A Day Out with Thomas & Percy

On Saturday we took Grant to the Day Out with Thomas event at the Transportation Museum. Since we did this last year at Tweetsie Railroad, we thought it might be fun to check it out at a different location. When I went online to get tickets, I saw that you could buy tickets that included a ride with Percy too and as a friend put it...if you're going to drive all that way, you may as well ride Percy too. 

As soon as we got there, Percy was pulling into the station after a ride.

I was so focused on making sure we got there in time for our ride with Thomas...it never occurred to me to check our Percy time. So we got there...saw Percy...took some pictures...and then I found an employee to just find out what we needed to do. She checked our tickets and pointed out that our Percy ride was in 10 minutes!  So we boarded right then. 

So excited :)

It turns out that Percy was pulling the caboose train, which didn't offer much for sight seeing (tiny windows) but Grant really didn't care. He just wanted to ride the train.

At one point along the ride, our guide told us that we would be passing Thomas. Unfortunately we weren't sitting on that side. But the man and his son on the other side of the train offered for us to go over and share their window. He didn't have to ask twice. Grant was over there in two seconds.

I sort of wondered if the man had regretted his offer
because Grant talked their ears off (they were very nice).

The man also pointed out this "911 train" which became
Grant's obsession for the rest of the ride.

Immediately following our Percy ride we had to check in quick to get our wristbands and then head over to the line for our Thomas ride. 

There he is!

And he's pulling all those cars (with some help, of course)

The line moved quick and they were pretty organized. And we somehow got seated in the car right behind Thomas. When we walked into the car Grant said "I can see Thomas' skin!"

Excited to ride with Thomas!

The boy loves a map.

I just love how happy he is :)

So right before the ride starts the guide tells us that we have help Thomas by yelling "All aboard!" So everyone did...and then Thomas blows his whistle...

Grant was excited about hearing Thomas' whistle!

This ride offered better views from bigger windows. They take you back and forth on the tracks in front of the museum.

The roundhouse.

Some other trains out on the tracks.

They told us Percy would be passing us soon.

Hi Percy!

Waving to the people.

He had no desire to wait in line to have his picture
taken with Thomas, this was as close as we got
(behind him is part of line for pictures).

After that, Grant just wanted to check out the museum (convenient, because we did too).

They had a firetruck on display for the kids to check out.

What kid doesn't want to wear a real fireman's helmet?

The Transportation Museum is a really neat place. We had talked about going but this was our first time. So many great buildings filled with great stuff!

One building was just for model trains and all the little things that go with the model trains. There were so many buttons for the kids to push so they could watch all the little models do things! I'm pretty sure Grant pressed every single one.

They had a little Thomas too but I didn't get a
good picture of it.

One building had old cars in it.

The building I was most excited about looked like it was undergoing some repairs so most of it was restricted inside. It was the building that had all the old firetrucks in it (and a plane that Grant could see through the window).

After that, it was on to the roundhouse to check out more trains! So much neat stuff at this place!

From here you can see the turntable that you can ride. Of course,
we had to do that but it was raining so I didn't take pictures.

And we got to see Thomas on one of his last rides of the day.

After that, it was time to start heading back to the car but not before stopping so Grant could run through the hay maze.

I didn't realize how big this place was until we got there. If I had, I would have planned better because we didn't get to see everything. We'll definitely be making plans to go back!

Greensboro Science Center

As I mentioned in my Easter post, on Good Friday we went to the Greensboro Science Center. Husband doesn't get Good Friday off, actually I get quite a few days off that he doesn't. So on those days, I like to plan something fun for Grant & I to do and we usually call it "Grant & Mama Day". When I told Husband where I'd like to go, he got a little jealous. So he took the day off and went with us :)

I've been wanting to visit this place for a while. A friend of mine has been a few time with her grandkids and it sounded like such a neat place. An aquarium, museum, and zoo all in one...how can that not be great?

First up was the aquarium part. With the promise of sharks, Grant couldn't wait.

This is a fishing cat, which I'd never heard of but they had video playing
of it actually diving in the water after fish!

This is where the fishing cat lives (there's another one asleep in there too)

I was pretty pumped about the otters. I love otters! They weren't feeling too active that day so it wasn't as easy to get Grant - who kept trying to find the sharks - excited about them. 

There's an otter in there somewhere, I swear, or I wouldn't have taken the picture.

There is a dome in the middle of the otter habitat and we quickly figured out what it was for.

It's for us to visit the otters!

I was not missing this opportunity! So we waited our turn, crawled through the tunnel, and when I stood up, I was face to face with an otter! Such a fun idea.

The penguins are right next to the otters and they're so fun to watch too. 

This one showed off a little for Grant. Grant walked along the glass
and the penguin swam next to him kind of playing. It was so cute!

I love this picture :)

They have some big fish tanks with some interesting things too.

Why do guys like snakes so much?

I loved their sting ray petting area! I think it has such a fun look to it. I tried convincing Grant to pet one but he just wouldn't, even after I did. He kept telling us it would sting him.

That dock isn't just for show, and employee comes out on the dock
to tell about sting rays and how to pet them.

Sting rays are no match for sharks thought, right? Right. The huge tank with the sharks in it was nearby and there was no stopping Grant.

They're pretty neat to watch. I think Grant could have stayed there all day. Every time one swam by (which happened often and they're quick) he'd say "DID YOU SEE THAT?! A shark just went by!" 

We eventually coaxed him away from the sharks toward the museum area of the place. This is where the dinosaur bones are (and some other things but the dinosaur bones were on the must-see list). I was a little disappointed in the museum part, it definitely wasn't as impressive as the rest of it but Grant still really loved it.

Stegosaurus is one of Grant's favorite dinosaurs!
(I had to crop out a guy that just would not get out of my shot)

They had fossils and footprints and what not too. And two stands set up with paper & crayons so you could make a rubbing of dinosaur pictures. Grant really liked that. The museum part also had some really neat rocks, gems, & crystals on display and some interesting stuff about weather (oddly, Grant is very into the weather).

"Look! I'm like Thor!" Love the hand on the hip.

Pretty sure we'd looked at all the inside stuff, we headed out to the zoo part. I was pretty excited because I knew they have tigers there (which the NC Zoo does not). We hit this place first:

Which had lots of things behind thick glass. Snakes, owls, lizards, bugs, etc.

On our way out, there was an employee standing there with a skunk. "Do you want to pet it?" She asked everyone, she was so excited. Of course Grant had to pet it. I'm getting better about these things.

Having a great day :)

So then we wandered around looking at more animals. It was a warm day and a lot of them were very sleepy but we saw quite a few.

Crocodiles

Tortoises (they were HUGE and so fun to watch)

Daddy & Grant pretending to be tortoises

And TIGERS! There were two and it was just about feeding time
so they were pretty active and SO PRETTY!

 So right after I snapped the above picture, a little girl came over and put her hand to the glass and the tiger was sniffing at it (and maybe licked the glass?). It was amazing to watch. I feel it's important to note that 5 minutes before this we had noticed the sign on the fencing that the tigers will spray (pee) on people and to beware. Thank goodness this was glass because that tiger interacted with that little girl for a few minutes while we all ooo-ed and ahhh-ed and then he turned around, peed on the glass, and went to wait by the door where they're fed.

Wallabies! I was hoping they'd be more active but they're cute anyway.

They have these fun tunnels set up to watch the meerkats.

I took way more pictures than I posted (aren't you glad I restrained myself?). We had such a good time there and it was so fun to explore a new place. The crowd was fairly low that day considering it was a holiday and it was a really enjoyable trip. And while we were there we noticed they're building an adventure course thing up in the trees. We'll definitely be making a trip back when that's done! 

Napping on the way home with his new dinosaur