Christian is 3 Years Old!!

Christian turned 3 yesterday. For his birthday, we traveled nearly 300 miles to Folkston, GA to visit the "Folkston Funnel". The Folkston Funnel, located 5 miles north of the Florida border and about 35 miles north of Jacksonville, is where all the trains travelling from the midwest through Atlanta and from the east coast through Savannah "funnel through" before before splitting to either the east or west coast of Florida. People come from all over to sit on the platform and watch. The hard core ones, known as "rail fans" come equipped with scanners, tripods, laptops with CSX software, the works! It's a big happening for train watching. We spent 2 hours there on Sunday and saw 7 trains, including an Amtrak train. We spent the night in Jacksonville, and on the way back Monday, spent 2 hours again, but only saw 3 trains due to work on the rail line. Christian really enjoyed himself. The highlight of the trip was meeting up with my parents on the way down at a shop called "The Plantation House" in a little town called Arabi off I-75, about 200 miles from home. My parents were on their way back from Jacksonville from the River Run. We had a nice little get-together. Christian got himself some candy and bongos for his birthday. It was great that we could coincide our travels to meet up. Thank goodness for cell phones! On a side note: Christian used his bongos to help summon the trains on Sunday. After a train had been sitting on the tracks before the crossing for about an hour due to rail work, Christian said he had to get his bongo out of the car so he could make the train go. As soon as he started banging, the train moved! After this train was gone, he said he was going to hit the bongo to make the next train come. Within a minute, another train came! Everyone was impressed, including Christian and the rail fans who were sitting on the platform with us. He tried it again for the 3rd time, but it took about 10 minutes for the next one. Needless to say, Christian thoroughly enjoyed himself. I'm sure it's what he'll want to do for his 4th birthday!