Taking the Choo-Choo to the City!

Last Saturday we had a big adventure! My brother's girlfriend, Leah, had told us that there was a nice holiday display at PPG Place in downtown Pittsburgh. It had trains. Enough said. We decided that since we were going downtown already, we might as well up the excitement and take the kids on their first train ride! Ok, so it was the commuter trolley, but they think it's cool.

We drove most of the way into the city, parked, and got on the train and rode for less than 5 minutes into the city!! The kids really enjoyed it! Colin kept saying, "Choo choo puffin', Daddy! Choo choo puffin', Daddy!" Gillian, as usual, was quieter, but she was looking all around and checking it all out. She didn't want me to leave my seat to take a picture of her though!

CHOO CHOO PUFFIN' DADDY!


Yes, it was cold.


We got off the train, rode THREE separate elevators to the street level, walked about six (small) blocks, and TA DA!!


The PPG Wintergarten was very nice. Small, so probably only 30 minutes of entertainment for toddlers and probably none for kids over 6. But, when C&G are bigger, we can go ice skating by that lovely tree! They had about four trains set up in loops of tracks with gingerbread houses set up all around them. The gingerbread houses were made by many different community groups, schools, and companies.

Two of the trains:


Bean skeptically checking it all out....really she DID like it. She just needed to warm up.


Brother was more immediately impressed!


Some of our favorite gingerbread houses...
Michael liked the Greek Orthodox Church:


Tackily, I liked the reindeer riding on the incline!


The kids' favorite parts of the trip? Well, Colin was VERY fond of this dinosaur (the dinosaurs are part of some sort of art initiative, I think, that places differently "themed" dinosaurs about the city):

He called it a "dip dino!" as in, ketchup "dip" dinosaur. Pretty funny, right?

Gillian's favorite part was the ice rink. She really, really liked standing next to the rink and watching the people skate around and around. I think next year we will try skating. We're not quite coordinated enough for it this year!

So, after a snack, we bundled back up, walked back 6 blocks, down three elevators, and back onto the train!


Next time, we won't hesitate to take the train the whole way into the city. In fact, we may have discovered a cheap, wintertime weekend-morning time killer!