Puffy Billy Steam Engine

 Every tourist to Australia should take a ride on the Puffing Billy Steam Engine. It is not  painted blue but chugging sounds of the steam can easily be put to the words, I think I can. The railroad is located in Belgrave which is about an hour's drive from our house. After buying our tickets we found seats in one of the cars. Several cars have the option of sitting on the edge of the window with your legs hanging over the side but all those seats were taken.

 We traveled from Belgrave to Lakeside which gave us an hour long train ride through the gorgeous Dandenong Ranges National Rain Forest. This bridge crossed over the road and the passengers in the cars below and on the train waved to each other.

 This is the view looking down from the bridge.

 Some of the beautiful scenery we traveled through.

 This was the original coal train that used to transport the coal taken from the coal mine to the towns along the route we traveled.

 This is the parting shot from the stop at Menzie's Creek. Kind of puts me in mind of "Fried Green Tomatoes."

 The 'rents.

 The fam.

 The steam engine with the conductor cooling the engine down with the water from the pipe. You can see the hose going into the engine.

 We had lunch in a picnic area and were treated to have these pretty little birds walking around.

 These are native birds and we have green and red parrots flying around our house all the time. The kids saw a mother duck and her ducklings walking along and fed them some Ritz crackers. They must have been super used to having people around because they ate right out the kids' hands.

 This fella was interested in the crackers as well. One of the kids threw him a cracker, he picked it up and flew up into the tree to enjoy his treat. He held the cracker with one foot and took dainty little bites. It was so fun to see.  Isn't he beautiful?

 Lakeside has a small lake, of course, and we had to try out the paddle bikes. They paddled around the lake for about half and hour.  My parents and I sat in the shade and chatted and took pictures.

 Jacob and Analee cooperated very well to steer and power their bike.  The bike only goes so fast and no matter how furiously these two paddled, it just wouldn't reward them with the speed they wanted.

 Kyle was a trooper to go on the bike with Sam.  It was a hot day and the sun beat down on them the whole time. Those life jackets certainly didn't do anything to keep them cool.

 After the paddle bikes, we took a walk along some of the trails around the area and into the forest. We got ice cream cones at the little cafe and then boarded the train for the hour long ride back to Belgrave.

 This time, the kids made sure to get window seats. We learned on the ride to Lakeside not to put our heads out the window when the engine let off a lot of steam. Tiny particles of coal were blown back and settled on anything exposed.  It wasn't until we got on the train to go back that my mom finally wiped off a black smudge of coal from my eyebrow.

It was  a charming day trip and we were ready to relax once we got home.