kahunaburger

I am really ashamed to admit it, but it was the first time we took the Rail Runner two weekends ago. Pia, Oakley and I boarded the 11:20am train to Albuquerque on Sunday. The plan was to visit the zoo and then head back on the 4:44pm train. We had attempted to take the same train a day before, but had used the weekday-schedule and for whatever reason, there’s a ten minute departure time difference between weekdays and weekends, which meant we arrived ten minutes late at the train station.

Our bags were full with snacks and it took only a few minutes before the picnic-table was filled with our lunch. The train ride to Albuquerque was nice and it was good to see the landscape from a different point of view. Pia had been bugged by a wiggling tooth for the longest time already and, of course, it had to come out on the train. Sorry for the bad photo:

Missing tooth

At the train station in ABQ we planned to take the bus to the zoo and while the girls were in the bathroom, I looked at the bus-schedule. To my surprise I had to find out that there was no bus service to the zoo on Sundays. Say what?!?! The one day (other than Saturday) when people have time to go to the zoo, there’s no public transportation?
So, we walked outside and looked for a cab. No cabs. We walked down Central for a while in order to find a cruising taxi and, again, not a single one in sight. 10 mins later we gave up and I called a taxi only to be told that we would have to wait between 5-20 mins. Luckily it was only 5 mins waiting time and we had a really nice driver. We were smart enough to ask the driver to pick us up again at 4:00pm.

The zoo was a success, as always, especially because it was a really hot day and Pia got to get wet at the fountain.

At 4pm we got picked up and 15 mins later we were at the train station. Our train left at 4:44pm and we made sure to sit on the other side of the train. 30 mins into the ride, Pia announced that she would have to use the bathroom. Oakley and her left the seats and looked for the bathroom. Two minutes later they were back and announced that there was no bathroom on the train. That was the 2nd “Say what?!?!” moment of the day. We were 1hr away from Santa Fe and I knew Pia was in trouble. We couldn’t get off at one of the train stops, because there was no later train coming. Poor kid had to cross her legs for the rest of the ride and I was very proud of her when she made.
Back in Santa Fe, we ran over to Border’s and she used the bathroom there – needless to say it was very, very last second …