Thrifty or Cheap: Trains

Trip:  To the Strasburg Railroad and Choo Choo Barn
         (With a stop for lunch at a local restaurant and park)
Cost: $3.00 TOTAL!
How: You really don't have to go far to have fun trips this summer! we really went right down the road.

The ride on the train was free for me and a guest because (I had a hospitality coupon). Riley was free because he was under 3 years old.  Total for our trip from Strasburg to Paradise (and back) $0.00.  the boys had so much fun! Connor has been waiting to ride the trains since last year.....(we drive through all the time and only stop once a year).

 Our train was the Western Maryland

 Connor was very excited to walk beside the big trains!

 It was a very HOT day! Riley was not liking the picture idea too much by the end... but I still love it

 and now just some fun shots of by boys on the train:

 We stopped for lunch and that is where I "splurged" and got two vanilla cones with sprinkles for the boys....

I packed food and water for myself and the boys but I thought we could make the Hot day feel better with Ice-cream and it worked!... so the total for the ice- cream was $3.00. (also we went to Katie's Kitchen and they have two swing sets you are welcome to play on and we tool full advantage)

Sorry my Choo Choo Barn photo's are really bad.. but basically you see a HUGE model train set that takes up the entire room.... Again myself and a guest got in for free because I had a hospitality coupon and Riley was free because he was under 3 years old. We were the first ones there and the only ones there for most of the time so there was no congestion and we got to go around a bunch of times. (I have been there before when there were more people and trust me it is MUCH better when you are alone)

Total cost of the day was $3.00 but we had a lot of fun! I got some great memories with the boys. A tradition that we will want to repeat year after year.

I feel kinda dorky visiting all of these tourist traps but over all I want to encourage you to think outside the box for fun stuff to do with your kids. I know not everyone had hospitality coupons but staying close to home for a fun day out can be fun too, even going to a park with your kiddo's will make memories that will last. (for BOTH you and the kiddo's).