I took Ben to see Thomas the Tank in Lakeville yesterday. I’ve mentioned before - he’s pretty obsessed with that very useful engine. 

We heard the familiar “Peep Peep!” and then Thomas came down the tracks. Just to witness him seeing Thomas live and in person was beyond cool. The reaction alone was worth the ticket price.  I thought he was going to burst out of his skin with giddiness. 

The trains move right on schedule - there is certainly no confusion and delay. Sir Topham Hatt would be very proud. (you can also get your picture taken with that marmalade loving man).  Included in the admission is a 25 minute trainride (I never knew the Island of Sodor had so many cornfields. Who woulda thunk? ). The conductor comes through in his pinstriped overalls and says hello and all the kids get a little engineer certificate.  As train rides go it’s nothing spectacular - but for a kids first trainride it is. And just knowing that Thomas is the one pulling them makes it even more special. You would think that fact would cause the tots to be a bit unsettled - after watching the shows.  There is typically some sort of catastrophe happening, an avalanche, a bridge going out, a rockslide, a crash into a chocolate factory or one of the engines needing to be pulled of a cliff. But rest assured - none of that happens on this ride.

There are also a multitude of fun things engineered for the toddler set to do. A ball pit, sand boxes, bouncy slides, train tracks and trains to play with, a cool Lego Thomas, tot tats, videos, storytelling, the requisite cheese curds, and photo ops galore. I thought we would be bombarded with Thomas things to buy - but you can choose to go in or avoid the “Thomas store” for the merchandise.  Ben was more excited about the ball pit than the balloons to buy so we were good there.

All and all a grand day out with Thomas. Will we do it again next year? Probably. Unless Lightning McQueen comes to Canterbury or something. We’ll see what next toddler obsession is around the bend.

Have you gone to see Thomas? What did you think?

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 9:32 am and is filed under Things to Do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.