My 18th Birthday Trip to Strasburg, Pennsylvania

As part of my 18th birthday, I wanted to go to Strasburg to visit the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and to take a ride on the Strasburg Railroad's excursion train. It took about 2 hours for us to go on this trip from Damascus to Strasburg. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time at the museum because it usually closes at 5:00 PM. So we bought train tickets before entering the museum. We decided to go on this train ride around 5:00 in order to spend enough time at the museum before closing. I must say that I'm very familiar with the Pennsylvania Railroad, which is why I wanted to go there. One thing I do like about this museum is that it not only shows old trains preserved there, but it also shows some history of the Norfolk Southern Railway as a commemoration to its 30th anniversary. In fact, because I'm totally a Norfolk Southern Heritage fanatic, we bought a couple of souvenirs as my birthday presents: a book and a t-shirt.

 

A few minutes before the museum closed, we then boarded the train for a pleasant journey on a short distance and back again in less than one hour. The passing scenery was so beautiful with farms, fields, and even a long line of cabooses that is used as a motel in which the interior of each caboose was upgraded as a motel room. After enjoying this awesome train ride, we checked out some gift shops full of souvenirs and toys (including Thomas & Friends stuff).

 

As we left the museum for dinner, the best place we've ever found for my special birthday dinner was the Hershey Farm Restaurant. All of the meal was magnificently delicious! The restaurant even charged the price of my meal for free, particularly for my birthday, which is an excellent deal! We eventually took our journey home back to Damascus. This trip for 2014 turned out to be one of my best birthday adventures ever in my lifetime!