Day two, we messed up. We turned a vacation into a trip, complete with deadlines and alarm clocks.

Not that these are bad things, or that the outing itself — a trip on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad — was a waste.

There was lots to see, including a quarry that absolutely fascinated the Boy.

Not to mention the simple fact that we were on a train: it’s hard to over-estimate the excitement of a little boy who loves Thomas and Friends almost as much as he loves Bob the Builder, and to combine the two was a moment of sheer perfection.

The views weren’t bad either.

But we decided, in the end, that perhaps it would have been better just to hang around the camp site — to keep it a vacation.