Santa train--Georgetown Loop Railroad on Dec. 20th

We tried something new this year!
For years, I've heard about different train rides in Colorado. I looked into the Georgetown Loop Railroad, and they do several services during the Christmas season. It's pretty cool, we've never been to Georgetown before, but it's this little historic mining town along the I-70 corridor, between Idaho Springs and the big tunnels. Many of the buildings i town have historic markers like, "1873" or "c. 1878", stuff like that. For Colorado, it's basically like these buildings have been around since the beginning of time, kind of interesting to go someplace where history is very important to the present day identity of the town.

When we got to the train depot, there was a large portable "pit" that was burning logs for an open air fire. There was also a big charcoal grill where a man was roasting chestnuts in cast iron skillets. Note: the kids didn't even try them, but Cory & I are now fans of roasted chestnuts! Neither of us had ever tried them before. Funny enough, as we were waiting in line at the train station, we ran into another FUMC preschool family from last year (one of Ruby's old classmates). The actual train was warm and cozy, the train ride was about an hour, and we had lots of snacks. A highlight for many kids riding the train was to see Santa--but for our kids, they are not the biggest "live Santa" fans. They love the idea of a man delivering presents, but an old guy that makes you sit on his lap and peppers you with a bunch of questions? Yeah, not to big on that. Quote from Scout: "The only place that I want to see Santa is in jail." So... I was surprised when Ruby did pretty well with the Jolly Ol' Guy. See a bit of that here, and try to listen for the last two seconds where Santa calls Scout a "SIR" Hahahahahaha!

Ruby playing on the logs for the fire

Cory waiting in line for hot chocolate

A view of the train while we waited for it to arrive at the station

Imagine that there are like 2 dozen photos of this taken by little photographers!

A partial photo of the beer menu

Along the way they had lights set up because once it's dark they do a light display

Ahhh! He finally arrived

Hmmm.. Thinking about what she wants for Christmas

After our trip on the train, we took the ol' front-wheel drive sleigh down the hill and stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Denver for a bite to eat. It was so busy, but we managed to wait about 30 minutes and then get seated on the Trolley... SCORE!!!

And after all of that fun, we returned home to Fort Collins and climbed into bed!