Fire Station. Wee-Woo-Wee-Woo!

After some plans didn't work out, I took James and Thomas to Fire Station 1 in St. Paul.  It was a spur of the moment thing, but it worked out nicely.  As soon as we walked into the reception area of the attached fire department headquarters, James was handed a fire helmet, a sticker, and a couple tattoos and the woman behind the desk called over to see if anybody was available for us.  Two minutes later we were standing in one of the main bays of the station.

I wanted to do this with the boys... well truth be told, I also wanted to go for my own curiosity.  Back in elementary school, I got to tour a couple different fire stations and thought it was pretty great.  I can't help but be curious about all that machinery, all those buttons, and all that equipment.  I find it all pretty fascinating what specialized equipment and training is needed to do some jobs and would have loved to climb all over those trucks, open all of the drawers and wander around the station for hours.  I suppose I needed to keep up the appearance of just giving my boys a fun experience though.

The two fire fighters, who were named ummm... Friedrich and Maximilian (?)... were great.  They knew just what to do to give James a good time.  In and out of different trucks and demonstrating things, James was rapt.

I was kind of jealous, really.  I wanted to go in the hazmat truck too.

James is really excited to be in a truck where an angry eagle emits freedom vapor.  What could be better?

Though he was pretty quiet and shy, James listened very attentively the whole time.  When he was told not to touch the floor of the "ambliance", he made sure he didn't.  I suppose it hadn't been bleached yet after the last run or something.

Want to see your heart beat?

He was just as interested in playing with the radio as with the lights and other switches of the ambulance.

Again, I am really grateful that Friedrich and Maximilian took time out of their day to show a little boy around and to answer his dad's questions.  Oh, and the most surprising to me was that they have and still use a fire pole!  I wish I had thought for them to take a picture of me being dumb on the fire pole.  Maybe I'll have to do that the next time we visit a fire station.  There will certainly be a next time.