Jennifer and I took Thursday off to ride Amtrak with Christopher to San Diego and tour the USS Midway.  He's fascinated by ships (especially aircraft carriers), jets, helicopters, trains and all that sort of thing, so the day was an automatic winner.

We left home early so we could get to Union Station in downtown L.A. in plenty of time for our 8:30 a.m. departure.  After enjoying a muffin, a croissant and a hot chocolate (and my bagel), we found our track and headed off to the train.

Christopher was fascinated by the whole train ride idea.  And he loved it--no seat belts, you can get up and walk around, they had snacks (we had business class tickets) the view was great, etc.  He saw rivers, and cars, and buildings, and trains, and trucks, and roads, and all manner of stuff that kept him interested and excited.

We arrived at Santa Fe station in San Diego shortly before lunch and walked over to the Midway.  I had been there once before with the Paul's Photo group and it was nice to see it again--this time, to watch Christopher have fun.  We climbed into cockpits from various aircraft on the hangar deck level immediately after arriving.

From there we went to the Fantail Cafe for lunch, much to Christopher's chagrin (he just wanted to play) but after a quick lunch (which was better than we thought it would be) we went up to the flight deck where there were all kinds of jets, propeller planes, helicopters and other cool things to see and play in.

We spent four hours on the ship, playing in cockpits, walking through staterooms and compartments below decks, looking at jets and helicopters, playing in cockpits, looking at jets and helicopters, playing in cockpits...well, you get the idea.  For Christopher, it was a magical day and it was huge fun for me just watching him have fun.

We had a rickshaw take us back to the station for the ride back home, during which we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

We arrived at Union Station shortly before 7:00 p.m.;  Duane, Brooklyn and Sue met us there and we walked over to Olvera Street for dinner at La Golondrina, a favorite downtown spot.  Another wonderful family day!

Photos are available for viewing here.