Nate submitted for the Travel Column in the upcoming issue of HAHSA's KidView Magazine...

Train Gardens

By Nate Bero

Every year around Christmas, our family visits train gardens. Train gardens are model railroads built to look like real towns and cities.  Most train gardens have houses, buildings, bridges, mountains, tunnels, roads and trees just like real life.  

Some of our favorite train gardens are at fire stations.  We are lucky because we live very close to a big train garden at the Jarrettsville Fire House.  When we go there, we like to see the different size trains.  There are about five different sizes of trains. 

Usually there is a scavenger hunt game you can play.  You have to find a list of special things in the display.  This year, one of the things we had to find was a pink elephant (we found it on the putt-putt golf course).  Playing the game let’s us have fun while we’re at the train garden and see little things that we never noticed before. 

I know that it takes a lot of work to setup the trains and build the displays.  It also takes a lot of money to buy all of the trains and displays.  I’m very thankful that the people set up and build the displays for us to come and see.  I think that train gardens are very cool and exciting and awesome.  You should go see the awesome train gardens. 

NOTE: To find a nice list of local train gardens, you should check out this website: http://www.kidstreetnews.com/train-gardens.htm

We visited the Train Garden at the Jarrettsville Volunteer Fire Department today.  The display gets better every year.  We stayed for quite awhile... first, we casually viewed all of the various sets - the boys saught out the many buttons to be pushed to make the tracks come alive.

Once around, we found the Scavenger Hunt sheet and began our quest to find each item on the list.  Quinn was the most enthusiastic about the hunt and was able to recall the location of many of the items quickly.

Some of our favorite items included the carnival, baseball field, burning building and the small town decked out for the holidays.

Today was a glorious autumn day.  The sun was shining bright, the air was warm and crisp, the colorful leaves were still clinging to the trees and nature was beckoning.

So, after running some errands, the boys and I went for a hike on the Lost Pond Trail at Gunpowder Falls State Park.

The boys were armed with their Bug Catching Gear, I had our specimen bag and Kent toted our water bottles in his backpack.  The crunchy ground beneath us didn't distract us from finding some beautiful leaves for our collection.  We also found some berries, fungi and moss to collect.

These paper-thin seed pods were hanging off many of the trees at the entrance to the trail.  We opened one to examine the seeds which look just like apple seeds in size, shape and color.  The boys quickly realized that the pods had a pleasant rattle when shaken and soon our collection bag was full of seed pods.

As we approached the river, we watched as the Mallards casually swam by...  it was so serene.  We spied an abandoned bird's nest safely tucked away in a now barren tree top.  And as we made our way along the trail, the boys discovered a rotting trunk with clusters of little golden brown mushrooms.  They made up stories about the tiny, lonely mushroom off to the left side.

The tree hollows were the main attraction of the day though.  We found many of them - big and small.  We examined them to see if any wild animals might have made them into a shelter.  We dug around at the compost that had amassed inside.  We thought that this tree was very cool, in particular  - we liked how the trunk split into four and were enthralled by the hollow that seemed as if it were an opening to an underground cave...

This tree hollow was so big that all three boys were able to climb inside...  (Quinn was convinced that a bear lived there and Kent agreed, claiming that he could smell honey!)

This enticing rock solicited silly antics from the boys...   Quinn struck the Captain's Pose (aka George Washington) and Kent used it as a launch pad...

But, my most favorite picture of the day is this one...  Nate, as always, was busy climbing the trees.  Every large fallen tree became a playground for him as he scaled them with much ease.  Here, he looks down at me with such joy.  He is quickly becoming a young man right in front of me.

While Mom & Dad attended the Shepherding your Child's Heart Conference with Tedd Tripp, Granny & Pops took the boys to Longwood Gardens for the Opening Day of the Indoor Children's Garden.  An early morning departure allowed the Bero Boys to be the very first children to enter the gardens - literally.  Within minutes of entry, Kent's curiousity got the best of him...  as he investigated the inner workings of one particular water fountain, he got a shot in the eye - full force!  Much to the dismay of the curators, immediate action was taken to adequately restrict other children from getting so close to the fountain.  By the days' end, a selection of ferns surrounded the fountain, concealing its colorful design and beauty.

Nonetheless, the boys enjoyed the remainder of the visit.  They took full advantage of the special events of the day and enjoyed the jugglers, bubble show, and various craft activities.  Plus, they visited the Pumpkin Playground, the Garden Railway and the Outdoor Children's Garden then headed back to the Indoor Garden once again before bidding adieu for a nap on the drive home.

We met up with some HAHSA friends at the Maize Quest Fun Park today.  Of course, we did the corn maze along with all of the other fun mazes, but the big hit of the day was the Pedal Karts!

The boys used their God-given strength to power the 4 wheelers around the track... again and again and again!

After our field trip earlier today, there was plenty of daylight left to enjoy so we drove down to Mount Vernon and ended the day at Generous George's Positive Pizza and Pasta Place.  We haven't had the chance to eat at GG's since Kent was 1 yr old - boy, time flies!  We were all looking forward to our Pasta Pies.

Our family membership to the National Aquarium in Baltimore is going to expire at the end of the month so we squeezed in one last visit there today with Aunt Erin and Ellie as our guests.

Our first stop was one of our favorite spots: the Wings in the Water exhibit where all sorts of stingrays, small sharks and a giant sea turtle swim in a large tank together.  Our timing was great today because we were there for feeding time and had the chance to ask the volunteers alot of questions.

We took our time meandering through the Amazon River Forest, the Tropical Rainforest, and the Children's Discovery Corner before it was time for the Dolphin Show.  Our last stop was the Australian Red Rock River Gorge where the grey-headed flying foxes (which are really large bats) were just starting to stir and fly around above us.  (Aunt Erin was freaking out!)

We enjoyed a visit to the Plumpton Park Zoo with some homeschool friends.  After we strolled all around to see the various rescue animals, we enjoyed a picnic lunch together.

Our family always has a nice time at the Twilight Market held at Rockfield Manor in Bel Air on the last Friday of each warm season months.  There's always a band playing, activities for the kids (not to mention lots of open space for running around with friends), and plenty of locally grown products like fruit, vegetables, ice cream, flowers, honey, cheese, herbs, meat, etc.  While Mom is busy volunteering at the beverages booth, Daddy can usually be found making conversation with someone sitting nearby our spot in the grass where we setup our chairs, blanket and picnic basket.  It's a nice community gathering where folks come to relax and unwind.

Aunt Erin took the boys to see Seussical, an abbreviated performance for children presented by
TheatreWorksUSA.

Granny and Pops took the boys to visit the B&O Railroad Museum and the boys got the chance to see all of the engines and cars in the yard.

First, we ventured to the city to partake of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's performance of Rhythm! - part of the Family Concert Series.  It was nice how they combined dance and song to demonstrate the various rhythms found in music.  To make it even more of a treat, we bumped into friends of ours after the show.

We satisfied our big appetites at Applebee's then geared up to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Towson Arena Center.  The show was a blast!

We drove up to York, PA today to meetup with a group of homeschoolers to enjoy a day of snowtubing at AvalanchExpress.  It was a sunny day to hit those hills.  The boys couldn't get back up fast enough - fortunately the crowd was limited to our group for the most part, so they opted for the tow line most of the time.  We can't wait to go back!!

We headed down to D.C. this evening to see STOMP! (the international percussion sensation) at the Warner Theatre.  The show was invigorating and energizing, engaging and funny too!  We had wonderful seats on the mezzanine to allow us a great view of the entire stage.  What a fantastic way to open up everyone's awareness of the rhythm that surrounds us everyday.