"Holiday Express at the UT Gardens is a 4,000-square-foot garden railway display nestled in the beauty of the fall and winter UT Gardens. Featuring garden-scale model trains running through a perfectly proportioned miniature landscape, complete with rivers and waterfalls and decorated for the holiday season, the Holiday Express depicts the railroad history of the East Tennessee area over the period of the 1930s to present day."
The display was under a large tent that had a few heaters in it (thankfully because when we got there at noon, my car was registering only 31F!!!). As soon as we walked in though, I put Carter down and he did a face plant into a real railroad track and some mulch. After a bit of screaming and having a very dirty face cleaned up, Carter LOVED the trains. I don't know if he was trying to say "train" or not, but he was saying something repeatedly as he pointed at the trains going by.
Some pictures of the display ...
Checking out the trains ...
Carter and me ...
Mary Grace and Sarah ...
The UT train ...
There were 4 cars that were mini fish tanks. I say fish in them, but thought they must be fake because they weren't moving. One of the guys setting up the trains later told us that it was so cold that the water and frozen in the tank (but the fish were okay)!
The carnival display (everything was moving in it) ...
Happy boy ...
My FAVORITE picture of the day ...
Mary Grace gave Carter a hug and he hugged her right back. They kept giving each other hugs. Carter would lean into Mary Grace so much that he almost knocked her over a few times!
We had the place to ourselves except for one family that stayed for about 5 minutes. We hung around for about 45 minutes because Mary Grace and Carter seemed to love looking at everything. We probably could have stayed longer, but we were all starting to get pretty cold by then. I'm really glad we went though, and if we get the chance, we'll go back with Brian soon.
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