A Look Back at the Orange Empire Railway Museum

Orange Empire Railway Museum

I first posted about the Orange Empire Railway Museum last year, but had to share again. This is a fantastic place and you can visit free of charge! It is a must visit for train lovers, young and old!

I had the opportunity to take my family to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris. Words can’t begin to describe what an amazing place this is for kids and adults alike. It’s an incredible place that will not soon be forgotten by our family. In fact my husband and I are going to plan a date around it just to go out and explore the grounds.

The Orange Empire Railway museum is 88 acres and quite extensive- so make sure to bring great walking shoes, sunscreen, hats, if you want to get customized hats you can find affordable trucker hats on their website here. Always carry water and if you have the really teeny tots a good sturdy stroller.The Museum grounds are quite large and contain numerous buildings, parks and outdoor areas to explore. The grounds are quite large and there’s a lot to see! Our kids just loved running in the open space (although we were a little paranoid with the trains running around). You will have exhausted kids from exploring all day.

The museum is home to the West’s largest collection of railway locomotives, passenger and freight cars, streetcars, interurban electric cars, buildings and other artifacts dating from the 1870’s (they even have old Disneyland ticket booths there!!) Your little trains enthusiasts will have the opportunity to learn all about locomotives, steam engine and my absolute favorite (I’m a Los Angeles history buff) – the old Pacific Electric red cars and Los Angeles Railway yellow cars. We were able to walk around the hangers and see the trains that are in the middle of restorations by the dedicated volunteers. We were also able to explore different railway cars and locomotives which the kids went bonkers over. They loved shouting all aboard and manning the controls. My son was in train heaven!!There was so much to explore and although we spent 3 hours, it really was not enough time.

While admission and parking for the Museum is free, a ticket must be purchased to ride on the Museum Railway. The ticket is good for the entire day, for as many trips as you wish. Your fare goes directly towards meeting Museum operating expenses. On regular weekends, an all-day pass to ride the trains costs $12 for adults, $8 for children 5-11, free for kids under 5.

We could not resist and opted to purchase a day pass and boy was it worth it. We rode two pacific electric cars, two southern pacific trains and a trolley all for about the price of a movie. It was an amazing experience and the kiddos of course were thrilled. I would say that this most definitely is an outing that would take a couple of hours. There is a park/picnic area where you can enjoy lunch under the shade. Pack drinks and a picnic and you will be set!!
There is also a snack shop with food that not only was tasty but quite reasonable. I would also make sure to pack a camera because this is photography heaven!

The museum is open everyday- however most of the exhibits and the railway are closed weekdays. The best day to visit is on the weekends from 9 am to 5pm- although the railway runs from 11am to 5pm Saturday and Sunday.

The museums is located at
2201 South “A” street
Perris, 92570

We had no problems with our directions from mapquest and our navigation system. It led us right to the entrance. You can learn more about the museum here. I hope you can all go out and explore this hidden gem. It is an experience that your family will always remember- I promise!!

Fun at the Tide with Acti-Lift’s screening of Ramona and Beezus

Waiting for the screening

This past Saturday morning, I had the opportunity to host Tide with Acti-Lift’s screening of Ramona and Beezus. The screening was held at the Century 25 Stadium in Orange and it was an absolute blast! Over 200 readers and their families of this blog had the opportunity to watch a fantastic movie and also participate in many fun activities.

Community mural before it was painted


Kiddos adding their own special touch to the mural

Inspired by the film’s message, families were able to get a little messy by adding their creative touch to our gigantic mural. Tide will be donating $2500 to The Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center.The Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center, is an organization, that offers unique programs that combine the arts, academics, and creative therapies to help at-risk youth and children with special needs of limited resources.

The kiddos had a blast being able to paint in their Tide with Acti-Lift tees! Families were also able to capture the day by having their picture taken. Families also received shirts and Tide with Acti-Lift samples to help clean those messy shirts!

We had an incredible time thanks to Tide with Acti-Lift! Make sure to stop by next weekend from 10am to 6pm at the Century 25 Stadium in Orange, to partake in the fun activities!

Fun Friday Eats- Rainforest Cafe

Yay for Fridays! One of our favorite things to do on the weekends is eat out at a family. It’s always fun to take the kids somewhere fun. This week’s installment of Fun Friday Eats comes to us from Katie, from OCMomActivities. She tells us about her recent experience at Rainforest Cafe

One of our family favorite destinations for a dinner is the Rainforest Café. Dinner at the Rainforest Café is guaranteed to be an exciting adventure in to the realistic feeling jungle. Complete with moving Elephants, chest pounding Gorillas, rainstorms (with real falling water) and elaborate salt water tanks, the kids will have a ton of fun just exploring and soaking in all the sights.

Rainforest Café has also recently made some new mouthwatering additions to the menu that I think you’ll enjoy (we certainly did on our last trip!). Don’t forget to top off the night with a Volcano dessert (especially if you have a birthday at your table!). One thing we love is that it doesn’t cost a fortune to feed a family of four there. I highly recommend the lava nacho appetizer… it is super yummy and we get it every time we go

Rainforest Café has locations all over North America so go here to find one near you or your destination. Of course one of our favorites is the one at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, but there are locations in Costa Mesa, San Francisco, Disney World, Mall of America and many other tourist destinations throughout North America.

Rainforest Cafes have kids nights every week where kids eat for $2.99, so check ahead of time which night your Rainforest Café is doing this, most of the locations do this on Wednesday nights.

What’s your favorite Rainforest Café you’ve been to?

More about Katie (aka OCMomActivities):
Katie is a full time working wife and mother of two active boys. When they aren’t riding the roller coasters at Disneyland or exploring the beaches, you can find Katie writing over at her blog OCMomActivities. Find her on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.