Day Out with Thomas

Day out with Thomas

Everyone who knows Grady knows he LOVES Thomas the Train! He originally discovered the very old TV shows (circa 1985) with model trains on Netflix and got hooked on them. Now he prefers the shows where "Thomas talks" (the animated ones).

Because of this love of Thomas and trains in general, when we saw that there was a traveling Thomas extravaganza coming to Tweetsie Railroad, we couldn't pass it up. Our only concern was about the noise - Grady is NOT a fan of loud noises.

We arrived at Tweetsie around 1pm so had a couple of hours to explore before our train ride which was scheduled for 3pm. This worked out well, because as expected Grady was a bit nervous around the big train and it's loud noises - it not only had a whistle but also a bell that they rang constantly as it was pulling out of the station area. In the meantime we walked around the park; they have lots of carnival-like games and also some special Thomas related activities including temporary tattoos and coloring areas.Grady chose a "Diesel 10" tattoo... he's kind of a mean and sneaky train, so was an interesting choice.

When it came time for us to get in line for the train ride, Grady was feeling much better and not too nervous. I also got him (me) a blue snow cone so that helped distract him too.We had a nice little train ride around the mountain, and Grady kept saying we were on the island of Sodor and he could hear Thomas' whistle and see the steam. It was super cute!

After the train ride we got our picture taken with Sir Topham Hat, which might have been Grady's favorite part. He even gave him a hi-five. Then we rode the chair lift to the top play area (a first) and checked out the gift shop and rides up there. There is a panning for gold area and Grady found a friend to play in the water with, and then we checked out the petting zoo. It was cute - had mostly goats, but you could feed them and Grady thought that was hilarious.


Grady found a large wall hanging that he loved - it had Percy, Thomas and Rosie on it. He had to hug all 3 of them individually!

We of course hit up the gift shop on our way out, and got Hiro (and his fireboxes), a giant Thomas balloon and a photo memory book. Then we drove to nearby Boone and ate at Mellow Mushroom and spent the night in Banner Elk at Blue Ridge Village. It was a great weekend getaway!