I wrote this while we were travelling - my version of live blogging, I guess. 

We’re maybe 20 minutes into our trip, at the Fallowfield Station in the west end of Ottawa, and I’m thinking that I’d forgotten how civilized it is to travel by train. (I don’t know how our city rates two stations but it has them.) Okay, the train station part would have been improved by having two clerks at the ticket desk but since we arrived only 30 minutes early and still boarded the train, it worked out in the end. Reid and I have a four-seat area to ourselves and we could adapt to two more people if we needed to. Reid has been playing with our tickets for at least five minutes. I’m not going to rush her into an activity while she is amusing herself - I’m tempted but I’m working on that “okay, okay, move along, what’s next” impulse. ;+) 

90 minutes in - I just checked my watch for the first time. I stuck my hand into my pocket, noticed the watch there and went to put it on, looked at it and realized we still had three hours of travelling. I decided it would be better to stay in the moment and stuck my watch back into my pocket.

When the snack cart lady came by we bought cookies, a muffin and a bottle of water. The water was just what I hoped for. Reid was not so impressed with the cookies or muffin. I thought the cookies were okay, if cold, but I think the muffin was chocolate chip and bran - yuck! It’s a betrayal of chocolate chips to put them in a bran muffin. At nearly three hours into the trip, I offered Reid a Care Bear movie that lasted about 6 minutes before we switched to Franklin Takes a Trip, which lasted only 4 or 5 minutes, before we switched to Toopy and Binoo videos through iTunes.

It’s official, we’re now late. By two minutes as I write this. The man with the really bad French has said we’ll be 25 minutes late. Given that we’re not cramped in an airplane, it’s really not a problem and I’m not complaining. Besides, Aunt Karin might need time to find a parking spot.

Okay, one hiccup. We got off of the train and were told that the elevators wasn’t working. They tried to tell me to take the escalator with Reid in her big stroller and me with a heavy backpack and a duffle bag. Never mind the signs on the escalator saying that you weren’t allowed to take strollers on them. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably 10-15 minutes and two phone calls with Aunt Karin, a red cap appeared to help. I let him take the stroller down the escalator while I carried Reid. To do it on my own would have been like those brain teasers where you have to get a goat, a sack of grain, a chicken and some cabbages across a river in a row boat that can’t hold everything. Goodness knows what they do with people in wheelchairs. At the bottom of the escalator, Aunt Karin was waiting. Yes, she’d tried to come up but was told we’d have to get a red cap instead. Cha-ching! ;+) It was better than our return flight from San Diego when that guy from the plane and I had to carry Reid and her stroller up the steps, though.

Overall, I stand by the train as a good way to travel. We’ll see what I think after our return trip on Wednesday night.