Durrango, Colorado and the Polar Express! 2008

December 2008 
We had heard about the vintage (1923) Durango Narrow Gauge Railroad steam train that transforms into the  Polar Express train for the season and decided to spend a weekend in Durango to check it out.  A surprise would surely be a great way to treat the kids to a fun weekend, so shhhhh was the word on planning this long weekend with our friends The Christensen's.  We arrived at 12:00 noon on friday 12/5 at the kids school to scoop them from their class rooms and hit the road.

Heidi had a great idea to decorate the cars with shoe polish "polar express or bust", wreaths, and ribbons to make the trip even more special for the kids.
Durango is about 250 miles away from the Denver area, so we figured it would take us about 4 hours to get there...wrong...we didn't estimate the mountain roads and switchbacks we would encounter along the way so our journey took closer to 7 hours. But, well worth it!
We luckily found the Jeremiah Johnson cabin we had rented for the weekend in the dark located in the mountains of Durango.  No cell phone reception, no cabin phone...just good ole nature! McKinnon and Mallory enjoying the cabin and just being OUT of the cars.

Steve and Zane relaxing after a long day.

Chandler chopping fire wood for the fire inside the cabin.

We brought all the sleds, goggles, and snow gear known to man...needless to say we were hoping for a little bit more snow in the mountains. No worries though, the kids spent a lot of fun times exploring around the property and just having fun.

On Saturday, after playing around outside all morning, we decided to go into town to give the Trimble Mineral hot springs pools a try. It was a beautiful early afternoon as we submerged into the HOT pools of water. Ahhhhhh.... After several hours and fully pruned skin, we decided it was time to head back to the cabin to prepare for our polar express adventure that evening.

Everyone was excited as they put their PJ's on and we went into town to grab dinner and board the 8 pm train (PJ's are highly recommended attire on the Polar Express).

We boarded the train, found our seats and settled in for a good time. The Polar Express train did a great job replicating the environment from the movie. Each train car had the "chef" type character that brought us all hot chocolate and a chocolate covered graham cracker cookie as our journey began.

McKinnon and Bella enjoying their hot chocolate...


Soon the conductor came around to punch the tickets. He mad great efforts to punch the kids tickets with some type of design and let all the punches land on the kids heads... Very funny.

Soon we reached the north pole and saw Santa and his elves and his workshop outside. After turning around at the North Pole (the train didn't actually turn around we just started somehow moving backwards). Soon we saw Santa coming down the train stopping to visit with the children. As he approached he gave each of the kids a silver bell with a leather strap (just like the movie). The "chef" characters lead us through christmas carols on the way back to the station as some of the kids (Gabby) fell asleep from the rocking motion of the train.

We arrived back at the station and grabbed one last photo in front of the loud and coal spewing engine car. What a magical night on the Polar Express...It even made me believe again! AND I have the silver bell to prove it.

Sunday morning we had a variety of rock throwing contests into the icy pond, played with the dogs (one was a cute three legged dog), went for walks, and then decided to head back home.



We loved our weekend in Beautiful Durango, Colorado and wished for more time there to further explore the area...May be next time.

The Browns and The Christensens in front of the Jeremiah Johnson Cabin.