Northlandz

This past Saturday, my mom and I took the kids to Northlandz in Flemington, NJ for the day so that Andrew could get some projects done around the house without distraction and so we could get Barney and our Christmas gifts back. My parents had them both at their house while we were in Florida. My dad was sick at home so he didn't join us either, unfortunately.

I had passed Northlandz before and it looked intriguing but I never really gave it much thought until my mom and I were looking for a central location to spend the day. This came to mind since it is just about 1 hour from each of us. And so our plans were made. In retrospect, I actually feel a bit guilty that we went here without Andrew or my dad since this place was more than I had imagined and is really a train lover's dream! I didn't know what to expect and honestly was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Northlandz was a lot of fun!

It is coined as the world's largest model railroad and I would believe it! The 52,000 sq. ft. building is practically covered from floor to ceiling, on four different levels, with model railroad track, landscapes and traincars. The walk through is just about a mile long and there is supposedly 8 miles of train track and over a hundred trains in all different sizes.

This may not be my most exciting blog entry since it's not too heavy on people-pictures, but I wanted to post some photos of the trains since I was seriously impressed. And did the boys enjoy their trip? Well, I'll just say that they both walked the entire 1-mile path and looked at everything without any fussing or complaining that they were bored. They were so excited to see trains pass by and all of the model towns, construction sites, quarries, farms, and waterways that went along with them. I would highly recommend a trip to Northlandz if you have a little boy who loves trains and even girls would likely be very awed by the intricacy of everything, I'd guess. We had a great outing and the boys are still talking about it!

Here are Ben and Nate in the first room, looking through the glass at the very first display. We stayed here for 10 minutes and then saw a sign that we were now 2% finished with the exhibit....so we opted to keep moving along!

Some photos of the scenic train displays. Everything is manmade and so realistic!

Looking down from about 4 stories up!

Pizza Hut!!

A passenger train like the one that Nana takes to work; picking Nana up at the train station is always a highlight of our visit to New Jersey!

Often, you'd see 2, 3, 4 or even 5 trains running at one single lookout point. The boys were so excited when their favorite trains were spotted - Ben liked a long train with probably 40 tanker cars on it and Nate loved one that had 5 train cars, each holding a helicopter.

The bridges were amazing and spanned canyons and waterways all throughout the exhibit.

Ben's favorite location...the trackside construction zone!

Nana and the boys watching an exhibit together. Nana got her workout for the day since Nate was a little short to see everything from the viewing steps they had in most locations. So, he needed to be boosted up everytime we stopped. When he was finished looking he'd say "Come on, Nana...next one, Nana!" and they'd move on - lol!

Lastly, once you finished touring the model railroad, there is a real train ride (with enclosed cars, thank God!) that you can go on outside. It goes for a 15-minute ride through the woods and is a very nice way to end the outing.

Nana and the boys inside of our train car...


And I mustn't forget that Abigail was also with us for the day; she was just so content and peaceful in her stroller all day that it was easy to forget that she was with us! Here she is with her paci and in her winter hat, on the train ride.