Mallrats

Cody and I are having, perhaps, the best Friday ever. Want to know why? Surveying the play options for a rainy day, we decided to go back to our roots. And we drove out to the Landmark Mall. Why on earth would you go THERE, you say? It's a craptastic mall that should have died long ago. This is true. But malls are Cody's birthright. And you know what it turns out this one DOES have? An indoor kids play area. Yessssssssss.



Instead of crawling through the log, Cody tries to roll it over, and can't understand why it won't move.

The Frog Prince.

Well, CJP was having a great time. I thought I'd never get him to leave. But then, over the smell of greasy McDonald's fries and Sbarro slices, we heard a telltale toot -- a spine-tingling chug-chug -- and around the corner came....


That's right. A train. In the mall. Well, you can only imagine. CJP ran right over and insisted we take a ride.


He chose the blue car. The thing was, he had this incredibly pensive, slightly suspicious look on his face the whole time. I wish I knew what he was thinking.




I was worried he wasn't actually enjoying it, so when we came back to the station 5 minutes later, I lifted him down, turned around to get our bag, and when I turned back, he had climbed into the coal car. Just sat there expectantly. So I handed over another fiver, and off we went. Same serious expression, just taking in every last detail.




It was the greatest. When we finally left, we decided to really make a day of it, and eat in the food court, and then do some people watching. All the while, the train tooted in the distance, and Cody's eyes sparkled.


Suck on THAT, Rockaway Mall.