The weekend after Labor Day (and right before school started) we took the kids to Duluth for the weekend. Ben has often asked to ride on a train again and see Thomas. We couldn't make Thomas happen this year but we thought riding the train on the North Shore might do the trick. We left Friday morning and had a picnic at a park on the way up. After unloading the van we set out to explore Canal Park. We watched the lift bridge go up a few times and watched a few boats come in/out of the harbor. For dinner we sat on a patio right in canal park. We thought with all the walking and skipping naps they should go right to sleep.....not the case. We did get a bigger room with two separate sleeping areas, we put the kids together in one room, Ben in one bed, and the girls together in the other. That didn't last long and one of the girls got moved to a sleeping bag on the floor. They could not settle down and go to sleep. Not fun for mommy and daddy. We kept thinking how cranky they would be in the morning. :(
Saturday morning we took the kids to the aquarium. They liked looking at the fish and there was a diver that was feeding the fish at the bottom of a huge tank. They really liked watching that. The divers would wave and even played rock paper scissors. Allison then started melting down, the effects of the lack of sleep catching up with her so we revised the plan and went back to the hotel so she could nap for awhile and the other two would have some quiet time. After naptime we headed out for our train ride! The train had several different types of cars and we could wander through all the cars so we tried them all out. There were even double decker/two story cars. The kids liked those. The train went north for awhile and then we came back to the station and toured the museum which had some really cool trains the kids loved checking out. They were able to go in a bunch of them.
Saturday evening we had dinner and made smores back at our hotel then got the kids in bed. It went much better the second night but Chris did lay next to Ben and stayed there until they were all asleep. We got going pretty early on Sunday so we could try and be back for naptime. I thought for sure they would fall asleep on the way home, amazingly they didn't.
It took them a couple of days to recover, especially Ben. The following day was orientation day at preschool and about mid-morning Ben hit a wall (figuratively) and he actually laid down on the rug at school while we were in his new class. When we left for home at 11:30ish he fell asleep before we were even out of the parking lot. He then went straight to bed with no lunch (his choice). The girls decided to do the same!
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| Watching a boat come in |
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| At the aquarium overlooking the lift bridge |
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| checking out the fish |
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| Watching the diver feed the fish |
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| Mesmerized |
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| This was a steam engine we saw while we were stopped |
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| They had a outdoor/open air car we rode in on the way back |
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| In the engineer's seat (in the museum) |
