THOMAS THE TRAIN WEEKEND ADVENTURE

A couple of weekends ago Thomas the Train chugged into the station in Ronks, Pennsylvania.  Maybe you are thinking "so what?"  Well, in our household, we have two little boys who love Thomas and so we knew we had to get tickets and make a weekend out of it!  So we packed up and hopped in the car Friday afternoon and drove to Lancaster, Pennsylvania and checked into the Lancaster Marriott at Penn Square in downtown.

We had searched hotels near Ronks, and this one got the highest rating, and since it was in the heart of Lancaster, we figured it would be fun to walk around the town.  What a great idea it was because downtown Lancaster has great restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques, and an awesome ice cream shop and recently opened cupcake shop which made it a perfect place to explore!  Who knew Lancaster has so much to offer?

After checking into the hotel Friday, we walked around and had a great dinner at The Pressroom Restaurant.

We then had dessert at Lancaster Cupcake (which was featured on Cupcake Wars on Food Network, and truly has some delicious cupcakes)

...and even more sweets at Carmen & David's Creamery Inc. (homemade ice cream that was to die for!)  The next morning, our train ride on Thomas was to start at 9:45am, so I got up early and grabbed a cup of coffee at Prince Street Cafe.

Then we drove to Ronks and our Thomas Adventure began.  Seriously, this was a well-oiled machine!  From start to finish, everything about this day was so well planned out.  We rode on Thomas, we rode on Percy, we rode on other old steam engine trains.  We got to meet Sir Topham Hat, and we did tons of other Thomas and train activities all set up near the train station.  The kids had a blast and so did we!

When we finally finished our day at around 4pm, we headed over to to the Red Caboose Restaurant for dinner.  What a cool spot!  The restaurant is set up in an old train caboose overlooking the train tracks that Thomas was riding on.  The food was really good diner food, totally comforting, and such a fun atmosphere!  The Red Caboose is also a motel where you get to sleep in real converted cabooses!  (There was no availability the weekend we went, but after seeing it in person, I was happy we chose the Lancaster Marriott).  After our tummies were full, we headed back to the hotel and swam in the hotel pool, then walked back to Lancaster Cupcake and Carmen & David's Creamery Inc. for some treats before bed.  The next morning we drove to the old charming town of Strasburg to grab donuts at a place I heard great things about called Sugar On Top Donuts.

This place is worth checking out if you are over in this neck of the woods.  They make delicious donuts, and you get to chose your toppings, basically what sugar you want on top...get it?!?  Next we checked out the Amish Village.

We then spent the rest of the day at Dutch Wonderland...a fun, family amusement park that was totally age appropriate for the boys.  We had such a Dutch Wonderful day, and a truly incredible weekend away!