If you are fortunate enough to have children whose eyes still sparkle with the magic and wonder of Christmas and Santa Clause, the Polar Express is a must do!! Taking my daughter on this trip is something that we inadvertently managed to turn into a tradition and I am so grateful we did, even if it mean a seriously long drive for me since I didn't book a hotel room on any of our trips. The one we have gone to is with the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad in Bryson City, North Carolina. It's just shy of a four hour drive from the side of town we live on to get there. Yes, this means on the way back, my daughter is sleeping (after the initial sugar high wears off) and I am usually listening to an audiobook. Because this has become a tradition, I pulled pics from two of our three years to share here. No, my daughter didn't change pajamas on the same train ride.

As we boarded the train, we were greeted by the awesome servers dressed in chef's outfits and of course with names that match their character. I would dare to say their bubbly personalities remind me of cast members at Disney World for the most part. They're singing and dancing coming down the aisles just like in the movie. I tried finding video for you, but was unable, so you'll just have to make the trip to experience it yourself. There is a sampling of the magic on their website found here.

We have taken this train ride three times and we have chosen to sit in both crown class and first class. From looking at the checklist, it doesn't appear to be that big of a difference between classes, but having experienced both, I felt that the experience was a bit more enjoyable in first class. Santa seemed to linger a bit longer, the staff seemed a bit more genuine, and yes, you get an upgrade on the treats, as well as a nice ceramic mug. I have kept the upgraded ceramic, as well as the traveler mugs over the years. In first class, you also get to sit at a table instead of a bench seat, so it just depends on your preference and budget. We save on the hotel by driving up and back on the same day, so I didn't mind the splurge.

Having quite the experience with traveling and gluten free planning, I have learned to always try to do as much in advance as possible. When I made our reservation, I put a note that we both are gluten free. The first time I booked it, I called to ask if I needed to do anything extra and was told this is enough so that they make sure to have them on the train. When we boarded the train, I told the servers, just in case there were others who hadn't notified them in advance. In first class, they provide the extra goodies, but most of them are not gluten free and I didn't expect them to be. We gave the treat bags to our neighbors.

If your family also does the elf on the shelf tradition as ours does, one of the twists we added on the last ride was that Buddy loaded himself in a container so that he could experience my daughter visiting Santa and "see her excitement." I can't even tell you how this seemed to up the magical experience in my daughter's face. I wasn't sure if she was still on board with all of the traditions, but let's just say that like her mom, her face registers every emotion and the genuine excitement and enthusiasm were such a reminder of the Christmas magic that melts my heart.

Taking the Polar Express has become one of the traditions I am so grateful I added to our list of fun. The one lesson we learned the hard way was to get there early and take the picture with Santa if you're going to. We tried to do it after the train ride on the last trip and we ran into a fluke of Santa taking the rest of the night off from pictures. This sadly was the last year my daughter was willing to take the picture with Santa, so it was quite heart breaking this year trying to recapture the moment. It's worth putting on the jammies with your kids and making the drive. Let's face it, if you're one of the families that buys matching jammies, this is the perfect opportunity to sport them! And yes, we even left them on when we went to the local restaurant that we love, the Bistro at the Everett Hotel.

Aw yeah, we're about to get our grub on before the long drive back and we know it's absolutely going to hit the spot!

I apologize for the fact that I devoured half of my grilled chicken basil avocado crepe and had put it in the to go box before remembering to capture a picture for you. To tell you how good it is, I remembered this from the year before and called to get our reservations to ensure we could enjoy our meal there on the recent trip. Even my daughter ate some of it and liked it and she is your typical picky kid.

This is also the night we were introduced to Schar bread. Oh my yumminess. For those of you that get frustrated with finding that gluten free bread that stands up to the test, this is it. When it first came out, I told my daughter not to touch it. They clearly made a mistake and brought her a regular grilled cheese. Fortunately, our server also had food intolerance issues and thoroughly understood our concerns. She went to the back and then came back out proclaiming that as she already knew, it was the correct bread. She mentioned that she thought they get a higher quality of the brand as a restaurant, but it's the same bread she eats and oh my goodness, I will proclaim this is hands down the best gluten free grilled cheese ever! Make sure you leave time on your trip to stop in here for an awesome bite. And make sure you leave room for dessert. The gluten free crepe dessert was so amazing that yep, we completely devoured it before any pictures were captured. You'll just have to check this place out for yourself!

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