Talking to Trains

I've been sick for about two weeks since Christmas. I haven't had time for much of anything except coughing, blowing my nose, and laying on the couch. That also means I haven't spent too much quality time with Abby. So, when I started to finally feel better, I declared a Train Day for the two of us and took Abby to the Train Museum.

With no set schedule we wandered the big building, enjoying whatever held Abby's fancy. I bought Abby a little blue train whistle. I followed Abby's lead, letting her dictate the pace and what exhibits we looked at. When we got to the toy room where little ones are free to play with model trains and wooden toy trains, I let Abby play for as long as she liked. I stood off to the side and people-watched.

There were plenty of moms hanging around. Some hovered over their kids, some ignored them. Most socialized with each other while some remained isolated. Some breast fed babies and some snapped photos of their kids at the train tables. I just kinda spaced out for a while (I was still exhausted from being sick).

Then a lightning bolt lit the room. Every head turned to look at the source. No, we didn't look out the window. We looked towards a tall man with a giant camera. It had a 3 foot long telephoto lens, a 1 foot long tower of flash attachments, and there was a 6 foot tall tripod too. As the entire room watched, the man expertly balanced the tripod on his left shoulder, juggled a diaper bag on his right shoulder, and managed another shot of the room at large - instantaneously blinding everyone present. Children screamed.

When our eyesight cleared, everyone frowned at him. Happily ignorant of his effect on the group, the man continued to snap photos of his child. Lightning shot this way and that. In the glare, it took me several attempts to trace the cast light and pinpoint the trajectory to one kid among the playing throng. Finally I narrowed it to one little boy. Expectantly, I waited for him to turn my way so that I could see his face. I mean, come on. If a father was so enraptured by his son's features and form to invest thousands of dollars on expensive camera and gear, you would think his son would be pretty frickin adorable. Right?

Nope. The kid wasn't even cute.

Ah, well.

Abby and I eventually left the Train Museum, right on time for an unexpected treat. We decided to wander aimlessly over by the waterfront to look at the boats along the river. The docks happen to be right alongside the old train tracks. We found a unoccupied space beside the train tracks right when we heard a far off whistle. A train was approaching and we had a front row seat! Abby was so excited she got out her little train whistle to toot right back to the mighty locomotive.



It was a grand day.