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Published: November 13th 2006
Just left the station behind!
too bad you cannot hear it whistle :-(Nov 12, 2006
My surprise gift to Ganesh for our 3rd wedding anniversary. He thought it was Alcatraz all the while. He did not find out until we were nearing Scotts valley exit on Hwy 17. There was no reservations necessary. The first train ride was at 11:00 am. There were 2 other rides back to back at 12:30 pm and 2:30 pm. It was raining near home on Saturday. Fortunately for us, the sky cleared up sunday; in fact, it was sunny; still cold, though.
A $6 parking fee gets you into the lot. We reached around 10:00 am. We were the 3rd in line. It was like a different world in there. You enter the place through a small bridge. Cross the bridge and this beautiful pond appears to your right. There were many ducks and another one that I assume something between a duck and a goose. They were all quacking anyways. I even named one of it "Donald". It so reminded me of Walt Disney.
A little further, there was a model of the train's wagon where obviously everyone stops to take pictures, of course. A beautiful yellow and green colour.
The model wagons
Roaring camp railroad Continuing further, there were models of yesterday's salon, school etc. Trimmed landscape made it all look so real. Picnic tables were all so inviting! Not before our train ride, though!
A couple buildings ahead was the General Store where we had to purchase tickets. The place was pretty neat. There were so many kids, you won't believe.
The ticket office as such was closed. Rather, had a board that said " Counter closed. Ticketmaster gone fishing!" Goofy, huh!
We soon heard the train even before we saw it. All that steam & the whistle, of course. We were one among the kids. Lots of childhood memories. One engine pulls 3 open wagons and one closed one. We headed for the middle open one. The train took off with a whistle that echoed all over the place. The train moved and there was a "oh! wow!" from all fellow passengers.
The conductor and drivers wore attires that fit their job. Was it a ride on a Time Machine to the last century?
The redwoods trees have never seemed closer, some places, just scraping the edge of the train. The ride was mesmerizing, but
The model wagon
It doesn't show, but it was cold! I could not help think of all that pollution getting into the redwoods. The driver was explaining about the steam engine to all inquisitive passengers before the train took off from the station.
There was a 10 minute stop at Bear Mountain station. The best part: all passengers got a chance to get into the engine and pose for some bragging shots. Ganesh got a chance to climb up to reinstate his bragging rights. In 10 minutes, the train whistled to call back all the passengers aboard. A Bear Mountain station with the train, some 50 people, 2 drivers, 1 conductor, at the middle of nowhere... The conductor even warned us to get back, lest, we become a good meal for a mountain lion. Too happy to get back on the train!
The return journey was fast as it was mostly downhill. The Conductor continued to enlighten about the redwood forest, the train's history, an old forest fire, how the redwoods still lived.,etc. Quite a lot of information, there!
Well! what started has to end. So, after the final steam cleaning(3 heavy steam releases) we were where we started, only now, we had people
That's the train!
Historic train station, Roaring Camp waving us welcoming home 😊
As planned earlier, picnic at the tables, more importantly, in the sun, made our day.
We still had half a day to go. I initially wanted to take him to the beach, but remembered the right thing just in time. I had heard of this "Giant Bamboo Garden" in Aptos (a couple miles from Santa Cruz) from the recent edition of the Via magazine. This was the largest bamboo nursery in the whole of North America. With all this big talk, we went to check it out. It was probably 5 miles from where we were, but it was pretty amazing! Surprising, so many people knew about it! We took the small trail within the nursery and found all these beautiful bamboo. We also learnt that bamboos grow up to 4 ft in a day! Maximum photosynthesis and a 100x 100 bamboo patch would give construction materials that up to a billion people could live in. Is that right? hmm.
Well! so long a day! Time to get home to the left over of "The Lake House". 😊
So, off we went!
Alcatraz is definitely on my priority list,
My handsome husband!
My first try at portrait shots! but when, how, I don't know.
Let us see.
-travelbuffs
FYI
Where is Santa Cruz? Roaring camp Railroad Giant Bamboo Garden
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non-member comment
yeah.. I dont see the ball in the train top pic. Where exactly is it, and how big? ;-) Nice blog!