Our next treat is a local one for Utahns. The Heber Valley Railroad runs a special Christmas ride in December called the North Pole Express—and you can ride for $5 off each ticket (and kids under 3 are free. If you want to skip hearing about our trip, here’s how to get the discount)!
We got to ride the train last night (for free, thank you, HVRR) and we had a great time!
Hayden’s excited
And Rebecca’s willingly smiling!
The interior of the train was decorated for Christmas with garlands, lights and ornaments. It was still a little light when we left, but we still got to enjoy some Christmas lights on houses on the trip.
And the HVRR worked hard to make the trip fun! In addition to Christmas jokes and songs, they provided jingle bells, which I didn’t find nearly as annoying as I thought I would. Then they brought around cookies and (VERY) hot cocoa. I was sharing a seat with Rebecca, and she managed to drop her cookie, her bell, my bell and her cocoa (and that one got in my lap, too 😀 ).
We also had some special visitors: Mrs. Claus came in on the way there, and the conductor came in on the way back. But most importantly, when we reached our destination, we picked up some bearded homeless man Santa Claus! (Who did not at all look homeless, I’m just being a goof.)
Hayden meeting Santa. At my suggestion, he asked for a bike
Rebecca meeting Santa. He’s giving her a wooden top.
The ride is almost 45 minutes each way, plus some time to move the engine from one end of the train to the other. (And you don’t get out while they’re doing this; you’re in the train the whole time.)
I was surprised at 1.) how fun this really was, and 2.) how well it went for my kids (I thought they’d get bored or scared of the train or Santa). I think Rebecca’s favorite part was getting her “sea legs” by walking between our seats.
Sitting right behind us was a person that looked really familiar—in fact, she looked like someone I tweeted with a lot when we were working on NaNoWriMo. So I just asked her—and it was Debbie of Cranberry Fries (She has lots more pictures of the train here, too.)
If you want to go
Get a discount! For $5 off coach tickets on December 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16, call the train directly at 435-654-5601 and ask for the “Utah Blogger” discount. Be prepared to tell the train of the name the blog that referred you—it’s MamaBlogga 😉 .
And if you want more information about the train, the North Pole Express site is here.
