On Wednesday we went on the CLO trip to the Children's Railway. Jack and Charlie were on the trip as well as Cyrus. I was glad that we were there with someone who spoke Armenian because I would have thought the place was closed. We arrived at 11:00, an hour after they supposedly opened. There were some workers loitering around by some of the rides and sitting on benches, but no children in sight. We headed over to start at the train and it took a good ten minutes to find out where to buy tickets and how to actually get someone to run the train. Once that was done, we settled in and waited for the ride. We went about twenty feet and stopped. The driver got out, counted us, and said that he had to talk to a manager because they are supposed to have ten or more on to run the train and we were only nine. Really? I would have paid the extra 75 cents if that's what it took to get going, but permission was granted and we took off.
The ride was okay. It wasn't very scenic and it was a bit bizarre to come to an end and then back up to the station again. I guess you make do with what you have when you are using a former railroad station and track.
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| The stairs down to the train platform. |
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| Fortunately, the ancient train in the background was not the one we were riding on. The boys wanted to explore it, but mean old mom would not let them. |
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| The station might have been beautiful at one time, but now it has fallen into disrepair. |
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| Lights on the ceiling of the train station. |
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| Waiting for the train to start. |
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| Colorful engine next to ours. |
After the train ride, we went over to the other part of the park. The kids chose some rides and we bought tickets. They enjoyed bumper boats, bumper cars, the family coaster, and the elephant ride.
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| Bumper boats are always fun! |
The boys paired up in the bumper cars and were ready to go. The ride attendant was ready to start it up, when a co-worker started to talk with him. Evidently, they decided that Ryan and Justin were too small to go in bumper cars without an adult. Justin was upset that he wasn't one of the "big" kids. Siena was already with Cyrus. The attendant decided that Siena, Nune (Jack and Charlie's nanny), and I could ride in the bumper cars for the cost of one additional ticket, which Nune hurried over to buy while I settled in with Ryan.
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| Before we had to rearrange the bumper car seating. |
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| I just couldn't get a good shot of them on the roller coaster. It was the boys' first time on a roller coaster and they LOVED it. Had to at least put some sort of pic up for it. |
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| Elephant ride! |
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| After the park, KFC with Cyrus and his mom. :) |
We went to KFC for lunch and the boys enjoyed the special treat. It was the first time we ate at a restaurant in Armenia. I know that KFC is not in any way, shape, or form an Armenian restaurant, but it was something that we all enjoyed. I know my boys ate a lot more than they would have in an Armenian restaurant or little café.
On Thursday we had Jack and Charlie over to play. Whenever that happens it is a good day for the boys. On Friday they went over to Jack and Charlie's to play. So excited for the boys to have people they enjoy playing with so much. It's great that we can walk to each other's houses too!
I picked up the boys and got home in time for the movers to bring us our consumables and our other supplemental shipment. That was my project for the rest of that day and I'm still not done with it.
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| Kind of like our own little store. Just a little bit more to put away. |
On Saturday it was hard to tear myself away from my organization, but I had plans to go to the vernasage with Siena. It is high tourist season, so prices are higher than they will be in the Fall. It was nice to get out of the house, look around a bit, and meet a few of Siena's friends. They have a lot of interesting things, but I don't know that they had a lot that I personally want. It might be fun to get a hand carved chess set while we are here and a few other things. After that we had a nice lunch at a little café and headed back home.
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| I thought that some of these were really well done, but I have no idea what I would do with one. |
Internet was horribly, horribly, slow so I haven't been able to get the blog up until now. Guess I should post before it ends up being next week.
