Metrolink Holiday Toy Express Train

We are in full holiday mode and that means the Metrolink Holiday Toy Express Train is coming to an area near you. For the 13th consecutive year, Santa’s glittering train will travel from city to city, entertaining families and collecting toys for those in need of some holiday goodwill. The 47-city tour will visit six counties (San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, Orange, San Diego, and Los Angeles) and bring a brightly packaged gift to Metrolink communities—a 450-ton train decorated with holiday displays and 50,000 twinkling lights that delivers a live musical performance, Santa, and community fun.

While Santa’s sleigh is magic, his train can’t run in the rain. In the event of bad weather, please call Metrolink’s customer-service line at (800) 371-LINK (5465) to find out whether your hometown visit will be rescheduled

The remaining stops this year are

Saturday December 12th

• Anaheim 5:15pm
• Orange 6:00pm
• Santa Ana 7:00pm
• Fullerton 8:30pm

Sunday December 13th

• Montalveo 5:00pm
• Oxnard 5:45pm
• Camarillo 7:00pm
• Moorpark 8:30pm

Friday December 18th

• Covina 7:30pm
• El Monte 8:30pm

Saturday December 19th

• Baldwin Park 5:30pm
• Claremont 7:00pm
• Montclair 7:45pm
• Upland 8:30pm

Sunday December 19th

• Lancaster 5:00pm
• Palmdale 6:00pm
• Vincent Grade/Acton 6:45pm
• Via Princessa 8:15pm

For additonal info head here

A Transportation Adventure...

Last week we had the opportunity as a family to learn all about public transportation. Like many of you, I try to teach my kids about different subjects hands on. I wanted them to learn about the various forms of public transportation and decided the best way was to make a day of it and head to downtown Los Angeles to learn all about trains and subways. We took the Metrolink train into Downtown LA. The Metrolink is seriously fun and super cheap on the weekends (25% off). We headed into Union Station and admired the various tunnels and of course all of the trains. We really wanted to ride the subway and decided to take it to Hollywood and Highland. The best part is that you can catch the subway/red line from Union Station. It was pretty simple to maneuver even with a double stroller. There are escalators down to the subway platform and elevators that are perfect to fit in your strollers. The subway runs about every 10 minutes on the weekends. After what seemed to be only 5 minutes of waiting our train came by and we headed on our adventure!! It takes 20 minutes to ride from Downtown's Union Station to the Hollywood and Highland Complex. The kids loved every single minute of the ride and so did we. We reached our destination and proceeded to enjoy a fun afternoon walking around the complex, enjoying the walk of fame and just taking in all of the sights. We spent a couple of hours at the complex and headed back on the subway to Union Station and on home. The kids had a great time and our excursion was pretty inexpensive. A Metrolink ticket will get you a free ride on the subway and children 5 and under are free. I think with dinner and treats we spent less than $30.00 that day. It was an all day adventure that we won't soon forget!! We live in Orange County but if you live elsewhere you could do the blue/gold line and the subway. I know that the Metrolink runs a weekend route from the Antelope Valley Lines and San Bernardino Line. We had a blast and so will you- I promise!! For information about Metrolink and schedules click here and for subway/gold/blue line info click here