Trip to Cincinnati: Day Two (EnterTrainment Junction and Newport Aquarium)

The second day, we headed to EnterTrainment Junction. It.was.awesome! We (adults and Lewis) could have spent hours in there, looking at all of the details. They broke up the history of the railroads into three main time periods and included every last detail in the model displays:

:) 

There were some buttons you could push to make the trains go, and in this first room, Lewis would move his step stool over, stand up on it to watch the train go by, and then rush down and over a few feet away to do the same thing--not wanting to miss a second of face-to-face time with the trains as they went by. It was hilarious to watch him move and try to catch up with the trains. 

 Riding a reeeealy slow train ride

This was in the kids' play area--there was also a big, tall structure with tunnels and slides that he spent a little bit of time in.

 He was saying toooot-toot here. :)

 

Watching the cargo being loaded onto the big rigs :)

He stood there for a good five minutes and just watched. There were so many cool scenes throughout the museum--early American settlements, 1950s towns, I think (which was my favorite area), and then modern cities. There was also a full Coney Island amusement park display with working rides that was so cool. It was amazing, the detail and creativity that went into all of it.

They also had a special winter/Christmas train area set up, so we went through that:

:)

At one point, we came upon Mrs. Claus who had just made some chocolate chip cookies, and before we knew it, an elf was taking us to see the big man, himself (which we didn't realize was a part of the tour):

 He willingly sat on Santa's lap, but he seemed most interested in eating the cookie rather than talking to Santa. I think he did get out that he wanted a big green tractor, but he did so very quietly and was ready to continue on his way. :)

Finally, we headed down to Newport for some lunch and to visit the aquarium:

 Turtle in grass!

 

 Petting starfish, sea urchins, etc.

In these next two, we were in a room with a big tank at the front of it (kind of like watching a movie, if the movie was a fish tank with big shark rays in it...). Lewis made himself right at home and went and sat among the other kiddos during the presentation:

 

 :)

 Baby Alligator

 And the big one!

 

 Frog Bog with Gramma

 Fish! Above and below and everywhichwhere!

I love his double finger-pointing--I think he does that when he's excited about something.

 Hey, shark ray!

 

 Looking out below, too

 Petting a shark with Gramma

 Flashback at the penguin tank! 

The top pic is from our trip with the Okrzesiks in 2011. :) Such a little guy he was!

And again, in the little lookout portals. :)

The aquarium doesn't take a super long time to get through and there were a LOT of school kids there. And it's a bit expensive. But otherwise, we had a nice visit--I think Lew's favorite was the big alligator, and Gramma bought him one at the gift shop on the way out: 

 Which he proceeded to use to chomp off half of Papaw's index finger :)

And trimmed some shrubs

 One last stop at Coldstone for some ice cream, and we were on our way home!

It was a fun mid-week trip! It felt like a weekend, so this weekend has felt like an extra bonus--as will Thanksgiving break this week!