We wanted to do something different today…something that would take up a large chunk of the day and take advantage of the beautiful weather we’ve been having in the Bay Area. Casey suggested we go to Roaring Camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The last time he went was on a field trip as a kid! Cooper and I were totally down to ride a steam engine train!  Here’s what we saw:

There’s a little “town” at the grounds. I loved looking at all of the old- timey fonts on the signs.

Cooper & Casey boarded the train…..

And took their seats!

Cooper was soo excited to be riding a train through the tall redwood forest!

Here’s our tickets.

Here’s Kent the conductor collecting our tickets! Cooper kept looking for him throughout the ride.

Look at that big trunk behind Cooper and I!

I liked watching my boys have fun. They both got excited when the train puffed it’s steam.

Not a bad view, huh?

We stopped for a few minutes at the top of Bear Mountain. I found a few pine cones.

Cooper found two sticks and made a “drum set.”

EVERYTHING turned into drums during our break.

Here’s the train we were on!! STEAM POWERED!

We got to look up close! Then we continued our ride.

And here we are coming to the end of the ride!

We poked around in the gift shop where I tried on a train conductor hat and Cooper played with trains.

Look at how cute all of these candies are!  I loved this display.

Isn’t this sign adorable? I love how it says DEE-licious!

We walked to our car and encountered a field of yellow daisies.

Cooper loved running around there.

He wanted us to chase him.

So we drove a little and ended up at Bonny Doon Vineyard’s Cellar Door Cafe for lunch.

The adults had a glass of wine.

We split fried Brussels Sprouts with goat cheese. Cooper thought they were kale chips & ate a ton.

We had smelts with pickled citrus that had vanilla beans in it.

Cooper snacked on some dried mangoes!

It’s one of his favorites right now.

And we all shared the most amazing pizza! It had cippolini onions, bacon, ricotta & a fried egg on top!

Then we drove home….

And totally crashed. I don’t remember the last time I took an afternoon nap. It felt so good!