An Hour's Drive

We recently went to two places about an hour's drive from Newton for some family fun.

We did our annual summer trip to the Mendon Drive-In on a recent Saturday night to see Toy Story 3. Marc and I have been going there for many years now, and it's a great evening. For $20/car, you can see two movies, usually a more kid-friendly one first, followed by one for the adults. They start letting in cars at 6:30 on the weekends, but the movie doesn't start until it gets dark. Fortunately, if you arrive early, you can hit their great snack bar for a dinner of junk food (we recommend the jalapeno poppers) and ice cream. Families spill out from their cars and kids run around playing catch and soccer until it's time to use your car's radio to tune in to the movie. We were excited to take our new car there for the first time, and both Max and Hannah surprised us and stayed up until the movie ended at nearly 11.

This past Sunday we traveled to Edaville USA in Carver for the "Day Out with Thomas" event. Max was really excited, and knew that it was the day to ride Thomas as soon as he woke up that morning. We arrived right as the park opened at 9, but I was a bit sad to see that it was a pretty run-down place. The rides were just okay, and while Hannah had a reasonably good time, Max was upset that we didn't get a turn to ride Thomas until our ticketed time at 10:50. We rode the train for about twenty minutes with a Thomas soundtrack accompanying the plywood animals that decorated the path. Then we had lunch and left, getting home by 1 pm. I was a bit surprised by what was a pretty lackluster experience, but it did inspire Max to play with a wooden train set that he'd largely ignored. I'm glad we went, but it definitely didn't live up to my expectations.