The Troutdale Rail Depot (an exciting day)

At the very beginning of March I was fed up with the same old, same old. It had been since before Parker was born that I went out with Cohen during the mid-morning to do something he would enjoy, and something different from our regular routine. When we went to the Rail Depot (a very small train station museum) my house was a bit of a mess, and I had many tasks to do to keep up on life, but we just needed to do something different! I'm so glad we did. Housework can wait.... right? With that said, Cohen and I loved the trip to learn about trains, cabooses, and train stops. We got a private (simply because we were the only ones there) tour of the caboose pictured below. Cohen had to run around and check it out and sit in every place available in the whole thing.

This is the caboose from the back to the front.

This is looking upward from the middle of the caboose. There are chairs up there for the workers to observe or signal or something.

We learned that they stopped using cabooses in 1976 because of technology (that's the short answer). This one was built in 1975 and so was hardly used. It still smelled like diesel inside.

I think I didn't realize how big train wheels are.

Cohen was fascinated by this caboose and "old trains." He asked me over and over to tell him everything I knew about cabooses, why they weren't moving anymore, old trains vs. new trains, what cabooses are for, etc. Then guess what movie he wanted to watch when we got home.... Frosty the Snowman. If you recall, Frosty, Karen, and Hocus Pocus take a train to the North Pole. They have to go to the train station to buy tickets (just like the one we visited) and there is a caboose on that train (just like this one.)

I wish I could provide enriching field trips like this for Cohen daily. He loves to learn. I'm so glad we went. I'll be honest though, after making sure we were all ready to go, and yielding all of my cute Cohen's questions I was a little exhausted mentally. We sure had fun!