State Fair

So I am way behind on this post. This is from the second weekend in October when we headed up to Dallas to see Kelli and Joe Dan. We had plans to see the Tech football game and enjoy the state fair, and it was even more fun than we had anticipated!

Here we are waiting to get on the DART to travel to the state fair.

Kel, Nathaniel and me.

I love this one - Nathaniel and I watching our very first (live) football game.

And yes, we won!! So fun to hear the band and be in the crowd.

We took Nathaniel to see the goats and other farm animals. Of course, we have no pictures of this. He was really a champ all day. Toward the end of the day we decided to see the train museum exhibit they had at the fair. Not sure who enjoyed it more (ok, probably Will). Now Will is going to type in comments on the trains.

Nathaniel did enjoy the steam whistles as well as a 1943 Baldwin they had idling in the yard and I know he was just as excited as I was to see two of my favorite locomotives!

Nathaniel and I checking out the cab of the Amtrak locomotive. One of the train operators was up there answering questions, some of them correctly :-)

 

Nathaniel enjoyed putting his hands on the side of the loco and feeling the rumble of the diesel at idle.

Here we are in front of an EMD (ElectroMotive Division of GM) DDA440X "Centennial", the most powerful single-unit diesel locomotive type ever built. It is also the longest single-unit diesel locomotive ever built. I had one of these as a kid for my HO model railroad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DD40X

Here we are in front of one of the largest, most powerful steam locomotives built, the 4-8-8-4 Union Pacific "Big Boy". You can see the cab a good ways down in the picture.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Pacific_Big_Boy

This gives you an idea of of the size for one of the 16 "drivers"

Can you tell how much fun they had?

(we were in the cab of a 2-10-0 steam locomotive)

A "guns up" (school sign) in front of the train.

Dinner - at the state fair still!

Me eating a fried 'smore - yes, it was delicious.
Warm gooey chocolate and marshmallow - what's not to like?

Nathaniel loves Kelli and Joe Dan - Kel, sorry I didn't get a picture of the 2 of you this time.

Although, Joe Dan snuck in some extra Nathaniel time and I think both loved it!

Thanks again Kelli and Joe Dan! We had a terrific time! We love you guys!