This blog post will not be like most of the travel blogger posts you will see this summer. There will be no beautiful, jaw dropping scenery or National Geographic top ten bucket list items seen here. Because while some people are out there summering along the Amalfi Coast or backpacking through Europe, we spend our first vacation of the summer at good ‘ol Tweetsie Railroad amusement park in the mountains of North Carolina. Liam has been really into Thomas the Train for the past six months or so. And when we found out Thomas (like, THE actual Thomas) goes on “tour” each summer, I of course had to track him down. And turns out the closest to us was a five hour drive from Charleston to Blowing Rock, NC. So on Friday we packed the car with a enough snacks to feed a small baseball team and headed north to the mountains to meet Thomas! 
Some insiders tips: buy your tickets in advance. We bought ours way back at Christmas time but we heard other people in line wanting to ride on Thomas and there were only a few later in the afternoon spots left. We were also told the “best” spot on the train ride is to sit on the right side of the third train car. So we did just that. And while they were correct, the third train car does have the best view of the cowboys vs indians “show,” Will and I did not find the show entertainng and Liam was too young to care. So we actually would of preferred to have been on the left side of the train with the view out into the park and the mountians instead of the view of the inside of the rail road loop. We found there was a decent food selection for reasonable price but the price for a small water bottle was $3, so pack your own water bottles to save some money!
Our favorite part: there was so much to do that I don’t think I can narrow it down to one thing that Liam liked the best. He has been mentioning the temporary tattoo that he still has and the jump castle, which of course has me thinking, we’ll geez we could of stayed home and done both of those. But I know he enjoyed the entire day. And watching his eyes light up when we got there was the best part. They gave him a little “passport” and he had to find 4 different stamps throughout the day and he clutched onto that passport so tightly for the first hour he was there, eyes lit up, and barely saying a word. It’s moments like these that I remember how lucky I am to get to be his mom and to experience brining joy to his little world. I think Will and I would give him the moon if he asked for it. But luckily Thomas the Tank Engine will do for now. 
Liam was just a little bit weary of Sir Toppemhat. And I don’t blame him. Otherwise Liam faced the day without any fear: riding a chair lift (on daddy’s lap of course), riding three different rides, approaching Thomas to say hello, and getting in the jump castle with the big kids. He is fearless and full of life this boy of mine. Check out the YouTube video I made to see all the sights and sounds of Tweetsie Railroad and then don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you won’t miss any of the many upcoming videos from our summer vacation!
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