Spring Staycation Part 1

We didn't go out of town for Spring Break which is why I'm calling it our "Staycation." The plans for our staycation on Wed. were pretty straightforward. We were going into Fort Worth to ride a mini train, called the Forest Park Train and then go to the Botanical Gardens which are right across the street. It is important to note that the Fort Worth Zoo is about a mile down the road from our destinations, and Wednesday is half price day. Those details will be important later in the story. We load up and get on the road for our 30 minute drive to the train station at about 10:30 am. As soon as I got on the highway, a traffic jam. I waited it out 15 minutes then decided to bail and take back roads. The 30 minute drive just turned into 45 minutes. We get to within a mile of our destination and this was the view for the next 20 minutes.




After listening to "Are we there yet" and "Can't you drive any faster?" for 20 minutes, I had to take drastic action. You can't make it out in the picture, but there is a No Left Turn sign up ahead. Yep, you guessed it! I maneuvered into the left lane and took an illegal left turn to get out of traffic and get to the train station. Now, the way I figure it, that No Left Turn sign is designed to keep traffic flowing, but traffic wasn't flowing anyway, so I obeyed the spirit of the law, if not the letter of the law (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). The traffic jam was caused by everyone trying to get into half price day at the zoo. Almost all the school districts in the area are on Spring Break this week.



We finally get to the train depot, and the kids board the train.



It was a really cool open air train that goes about 20 miles per hour.





Parts of the track follow the Trinity River. We saw all kinds of interesting things on our train ride. These are turtles sunning themsleves on partially submerged tree branches.

And some water fowl, I don't think they are ducks. They look like some kind of crane.




This is the Fort Worth skyline.








And the beautiful Forest Park. It was a great train ride. The traffic woes were long forgotten by the time we finished the train ride.





Part 2 of our Staycation, the Botanical Gardens, coming soon.......