One parent, one child, a ferry, two taxis, and two regional buses

My job gives us two extra weeks of set vacation every year, one at 4th of July and one at Christmas.  Since B had to work, I decided to take LB up to visit my parents in Maine for part of the week.  It was a gorgeous trip with beautiful weather, visits with friends, and doting grandparents.

The most terrifying part of the trip was the going home part, which involved me, a three year old, and five transportations.  Leg one on the ferry was fine because my parents were with me to help me with all our stuff, and it's a short trip, and ferries just seem more festive than buses.

For leg two, a taxi, I had a slightly bootleg booster seat situation for LB.  I am kind of an undercover safety maven (ask B), but that doesn't extend to hauling a Radian across three states for an <10 minute taxi ride.  Our driver appeared to take it as a personal affront that we used seatbelts at all.  Such is life.

Then the bus:

LB spent our wait in the bus terminal tying a scarf on Gertie the gosling and running back and for in an empty aisle of the terminal.  As an aside, Concord Trailways, which runs between Maine and points south, is the best regional bus carrier ever.  They are so good that they almost make me not bitter than you can't take Amtrak from Portland, ME to Providence, RI unless you are will to shlep yourself, a child, a backpack, a messenger bag, a booster seat, and several stuffed friends from North Station to South station on your own (no thank you).

Bus 1 was full but not packed.  We sat near the front because we had a quick connection in Boston.  The hit toy of the trip was a bag of lacing beads, although rather than use the beads for their intended purpose, LB spent a large portion of the trip counting her "monies."  And also eating the tiny bag of pretzels that they give out for free on the bus.  They she decided she was "the bus driver, the GIRL bus driver."  That was fun until she started abusing her authority and telling the other riders that they were talking in loud voices and were in time out.  Thankfully they were talking in loud voices and could not even here LB's tiny chirps.

everything's better with sparkle kitty stickers

Real bus drivers definitely don't sit like this

LB wishes this calculator was an iphone

After two quick hours we were in Boston, and I was nervous because we had five minutes schedule for our transfer, which is not a good cushion when you are traveling through Boston at rush hour.  Luckily since I'd done the trip before, I knew that we just need to walk to the other side of the terminal.

We made it with minutes to spare, and since we were reverse commuting at that point we were able to sit in the way back of an empty Peter Pan bus.  That ride was a little rougher since LB was a little louder and tireder, and I tried to force her to use the bathroom on the bus.  Thankfully there was no one to hear her scream and give me the evil eye.  LB totally started to lose it during the last 10 minutes, but the bus driver did not turn the bus around and we made it to Providence.

Even though the bus terminal in only about a 1/2 mile from our house, it's a half mile that includes a bad-for-pedestrians intersection that I didn't think I could manage with LB and all our gear.  So we got a cab, and I gave the driver a ridiculous tip for not giving me a hard time about the 1/2 mile fare.

So much better than last year, which involved a projectile vomiting LB standing clad only in a diaper in the aisle of the bus, while I tried to fix the damage.  Things that I changed this year: no dramamine, because it doesn't really seem to help her motion sickness, but it does make her very angry; only boring snacks-see motion sickness; no games with little fiddly pieces.  I did, once again, bring lots of plastic grocery bags, some paper towels, and a huge pack of wipes, and thankfully they were not needed.