Railroad visit

April 15: cometh the day, cometh the tax man for most of you, but not for our kids! It was Al Smith Day, whether you knew it or not!

To be honest, no one in our family knew April 15 could be a day of joy until our good friend John Steinmetz told us about a small railroad just up the coast, owned by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, that ran engines twice a year: New Year's Day and April 15, Al Smith Day.

Yes, just up Highway 1 past Davenport, not too far from the beach where Mommy and Daddy got married, is the Swanton Pacific Railroad!

Apparently Al Smith was a benefactor to Cal Poly and a lover of railroad engines on whose property a small gauge track with engines exists; he bequeathed the property to the University, and on those two special days a year the engines roll and children of all ages flock to our little neck of the woods for a ride.

As readers of this blog know, Momo especially is a big fan of the iron horse. It had been a long week for Mommy, since it was school vacation week; and so I decided to take the kids out for a day's adventure and leave Mommy at home to re-charge the batteries (she actually more or less took the opportunity to clean the house, but assured me it was great fun to do so without distraction).
Momo, Clairey and I had a ball!!!! Began the day with a donut, spent all morning riding trains and playing in the fields, and ended with ice cream. And the cherry on top? I got to provide a guest entry to my wife's blog! What could be better than that?
--Jim (Daddy)