the silverton

For those who would like to sing-a-long with Luke:

[falsetto] The Silverton shoveling coal .... hear the whistle blow ...

She was born one summer like in 18 and 80 and 1
She was a beautiful daughter of the D&RG
and she weighed about a thousand ton
It was 45 miles through the Animus Canyon
so they set her on a narrow gauge
She drank a whole lot of water and she ate a lot of coal
and they called her the Silverton
The Silverton train!

backseat singing & driving

Luke has always been pretty chatty when we drive, offering lots of stories, songs, and commentary. Yesterday was pretty hilarious, and here are two exchanges from our morning drive to/from our day's adventure:

Luke singing to himself ...

It was 45 miles through the Animus Canyon, so they set her on a narrow gauge.
She drank a whole lot of water and she ate a lot of coal, and they called her the Silverton
[falsetto voice] the Silverton train!

Later on, as we were exiting the freeway:

Mama, there's a lot of traffic. I have some advice for you.
My advice is to change lanes.

[I change lanes, and not just because my backseat driver suggested it.]

You see, Mama. My advice was good advice.
There's no traffic in this lane!

riding the rails

One of Luke's favorite things to do is ride the train at the Redwood Valley Railroad. It's a small "scaled" version of an 1800s era narrow gauge railroad, located in Tilden Park in Berkeley. For the past two weeks, on Thursday (my day off work), Luke and I rode the rails together. Here's a one-minute video of our train joy, courtesy of my new toy.

overheard

Luke: I have two electric trains that like being pushed, and three electric trains that don't like being pushed. How many is that?
Mama: Ummm, is that, maybe, 12?
Luke: Nooooo .... Twelve is 10 plus 2. 3 plus 2 is 5!