The California State Railroad Musem

This train inside was just HUGE!

With everything that is going on in our lives, keeping us busy morning, noon and night, Cameron and I decided to take advantage of the 3-day weekend and spend one of those days as a family, away from home.

And given how well our Thomas the Train Ride day went at the end of July, we have since signed up to have a membership at our local train museum - the California State Railroad Museum, to be exact. Living in the State Capital sure has it's perks. The CSRM is located in Old Sacramento. I love visiting Old Town Sacramento in general and now we have another reason to go there. 

London was able to sit in the conductor area for a moment

And with it being Labor Day Weekend, Gold Rush Days was taking place. There were tons of people in period-dress and tons of dirt had been hauled in to recreate Sacramento as it once was. Buggy rides were in full effect, and we walked around a little while we waited for the museum to open at 10 AM.

We didn't spend too much time at the museum since the girls still have a short attention span, but London had fun going into the train cars where she could.

HUGE I tell ya! Look at that - you can barely make out Sydney and I. That's just an engine!

Sydney was wonderful in just being chill, taking it all in, while testing out her sunglasses from her grandpa. She actually did a fantastic job of wearing them. And she looked so cute!

Sydney sporting some shades

After our brief tour of the museum, we headed over to get tickets for the 11 AM train ride. It's a 40-minute ride along the Sacramento River. With our membership, the train ride is always free (except for special events, like the Polar Express in December that we hope to get tickets to). It was a gorgeous day, and we were able to get seating inside the non-1st Class observation car, so we didn't get overly heated either. London had a blast sitting next to the window and waving to people as the train went by.

The tracks are right next to a parkway path so there were people out riding their bikes and it crossed a few roads so we waved to people stopped in their cars, as well. We'll definitely be back and possibly a time or two without the kids as I would love to really explore the museum and learn more about the different trains there.