A Not Quite Sucessful Railrunner Trip

What could be better than a train trip to Santa Fe on a Saturday? Well, hmm...maybe you can help me figure it out.

The first hitch for rail travel is the very limited schedule on weekends. No lazy Saturday here. We had to set an alarm to make sure we were in Belen for the 8:50 AM train. It arrives two hours and twenty minutes later in Santa Fe. Now the Railrunner is awesome. It's clean and fun, the view from the top deck is great. There's a water fountain with conical cups and nice bathrooms (ask the conductor when you get on, which cars have bathrooms). You are welcome to bring drinks and snacks -- just no shoes on the seats.

But frankly, two and a half hours is just too much for age 6 and 2. They were very excited to be unbuckled and really wanted to run around the train. Making a few trips to the bathroom wasn't sufficient -- laps had to be done. As the train filled up, this had to be curtailed and the kids were uninterested in the books and coloring supplies we had brought.

We arrived in Santa Fe at 11:08 AM, a few blocks from the plaza. After 30 minutes of complaints about sitting down, we skipped the free bus, and walked to the plaza. But frankly, the Santa Fe plaza is not a very kid-friendly. The six year old wanted to shop, which was totally out of the question. Finally we spent $6 at the Five & Dime. It was hot and we had the limited choice of two departures: We could leave at 1:17PM arriving in Belen at 3:45PM, home at 4:30PM, or we could leave at 4:32PM, arrive Belen at 7PM and home at 8PM, really after the two-year old's bedtime.

I keep thinking about what would make this a perfect Saturday outing -- and I think it's just too long a ride. An hour would be about perfect, then ice cream, then return. But an hour takes you to downtown Albuquerque, walkable, but pretty quiet on weekends, and no icecream in sight.

So send me your suggestions -- where did you take the train? Was it great with older children? Did you take the bus to Museum Hill, get out of the tourist trap that is Santa Fe Plaza?