National Railway Museum and Wonder Lab
When we first arrived in York, we all wanted to establish routines while we were there to find more stability during the fall period. One routine that the girls and I took on was regular visits to the National Railway Museum. In turn, this gave Micheka regular time in York at least weekly to get out, explore, and experience the city at her own pace.
Micheka and I first went to the railway museum in 2017 during our last trip to York. It is quite large, and at the time we were able to experience the train hall (it was set up like an old train station) which had a murder mystery set up, there was a roundhouse, and we enjoyed afternoon tea in a Victorian-era train car. Given this, I was excited for the girls to experience the museum and find a way to turn it into daddy-daughter time for the three of us.
My first trip with the girls to the train museum was fairly typical. We went through (free) admissions and entered the roundhouse. It is very awe-inspiring to see the dozens of historical and mostly steam-engine trains surrounding you. Included in the standard collection is a rare Japanese high-speed train which was super comfortable and futuristic inside, a side section where there is a large model railway (O-scale I believe, for those wondering), and an upper section with a small library featuring books on local train history and other kids’ books as well.
While the girls enjoyed the first visit immensely, it was hard to imagine this becoming a routine to just walk around and stare at trains each week. Unfortunately, the whole museum was under redevelopment through 2025 including the train hall and afternoon tea room, keeping us limited to the roundhouse. Fortunately, the girls noticed the brand-new Wonder Lab (a STEM-based attraction for kids) that just opened in August 2023 – a mere month before we arrived!
We looked through the glass walls at the experiences inside and while we did not have more time to enter the Wonder Lab that day, I told them to think about it and if they still wanted to go, we would buy membership passes. We ultimately decided this would be a good idea and went to Wonder Lab for the first time the following week. We would typically go on weekdays so that the lab was mostly empty and not filled with school-aged children who would crowd out the place during weekends. Did I mention our girls prefer quiet and peaceful?
The first time we went, the girls quickly met another girl their age who was similarly taking a family sabbatical year, worldschooling with her sisters from New Zealand. I quickly latched onto this and befriended the parents, hoping to find a regular playmate for the girls during our time in York. While we did hit it off, unfortunately for us, their time in York was at its end while we were just arriving. Oh well!
The Wonder Lab included fun experiences such as the ball maze, the scarf vacuum tubes, the wind tunnel, the sand table with changing video landscapes, the hydrogen-oxygen rocket, the wind cyclone (for floating paper airplanes), the infrared camera area, an air hockey table, and various STEM experiments performed by staff that generally involved something exploring! While the girls loved many of these, this probably only accounted for about 20% of our time in the museum.
Most importantly, the girls discovered the building room of the museum! They must take after Micheka in this sense, our resident structural engineer. This was one of the key reasons we focused on weekdays to go since the other kids there were mostly mothers or grandparents with their babies and toddlers. I would encourage the girls to play with the young children as they were mostly just curious about their structures, only to get bored and move on after 5-10 minutes.
The girls loved to build houses, obstacle courses, thrones, and whatever else their minds could come up with. Conveniently, there were identical model blocks adjacent to the building room where you could test your structural skills before using the full-sized blocks. And, guess who needed to do the heavy lifting to put their ideas into practice? We also became well-acquainted with some of the staff who liked to come and see our creations.
October also proved to be an interesting month for at least a couple of weeks when the Wonder Lab was inundated by school kids on their mid-term breaks! The girls had to compete more with the other kids and be content with more basic creations than the elaborate structures we were able to make during the quieter times.
Also, October was an important month when the very famous Flying Scotsman visited the roundhouse and greeted us for several visits upon arrival. It felt special, and I realized this once it was eventually gone when Katia noticed the departure and was sad once a more basic diesel engine was swapped in its place. Katia even seems interested in building a model train set when we return to Canada, similar to the one that I started when I was 10 years old.
By the end of our visits there, we had some fun routines including eating our lunches under the stairs of this antique rail bridge they had on-site and building paper boats that the girls would set sail on the river while we walked home. Our last visit there felt very bittersweet as I came to enjoy our weekly tradition to the Wonder Lab including our walks to and from the museum.
