were off to Tilden. We followed the signs off the 24 just east of the tunnel, headed up the hills, and turned into the steam train area. Wow. A parking lot full of SUV’s and minivans with loads of families…umm…so we are officially “those” people. Whatever, we parked, lathered up Bean in sunblock and we were ready to go.

Bean had other ideas. She decided it was time to take a deuce. Awesome. Nothing more fun than changing a loaded diaper on the road. While cleaning up her little behind, we heard the train blowing its horn – the last time I was that excited was when my copy of Ace of Base’s “Da Capo” cd arrived from Bulgaria – had to buy it bootleg from some guy over ebay because they didn’t release it in the US, but I digress.

I quickly tidied things up with Bean’s tush and we tried again. We walk over to the ticket booth ready to buy our tickets and they only take cash. $2 per adult. Cheryl’s got a dollar bill, I’ve got a dollar bill and a Benny (whole other story about why I have the $100 bill in my wallet at all times) so we are out of luck. We bought one ticket, argued a bit about who would go, and then wifey went and scraped through the glove box and change container in the car. Scraping together nickels and pennies, we got the other $2 – woo-hoo!

Train pulled in, we got on and we were off. It was a nice ride through the surrounding area. The smell of the train, the burning sun (it was well into the 90s) and Bean mimicking the train horn made for a fun ride.

Now, the little monster goes up to the computer, points, says something close to “train,” makes the sign for train, and we have to pull up videos of steam trains for her. Thank you Youtube!!!

Setting the Record Straight

So, I'm in the bathroom shaving the other day. The Bean walks in, points at me, and says, "Dada." She points at herself and says, "Emma." Turns around and walks out. Glad we cleared that up.