Thanks to Curious George and Mighty Machines One Gets Checked Off The Sandbox List

It all started with Curious George and Mighty Machines. I wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal, but according to my four-year old son, it was … it definitely was because Curious George and Mighty Machines rocks.

They may be an everyday occurrence in New York, Chicago, Boston, or San Francisco. No big deal. Just a regular day from point A to point B. But here … in my little part of the Golden State it’s not very common. We’re a car community. That’s how I was raised, on wheels. Either on a car or bus, but always on wheels.

So when my son suggested that he wanted to take a trip on a subway train just like the one that Curious George took to get to the zoo and the one that was featured on an episode of Mighty Machines, I thought we really need to go to the supermarket, but I remembered my goals, self-improvement projects, bucket list and “resolutions” for the 2013 New Year and thought … definitely a Sandbox List Urban Adventure.  I can always go to the market at night, when the kids are asleep and mom is watching a saucy Univision novela. It’s a good Costco sweatpants night. They have a relaxed dress code at VONS.

So that was the plan. And the thing is my son didn’t really care about the destination, he just cared about the ride. The idea of riding a train blew him away. We’ve been on miniature steamer trains, and trains that go around children’s parks, but never a subway train, never the Curious George method of transportation, so you could imagine his cartwheel-jumping-in-the-air excitement when we arrived at the station. But you could also imagine the humdrum-crabby expressions of all the regular riders … ages 30-50. I could tell he looked a little confused, probably wondering why everyone wasn’t as excited as he was, I mean we were on the subway train for crying out loud. These people were going about their I-can’t-believe-this-is-another-crappy-day business and it showed as they rode the train. But I tried to keep the urban adventure positive for my son. I packed plenty of Goldfish crackers.

 

 

The entrance

 

When we got to the ticket counter, he wanted to buy the tickets himself. Pushing buttons is a big thing.

 

Ready to go downstairs and catch the train.

 

Is that our train? Is that our train? Is that our train? Is that our train? … No. It’s not.

 

My son … checking out our destination.

 

My son … loving the ride, eyes wide open, looking at the tunnels as we zoomed by. No need for the Goldfish crackers. My daughter on the other hand … she needed a few extras.

 

We arrived at our destination and rode up the escalators to check out the scene.

 

While walking around town, we ran into Iron Man, my son decided to introduce himself. He never thought he’d see a superhero on our Sandbox List adventure.

 

We decided to match up our footprints and handprints with those of big Hollywood stars. My son thought Jack Nicholson had big feet.

 

After a while … it was back to the trains … back home.

 

But after all that IronMan, Shrek, Walk of Fame, and movie star excitement, the best part of the day was seeing my son super excited about his train coming into the station.