That was fun

Saturday, January 3, 2026

Dave and Anne invited us on an outing to the Twin Cities Model Train Museum. It was way, way more than I expected. On Saturday afternoon/evenings through February they are hosting “night trains”. The lights are off, letting the lights from the exhibits show the way. The Christmas decorations are still up, including many Christmas trains, which were my favorite. It was much bigger place than I assumed. There were many, many train displays of all different scales. It seemed everyone really liked the Lego area, because there were a LOT of cute things to recognize (from the Macy’s parade to the Avenger’s Tower). We wandered around for a couple hours, taking it all in. There were a piano and guitar players giving us live music, which really added to the afternoon for me.

Dave is a volunteer there, so we got to go behind the scenes and see the stacks and stacks of train stuff and the ultra organized Lego bricks. I really enjoy organization (even if I cannot achieve it), so I found that so cool. A man named Roger was showing us what he was working on (lights for the Shriner cars) and video from when a kid took out a 4-foot Lego guy by trying to climb him. As it falls, you can hear someone call, “Roger!” We said we would call for him if we broke anything. Later, when we got to the Shriner cars, I realized he was standing right next to us. I yelled, “Gary!” He didn’t react at all, but he was talking to another group. And his name is ROGER. Gahhh.

Johanna and her sisters and mom and Adalynn and Jeffrey joined us part way through the afternoon. Everything is better with a little Adalynn to go with it.

When your band is a saxophone, a French horn, a tuba, and three percussionists, that’s the kind of audience you should expect.

We all had dinner together at Portillo’s. The kids’ chicken strips are enormous, in case that interests you. The chocolate shake machine wasn’t working. That was disappointing to a couple of us.

We got up early and went to a 10:15 showing of Marty Supreme, with Timothee Chalamet. I’ve heard lots of words about it – all good. We didn’t like it. Marty is not someone I could like, so I kind of didn’t care what he did and I kind of really disliked him for some of what he did. I bet a lot of people will really like it, but it wasn’t for me (or Keith).

We are so tired, because of getting up by 9am. that we are getting ready for bed at 8:30pm. Work comes in two days – I need to be up by 6am, so I guess this is all working out.