Holiday Road Trip: "The Polar Express"

Sometime in November, friends told us they were going to take the kids on "The Polar Express". Naturally, curiousity got the best of us. We quickly found out (www.thetrain.com) that the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams, Arizona offers a theme ride to the "North Pole" for the entire month of December. The more we checked it out, the more excited we were for our four and six year old children. We made reservations and 3 weeks later, we piled in the truck for the 5 hour drive to Williams, Arizona.

We went from Tucson through Phoenix to Flagstaff. The drive was pleasant other than a bit of construction and the seven or eight roadside cameras we encountered that were looking for speeders. Hopefully, we won't be getting any pictures in the mail. After about an hour, the chorus of "Are we there yet?" had worn us out. We broke out the portable DVD player so the kids could be entertained.

We stopped for lunch and visited with some friends at their new home in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is quite different from Phoenix and Tucson in that it is located at 7000 feet elevation. There is quite a forest of Ponderosa Pines. It was around 40 degrees and there were patches of snow on the ground. It looked like the San Francisco Peaks were just about ready for some skiing (elevation 12,600 feet).

We jumped back in the truck and zoomed down Interstate 40 for about 25 more minutes. Williams, Arizona is a tiny town of less than 5000 people and home to the Polar Express otherwise known as the Grand Canyon Railway the remainder of the year.

The excitement was mounting as we checked into our room at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. We explored the area to find beautiful Christmas trees, lights and horse rides on beautiful Belgiun horses.

At 7:45 we got in line for the train. There must have nearly a thousand people with the same plan as us. Pajamas, hot cocoa, cookies and a train ride to the North Pole!

It was very cold and the wind was biting at us as we boarded. The kids settled in as we went through the "magic tunnel" and the onboard chef read the story of the Polar Expess as we raced northward. Cookies and Hot Cocoa were quite a treat for the little ones. Shortly, we saw lights up ahead and the next thing we knew, Santa was waving at us from his sleigh. We saw the well lit buildings of the North Pole as our train slowed to a stop.

(Cameras don't work well through windows.)

The train reversed direction and we zoomed back toward civilization. When we saw the sleigh, Santa was missing. Where could he be? A few minutes later, he snuck through the door and handed out gifts to all of the children. Our kids were thrilled!

Santa moved through the car quickly and was gone before we knew it. The kids were excited for the rest of the evening. Needless to say, we didn't get to sleep until after midnight. As we pulled out of the parking lot the next morning, snow flurries were starting to come down. What a great finish to a fun holiday road trip!