As we have been sharing, our family is enjoying a Staycation this week and yesterday was day #3. We enjoyed visiting some local museums that we haven’t been to in about 3 years. We also took the day at a more relaxed pace as the activity we are going today is the biggest activity of our Staycation and it will be very exhausting. But, we will share what we are doing today with you tomorrow 
Well yesterday, we also enjoyed the company of overnight guests that we visited with yesterday morning. We are part of a Christian Hospitality Network where we all open our homes to overnight stays and meals when others travel through and the same is available for us when we travel – it is a very cool and frugal program! So there was a family passing through that needed a last minute place to stay in our area as they couldn’t quite make it to their destination a few more hours up the road. We love to host others in our home from this network and so of course we let them stay here. The benefit is always finding out connections we have and similarities with others from around the world! We did not know this family personally before, but they are good friends with some of our good friends! Well, in the end, we had a wonderful time of visiting and made new friends! They headed off to visit the sites they wanted to see while heading off to their next destination and we continued our staycation to see what we wanted to see
So here’s what we did yesterday after our visit with this family!
We visited a place called Union Station that has three museums in one, the trains, cars and guns. We spent the most time at the Train Museum. The kids had a lot of fun climbing on old train cars, operating old engines, and watching the extensive model train travel through model states here in the West. It was fun how they laid it out going from California, through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska! Each section was representative of the state and key sights in each state that the model train passed through. It was like a long hallway where you followed this model train through the states. The kids followed this train through those states a few times through. As you can see they are watching with anticipation (bottom middle picture). They also had a temporary exhibit of the original 1869 Golden Spike on loan from Stanford University – it was the real “golden spike” that was the symbol of the West and East Railroads uniting to make trade, commerce and travel nationwide more accessible that was on display inside of it’s home – a very heavy duty safe!
We next visited the car part of the museum where they had cars from as early as 1902. Most of the cars were from the 1920′s and 1930′s. We let the kids “pick their favorite car” to get a picture in front of! We also visited the gun museum where it showed a model of the first gun factory and the firearms used throughout history in different wars and battles!
Afterwards, we were going to take the family out for our nicest dinner out of the staycation. We had initially talked about going to Red Lobster as we had earned a free $25 gift card from Perkstreet (find out more HERE) and our $4 off coupon, which was going to give us $29 of free food (knowing that the tab would probably be at least $40). We haven’t taken the family to Red Lobster in a very long time – a few years at least. So we thought it would be a nice treat. But when mentioning it to the kids, some of them made sour faces. Then they all came up with Buffet! It isn’t the cheapest meal at $40 for our family, but we said – OKAY! Buffet it is! They love to eat all they can of whatever they want, so it was a nice treat and we budgeted for a nice meal for that evening, so it all worked out. Besides, now Alex and I can have a date night with a free $29 to spend at Red Lobster soon 
It was a fun, more relaxing day as we prepare for our big activity the next day…..
Catch Up with our 2012 Staycation with the links below:
- Day #1 – A Special Trip To the Zoo
- Day #2 – Farm Animals, Wild Animals and Swedish Food and Play
- Day #3 - New Friends, Trains, Cars and All You Can Eat
- Day #4 - A Day at The Amusement Park and Smiles on Their Faces
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