I'm not really certain if he was joking, being sarcastic or really serous, but I can't really argue that is how the trip started - and didn't want to ask for anymore help - so we will start there..........
We Woke Up on Thursday morning. Train was leaving the station at 7:31am so we thought it prudent to get up and going at 5:50am. That gave us 1 and a half hours to get there. We are slowly getting in touch with our challenges (I mean the challenges of organizing and getting places on time with 3 children - yes, we have been practicing at this for 9 years and maybe by the time they all graduate HS we will have it down) and we also know that even though we usually can get out on a trip somewhere within 15/30 minutes of the time we plan - if we were even 15 minutes late for the train they weren't going to give us a courtesy "call" and wait until we got there to start the trip (as much as we would deserve that kind of pampering). So we decided to work really hard at planning ahead. We had breakfast ready to eat - drinks even poured (stop laughing, we were serious about this) - clothes set out - bag already packed - dogs set up for the garage - cat ready - carry on bag prepacked - iPod's prepped - books packed - ALL READY!! We even had 3 alarms set (seriously stop laughing).
This is where you think I say "and still we got up late" - nope - we were up at 5:40am. Showered and dressed (well, Spidey & TheKing were simply dressed) by 6:30am. BigGuy even had time to do some forgotten work and we were out by 6:45am. Starbucks quickie by 6:50am. No one had wanted to waste time eating so we just brought the donuts and granola bars with us for later. Train station by 7am. I expected it to be a dessert town, but it was BOOMING with people. All over. And that is when it hit - Spidey got scared. He was cool about it all until he saw the crowd. He wasn't frightened of the train ride - he was terrified we would walk away and he would get lost (like last summer at the RenFaire). For a few days we had talked about it. The night before he intentionally picked a shirt that would stand out in a crowd. We made a plan for if we got separated. I even wrote down both BigGuy and my cell phone numbers for him, with our names and stuck them in his pocket (SuperStar & TheKing too). However, as soon as we hit the station he was glued to one of us.
Could be worse things right? Yeah, I know what they are - because "there goes TheKing". Scared of a crowd? Nope. Runs into a crowd so you can't see him anymore? Yep. So you have this big 7 yr old hanging on you and you are trying (and I stress the word trying) to hang onto the 3 yr old, the suitcase, the carry on bag, the camera and the donuts. Where was BigGuy? He was getting our parking pass. When he came back and saw the ruckus (because EVERYONE there was watching as TheKing squealed to be let go) he took the boys for the walk back to the car to leave the tag. People smiled politely at me as they walked away - and even though I am not telepathic I could hear what was being said in their minds, "Damn glad I'm not traveling with that kid."
I am sure it does not need to be said - they sat NO WHERE NEAR US. Since we were one of the first on the train they had the option - they smiled, looked around at the empty seats near us and kept on walkin'. Can't say that I blame them as I was considering doing the same thing. We settled into seats that were across the isle from one another. Tag team the kids was the plan. Fortunately we ended up being surrounded by other families with little kids. The polite little blonds in front of us - and then a little boy who shared crayons and books with Dawson - we had Thomas books and he had Sesame coloring books. Nice trade.
Wondering how long the train ride was? 2 hours and maybe 20 minutes. At first the kids were all about the movement of the train. And then well into 1 minute after the train started they wanted to eat - so we broke out the donuts and stuff. Then, 1 minute after that they were ready to explore and there was an announcement that the snack car was "Now Open and located at the back of the train". We reminded the kiddo's that they had JUST eaten. So they sat nicely - for about 1 more minute - and started to whine to get a snack - they were "starving" - we pointed to the donuts - those were too "sugary" - we looked at them in that way that conveys they should know by now that we aren't that stupid - so they changed their tactic - they were "thirsty" - we had no real argument because we had forgotten the sippies with milk.......................still we held strong. We told them to wait at least 30 minutes - gave them their iPods and books and said if they read nicely and quietly we would get them a drink. They agreed.
1 minute later they were whining again. 2 minutes later BigGuy caved because he has a lower tolerance then me. As he, SuperStar and Spidey began to leave I chimed in that TheKing would really like to go too. He shot me a look that conveyed to me that I should know by now that he isn't that stupid. So I changed my tactic and decided to wait until later to ask for a favor.
Once everyone was back and settled - they read. Then 1 minute later they switched seats. Then 1 minute later they started listening to music. Then 1 minute later they were hungry again. Then 1 minute later they wanted to explore the train - we vetoed that. Then 1 minute later Spidey figured out how to go over the Veto and claimed "I have to pee." BigGuy took him to the bathroom. Then 1 minute later SuperStar had to go. I took her to the bathroom. Kid you not - Spidey had to go 1 minute later. Eventually we started to let them go on their own. The bathroom was in our car so there wasn't any real problem with that. Only...........TheKing started to catch on that he was the ONLY ONE in the family who wasn't CRUISIN' the train............and he started to work his angle to get free. And the noise began. That is when we got to know the little guy behind us - we ran through the book reading pretty quick and he was antsy to move around - she gave us some crayons and a coloring book - that kept him occupied for 4 minutes - and he was ready to move - so we encouraged him to lend books to the little boy - that kept him occupied for another 2 minutes - then I walked the train with him. People smiled as we walked by...........well, I walked, TheKing kinda lurch ran down the isle with this look of hysterical happiness that really should have been appealing to others because he truly was happy, but it simply made them clutch their things (spillables especially) and raise their eyebrows - and my telepathy kicked back in - they were all very happy they were not traveling with us. Again ......can't blame 'em.
After a few trips I was done - he was forced to sit - the noise began again - so we started playing games - and then there it was..........the Chicago skyline. That started a game of "can you see it". BigGuy was next to the window so I got kinda left out. Yeah, you feel how upset I was about that right? I sat on the other side of the aisle with Spidey so SuperStar could play too. Spidey and I were looking out the window -
"Are we really in Chicago?" he asked. We were looking out over what appeared to be the China Town section of the city. The train was slowing so I knew were were almost there.
"Yep. This is the outer part of the city." I responded trying to gauge his excitement.
Quickly my gauge was set because he said, "What a dump. This is where you want us to have fun?"
I looked out the window - graffiti all over, trash everywhere, looked kinda yucky - so instead of lying I agreed, "Yeah, it does kinda look dumpy. Maybe that is because we are near the train tracks and the rest of the city is really nice."
He sat back and looked at his fingers, head down, and said, "Hope so." And everything went dark as we pulled into the station.
Union Station was/is much much bigger then our little hometown train station. So as we got off the train we found ourselves in a big tunnel with lots of other trains. Spidey clung to BigGuy who held TheKing, SuperStar verbally documented everything we were seeing while bumping into others and I juggled the carry on bag, left over donuts, suitcase and tried to take pictures at the same time. I found that it was me who was bothering everyone as I kept tripping and stopping in front of them. I didn't care. I was owed at least 1 picture on the walkway into the train station. They heard the squawking 3 year old - they saw how many times the other two got up to go to the bathroom - they could wait one second and bump into each other as I tried to take a picture - wait, the flash didn't go off - two pictures - wait, what the heck is wrong with the darn flash? - three pictures - hey King you have to look at me - four pictures - Spidey what the heck was that...........never mind let's just go.
And then we were in Chicago..........our next adventure was finding the Hotel.
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