When I was a kid, our family used to ride with my friend Erin (Auntie E) and her family every summer on the train to Del Mar for a day-trip to the beach. It was one of the highlights of the summer, and something we always looked forward to doing right before the start of the school year.
Auntie E, Auntie J and I decided to revisit this tradition last Saturday.
Since it was Avery's first time on a real train, she was very excited!
Being three is hard and means you have no patience. So when we had to wait for a few minutes for the train to arrive, the excitement started to wear off....
Until the train roared into the station!
It was a double-decker, and we beelined for the top deck so we could have the best view. Getting to look out the window and play around without wearing a seat belt was quite a novelty for Avery. She enjoyed unlimited snacks and couldn't get enough of the fold-down trays.
In fact, all four of us were having SO much fun snacking and chatting, that we didn't get down to the exit doors in time, and missed our stop in Solana Beach!
The conductor told us that we had to stay on until downtown San Diego, get off, wait, and then reboard and head back up the coast. Sigh. This not only delayed us by almost two hours, it cut our beach time down to only 45 minutes. Oh well, it's an adventure, right?
So we made the best of our downtime in San Diego.... Hanging out on the platform...
Finally around 11:30, we made it to beautiful Solana Beach!
We hardly had time to roll out our towels, but we made the best of it.
Lightning speed sand castle...
Quick fun in the ocean...
...And back to the train!
Still a blast, even with the hiccup... We'll get it right next year!
