The long overdue update

So I have delayed in posting anything on the blog while we made sure word got around about our new arrival.  At least that is what I am telling myself.  If I say I slacked on keeping this up to date then I will have proven my critics correct.

So here is a long overdue post to keep the critics at bay.

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE AND THE ADVENTURES OF THE CALIFORNIA FIRES

So last Saturday I took the boys to Perris, California (about 60 miles east of just past and a bit south of Riverside) to see Thomas the Tank Engine.  PJ and I have gone the past two years but this was the first time for Conor.

The drive is around a hour and a half to the train museum, The Orange Empire Railway Museum (sounds nicer then it is)

They have all kinds of activities for the kids throughout the area.  Miniature railroad exhibits (funny old guys sitting around "managing" their train sets), all the toy Thomas tracks and trains ever ,made (in one big tent, the greatest "Can we get this?" hands on exhibit ever), bounce houses, old trains, a trolly ride, balloons, tattoos...you get the picture.  

And the highlight, which is why you pay your money to get into this place, is a ride on Thomas.  They hook up every old passenger car they have to a full size Thomas Engine and you go up and back on the track that runs along the property (would be nice if it went in some sort of round trip, instead of the forward for a mile, backwards for a mile trip it takes).  But the boys don't care.

Finally, there is a place in front of the train to take a picture with the happy blue engine while they load up the next round of passengers.

Conor screamed "THOMAS" at the top of his lungs when he saw the big engine.  He was so excited.  PJ & I both got a kick out of his joy for the whole experience.

I had the closing shift at Disneyland this night so we had to hit the road home around noon.  We left our house around 7:30am so we were 3 plus hours there which is just enough to do everything.  So we said "good-bye" to Thomas and headed home on the the happy 91 freeway.

As we were on the big interchange putting us onto the 91 I could see a large plume of smoke in the distance.

Erin had said on the phone that is was smokey and ash was falling on the house.  We had blue skies all morning so it was surprising to hear this news.  As we made our way up the 91 it was becoming clear that this fire was not as far north as I thought it was but actually right in our path.  

We got to Corona (town just west of Riverside and the last area before you go through the canyon to get to Orange county)and the smoke was now directly in front of us as we came to a complete stop on the freeway. 

 As I talked to Erin on the phone and listened to the news channels on the radio I learned that the freeway in front of us was completely closed as the fire had jumped the freeway in Yorba Linda.  Also that another fire had broke out in the Brea Canyon (a north/south passage way into the Orange county area and shut down that pass.  Routes to get the boys home were growing slimmer by the minute.

I jumped off the freeway and backtracked to the 15, which was really the only option.  With some very timely advise from the radio station, I ended up taking a southern route to get home (down the 15 freeway to the 74 which takes you over the hills and dumps you out in San Juan Capistrano -almost half way to San Diego- up the 5 freeway to the 405 to home) .  With the stop and detour it took us a little better then 4 hours to get around the fires and home.

The boys were great and we had a fun adventure together, one that I am not soon to forget.