Fresno & Hanford Fun

Get ready for a long one...

We went to hotter weather this weekend.  On Friday, we drove to Fresno to see Nat's cousin's.  That night, we had the chance to go and Salsa Dance (I never got out there).  It was neat to watch, but very H O T! (the lighting was bad, so no pics to post)

Then, Saturday morning, we hopped on the train and went to Hanford.  Hanford is where Nat grew up in his elementary years.  They were also holding an Amtrak Employee Appreciation Day, and we couldn't pass it up, and it was nice to see where Nat grew up. 

We basically had a private tour around the town.  When we got to the train station in Hanford, we had a special surprise waiting for us.  Meet Freddie the Fire Truck. 

 

He was nice enough to chauffeur us all over town for 5 hours.

We hit up China Alley

 

Then, we went and ate lunch at a wonderful little Mexican Restaurant. (sorry, no pics of us eating our lunch)

After lunch, we headed over to the town square

The kids standing outside the Bastille

 

the Hanford Theatre

 

on the Courthouse steps, (hitting the shade whenever we could... it was 100 degrees out)

 while waiting for....

 

our private Carousel ride

After the Carousel ride, we were able to go into the old courthouse

Judge M

 

Judge J

Court Reporter

 

First Witness

 

inside, on the courthouse steps

Next Stop was the old Fire Station (Freddie's home).  We had fun looking at Freddie's friends, as well as the fireman's pole

 

 

 

 

Nat

 

Grandpa Stamps

 

Fire Fighter M

 

Fire Fighter C

 

Fire Fighter J

Sweating and needing a cool down, we headed on over to the local ice cream shoppe, Superior Dairy

These pictures don't do justice to the size we were given. Think about ice cream piled up about 6-8 inches above the bowl (yep, that would be their single scoop)  This place was packed (standing room only for the most part)

Once we were done, with the ice cream, we walked across the street to check out the library (and a needed break from the heat.  I have never seen a fish tank in the kids area.  It was neat to see and find all the different fish and crabs.

 

 

 

Our last stop on the tour was a Cupcake shop.  These look to die for (but since we were soooo full from the ice cream, we gave these to Nat's cousin when we made it back to their house.

on the left: Strawberry Pineapple

on the right: Key Lime Pie

Then, we were back on the train to start our long trek home.  We had a wonderful day, and were exhausted and some had extremely sore feet due to blisters that had popped, by the time we arrived home late Saturday night.  I don't think that Nat will let me drive next time (my speed made the van real hungry and we had the idiot light for gas come on when we were about 10 minutes from exiting the freeway).  Hope you enjoyed our family outing as much as we did.