The BFG and the Train

Tuesday I scored tickets to the Wednesday performance of The BFG (Big Friendly Giant). I was a bit curious as to how they intended to have a giant on stage, but mostly I was just excited for the excuse for a field trip. So were my children.

Tuesday night I mentioned to K and L that we were going to a play, and after a few questions along the lines of "What's a play?", my personal activities coordinator came up with a great idea. Why don't we take the new train uptown since it stops *right by the library/playhouse*? Sounds great to me!

So Wednesday morning, we got everything organized and made a quick stop by the Target because we had to have school badges for the show. Did you know your kids will be super-dooper excited when you say "Sure, we can use those really cute (and clearance priced) luggage tags as school badges!"? We drove over to the train station, bought our tickets, and sat down in the brand-spanking new light rail train.

For the next 30 minutes (we rode from one end of the route to the other; heck, may as well get our money's worth!), we were treated to views of the city I didn't even know existed. However, it wasn't the warehouses and questionable shops that stuck out like a sore thumb. It was the station names.

We started at South Blvd. Station, boring, but not too weird.

We passed East/West St. Station. You'd think the city could be a bit more creative in this naming streets thing.

Then there was Bland St. Station. I can just hear someone's address.
Mr. and Mrs. Boring
300 Bland St.
Snoozeville, ZZ 00 0 0 0 (zzzzzzz..........)

The one that took the cake, though, was Scaleybark Station. Hello?!? What kind of name for a street is Scaleybark? It sounds like some horrible tree disease and we're so proud of it that we put a train station there! On the train, a lovely female voice announces the upcoming stops, but even she can't improve that one.

In the end, the girls loved the play and they had a very interesting way to handle the giants. Sometimes the humans were puppets, the BFG was a regular-sized person, and the bigger giants were tall costumes. Sometimes the humans were regular size and the BFG was a big foam...puppet...thing. And sometimes they made it easy on themselves and used shadow puppets.

The girls loved the play and even L sat mostly quietly through the whole thing. She did have to jump into my lap when the big giants started talking about the kids they ate. Gross. The play was worth the trip, but I think the train ride would've been enough to excite us all by itself.