"My Uncle Scott drives a fire truck!"

The first thing that Brooke announced to her classmates on the first day back from her Christmas vacation in San Diego was "My Uncle Scott gave me a ride in his fire truck!"  My big brother is a Firefighter/Engineer, and graciously took us on a tour of his station.

 I had no idea that fire stations were so fancy, and have a feeling that this fire station is the exception to most.

This place was HUGE considering only 3 or 4 men live there at the same time.  They had an amazing gourmet kitchen with granite and top line appliances, a Man Cave media room with recliners, a full gym,  private bedrooms, and this hilltop VIEW from their enormous deck (with an outdoor kitchen!) overlooking a canyon and the Pacific ocean:

The captain told me that this particular station was a triple wide trailer up until three years ago, so I guess they paid their dues.  Plus, you know, the usual saving the lives of strangers, putting out wildfires, providing medical care to bloody/puking people, entering burning buildings, rescuing cats from trees, and other life risking activities on a daily basis....

The girls were happy to tour the beautiful building, but they're hard to impress until you show them the fireman's pole:

That was fun, but there are more important things to see...

Like the FIRE TRUCKS!

It's an amazingly complicated piece of equipment, and I learned there isn't a single inch that doesn't serve a purpose. It seemed like there were hundreds of compartments, drawers, hoses, buttons, and latches.

Brooke was happy to pretend to drive it:

Uncle Scott was happy to blast them with the sirens:

Maddie hanging off the back of the truck:

Scott got permission to drive us around the parking lot, and the girls were thrilled.

Brooke was very concerned that she couldn't click her seat belt all the way.  She thought that we were really going to go somewhere. I thought I was taking a video of the entire ride around the parking lot, but I must have pushed the button to stop recording during the VERY bumpy ride.  I only got about 4 seconds of it.  Bummer!

Thank you, Scott, for the awesome once in a lifetime experience (for us, anyway!) to take a ride in a fire truck. We loved it, and the girls will never forget it!