Chelatchie Praire Railroad Mother's Day celebration!

From Mother's Day

On Saturday, May 9th we headed to Yacolt to celebrate Mother's Day on the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. This organization is managed and operated solely by volunteers. It was built back in 1888 to access timber and was still in use until the floods of 1993. Unfortunately,over time, with severe winter weather, lack of maintenance and changes in ownership, the track-bed, rails, and bridges had deteriorated. Then a group of community volunteers came together in 1998 with the goal of restoring the line and building the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad into a functioning historical railroad. Working with the support of Clark County, the track from Moulton Falls to Chelatchie Prairie has been restored, and excursion service resumed on May 26, 2001.
http://www.bycx.com/

Now that you have a little history, I'll fill you in on our day. With only a few minutes to spare (or so we thought, someone else was later than us) we all made it to Yacolt in time to board the train. Upon arrival all moms got roses(a red rose if your mom is living and a white rose if your mom had passed) And of course one for Olivia, because she "needed" one too! Once the whistle blew and the conductor yelled "all aboard" we were off! The conductor even punched each and every ticket as he greeted all the passengers (just like the olden days...) We couldn't have dreamed of a better day! We sat back and soaked up the sunshine in a flat bed car coupled with a gentle breeze... aahhhh :) We passed by baby goats, goslings, llamas, horses, cows and much more. We even went through a dark wet tunnel which scared the wits out of Olivia. She said, "I'm not going through that again...OK OK. OK." I said, we don't have to go through it again until the way home... But, thankfully a stop at Moulton Falls and a ride in the caboose helped her to forget about the scary tunnel. Cohen and Ethan, on the other hand, could have cared less. Cohen was a super trooper. He slept all of 30 minutes the whole day and managed to remain happy the entire time.
When we returned we had a picnic lunch in the park and enjoyed each others company.

What a beautiful day, an amazing train ride, and the perfect Mother's Day celebration!