Day Trip to Cabramatta

Graham loves trains. Perhaps it comes from those comfy naps he had laying in a pram on Taipei MRT when he was a baby. Now, that he lives on Sydney's Northern Beaches it takes a lot more effort to get on a train. Nevertheless, on one of Mum's days off during the school holidays, the two smaller boys and Mum-n-Dad headed off to the wild western suburbs of Sydney, to a place called Cabramatta!

Craig is less enamoured with trains but was happy to be out and about.

The train had plenty of advice and warnings.

And an LED display telling passsengers the name of the next station.

Under normal circumstances it takes almost an hour to go from Chatswood to Cabramatta however trackwork meant the trip was slightly longer. As the suburbs drifted past the window, Craig did his best to smile for the camera

Graham had no trouble smiling. I mean, he was on a train!

Immediately after arriving, it was time to eat. Lunch was Thai food.

It was really good. It made Graham smile almost as much as being on a train.

After lunch, while walking around seeing the sights, they came upon a familiar sign of a chain store from Taiwan. This store sells really good mango shaved ice and the weather was just barely warm enough to make it a good idea.

The boys were pretty happy about the idea of dessert after lunch. That doesn't happen often.

The mango shaved ice came with a scoop of ice-cream! Graham made short work of the ice-cream.

Ice-cream makes him really happy, even happier than being on a train.

The sad thing was that the Taipei version comes with lots of fresh mango. The Sydney version was mostly mango flavoured jelly with just a few pieces of strategically placed real fruit. Of course, the Sydney price is much higher as well making the whole experience a little underwhelming.

Then it was time for the long trip home. They ended up on an all stations train. Graham didn't mind that the trip was slow.

An attempt was made to get a photo of the boys while the train travelled across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A train going in the opposite direction spoiled further photographic efforts.

After an hour-long train ride the boys had plenty of energy. Fortunately, the car was parked not far from Beauchamp Park, a great place for little people to unwind.

This roundabout got a good workout.

And a tiny flying fox was perfect for a boy with plenty of energy to expend before the drive home.