By design, I am not one for heat.

No, really. I hate summer. HATE.

But this really isn't news, right?

Motherhood opened me a bit more to the "summer experience" but even still, I'm not wild about it. Thankfully, my oldest follows in my footsteps. He'd much prefer autumn or winter (much to the chagrin of his daddy!) and for this, I am thankful beyond reason. But his love for all things Thomas the Tank Engine? This might surpass his slight disdain for subhuman heat. But listen...I love these kids so much, I'm willing to sweat to death in epic heat for a mere smile. I don't necessarily think this deems me as Mother of the Year, but it probably places me at least somewhere in the running, no?

But I digress...

Today, we hauled the family truckster down to Union, IL (and Woodstock, IL--but more on that in a minute). We left the house at 6:57 AM, my friends. Usually at the aforementioned time, I'm pounding a coffee and chillin' with Bear while we wait for the rest of the world to wake up and get moving. Not today, my friends, not today. Today, we motored out of the house as I swore up and down under my breath due to a lack of caffeine and a late night the evening prior. So it goes.

A mere two hours later, and voila! we have arrived: Union, IL. Nice to see you, folks.

In Union, IL, you can find the Illinois Railway Museum. But this weekend (and next?) was no "ordinary" weekend: it was the weekend of Day out with Day out with Thomas. Here's a simple equation for you:

Take 1+ child(ren) with a seriously hardcore love of all things Thomas the Tank Engine
Add a handful of well-intentioned parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents, friends, etc.
Add a touch of heat and maybe...a little too much overhead sun
Throw in a tent the size of a generous football field just loaded with insanely overpriced Thomas merchandise and memorabilia (don't forget those $8.00 apiece Thomas balloons, either)
Add more heat, more sun
Toss in a handful of ridiculously enormous mosquitoes that are at the point of starvation-induced lunacy
Add in a twenty minute shoulder-to-shoulder ride on a poorly ventilated "coach" (or ten) attached to "Thomas"
More heat. More sun. More heat. More sun
Throw in a few double wide jogging strollers, bottled water selling for a zillion bucks a pop, and a few enormously-pregnant-and-miserable-in-this-inferno women
Don't forget the now-hysterical-and-overheated children, screaming bloody murder due to their now-floating-into-space Thomas balloon
Did I mention you should probably add more BLAZING sun and UNGODLY heat?
Take away all sense of sanity, manners, and human decency and sub in a bunch of irritable kids and even more irritable adults who will run you down with a single stroller, a double stroller, a wagon, or a minivan in a hot second if you don't get the fuck out of the way right this fucking second because Tommy lost his second balloon and Mary spilled the last four ounces of that precious nectar of overpriced water down the front of her dress and oh-my-god NO I WILL NOT move my stroller so you can get by so just wait your fucking turn because we are getting on this goddamn train right this instant

There you have it, my friends: a two hour adventure ala Day out with Thomas.

I think this is a fairly reasonable assessment of the situation.

Aside from temperatures that rivaled those of, say, living on the equator, it wasn't too bad. Sure, we spent a cool hundo on a bunch of cleverly inticing Thomas stuff. And yes, the five of us were drenched in and dripping with sweat by the time we stepped off of Thomas. But the kids were able to make Thomas cards, and have their picture taken with Thomas (well, sans Bella since she was snoozin' at that time), get temporary Thomas tattoos (K. and I did, too!), and we did ride Thomas which led to smiles from all the little ones (even Bella!)...so it really wasn't *horrible*. Just a little horrible, maybe. Maybe just *kinda* horrible.

That said, after we survived DowT2010, we met up with two of our favorite people--J. and K. Before I continue, though, I'd like to pause here to compare the towns of Union, IL and Woodstock, IL. Close in location, but not much else.

Union: very small town, very country-ish which is actually a bit charming. Potentially lacking electricity and running water, although I'm certain there are probably some reasonably clean streams nearby. Attracts tons of tourists to the IRM (see above) so the economy of Union is probably...good? I didn't even see a gas station, though, so I'm not sure how anyone gets in or out of Union, but maybe it's in an undisclosed/top secret location.  My thoughts on Union were pretty ambivalent until I saw a sign for mink coats being sold out of someone's house. There are about 9,186 things wrong with this scenario, so I won't even try to elaborate..

Woodstock: Bigger but not ridiculously huge, and pretty much the cutest place ever. Like I-want-to-move-there-tomorrow cute. Great restaurants (well, at least the one we tried today) and an AMAZING downtown area. The houses are all fantastic and unlike most areas that have amazing downtown spots (sans Chicago--that's a different breed right there), the people in Woodstock are both friendly *and* polite. If I had the chance to move again, and if staying in IL was the only option at my disposal? Woodstock fosho. I love it *that* much. And c'mon...it's called "Woodstock".

In short?
Union: No
Woodstock: Yes

Okay, back to the story at hand. Anyway, the five of us met up with J. and K. (to insure anonymity in this blog, I will now refer to J. and K. respectively as The Fireman and The Pirate) for lunch. This was the first time I've had the chance to meet The Pirate and she was more lovely and amazing than words can convey. So yeah, it's safe to say I pretty much adore her beyond measure. The Fireman and K. were all but left in the dust. To be honest, more than once I looked across the table and was almost shocked to find people I know seated across from me. No, really. The Pirate is THAT awesome. And y'all know I'm not one to toss that out without damn good reason. So when I meet someone super fantastic and feel a connection right away, it makes me the happiest ever. I really can't say enough about The Pirate. Seriously, seriously so: lunch was the total highlight of my day.

I don't remember the name of the restaurant but it was awesome. I had a veggie panini sans mayo and mushrooms and it was mighty, mighty tasty indeed. (See?! I could SO live in Woodstock--it's veg friendly!) The poor server was overloaded like the whoa, though--we were probably one of 10+ tables in the establishment, but even still...the kids remained (reasonably) agreeable, the food was tasty, and the company? Fantastic. Post lunch, we took a short walk to Starbucks to obtain some liquid refreshment for our long journey home. (That's right--I was in the elements not once but twice today--someone put this on the calendar!) and once we snagged our beverages, we realized we were running a bit behind schedule so we had to dash. And dash we did. The girls crashed out immediately but Bear braved the whole ride in a state of semi-consciousness. The day went on a bit longer after this (can you tell I'm running out of steam? Apparently I'm switching to the short short version here), but by 8:30, the girls were bathed and asleep, Bear was bathed but not asleep, and I was on my way--thank god--to being bathed as well. I wanted to write more, but it is now almost 11 PM and K. just walked in with ice cream so I am falling helpless to its cool and creamy siren song, followed shortly thereafter by my pillow. More tomorrow, perhaps...

<3