Despite the Occasional Sketchiness and Anxiety...

All’s well that ends well on The Grand Adventure out of state with a two year old and a grown-up with travel anxiety.

Yesterday I played supervisor-approved hooky (read: I used earned time) and went to Boston with my friend J2 and her son, my pseudo-nephew, TJ. Our plan was to go to the Aquarium.

J2 is like me, methodical and orderly when it comes to planning trips. But yesterday, she got to experience “life according to Slambo” where Murphy’s Law is always in full effect.

First off, the drive down went fine, TJ coped very well in the backcarseat, and we actually got to potty in a clean bathroom. Once J2 was lulled into a false sense of security, that’s when things started to go awry.

We couldn’t get to the town where J2 planned for us to catch the Blue line which would have taken us straight to the Aquarium. We ended up meandering in a very sketchy, unkempt, boggy, trashy, ugly part of Massachusetts. Finally J2, as our fearless navigator, made a split second decision to have us catch the train at the station we stopped in front of to discuss our plan of action which was in shambles at this point.

Then once that snap decision was made and the parking garage ticket purchased, we found the clearance to said garage was 7 feet. J2’s SUV has kayak attachments on it so I had to go outside the vehicle to make sure it was going to make it inside. She had about 4 inches to play with. If you want a laugh, picture in your mind two women DUCKING while inside an SUV (like it’s was actually going to make a difference) while driving around in a low ceilinged parking garage looking for a parking spot.

Upshot is we get on the Purple commuter line train (where I exhibited a bit of OCD/anxiety concerning the ticket and was J2 sure she knew what station to get off at and how does one understand the unintelligible train announcer language to ensure you do get off at the right stop and oh, do you still have the ticket in your pocket?). Before the train started, J2 stated she wasn’t sure how TJ was going to react to riding a train as 1) he’s never ridden one before and 2) anything vehicle-wise other than a car/SUV (like a tractor hay ride) he’s not reacted very appropriately to (read: crying, some screaming, gripping, flailing, and other sort of panicked behaviors). He was in my lap when the train started. I watched his pupils dilate, felt his grip on my jacket tighten into what J2 and I referred to as the “Death Grip”, and he could not be moved from my lap at all. He did great! And we learned it was Opening Day at Fenway. Nice, good thing we were going no where near that area.

Once we arrived at North Station, we learned we had to take the Orange subway line for 3-4 stops to hop on the Blue subway line for 2 stops to finally get to the Aquarium. Purchasing the subway ticket was an ordeal and a half, only a few machines worked and all the Fenway people were gobbing up the lines. Again TJ did well with the waiting. And for all the trouble we had figuring out the inbound/outbound piece, we managed to not have to wait for long for any of the trains we took. TJ’s train criteria were one of us had to be holding him and he had to be able to grab enough jacket material for the two fisted Death Grip. Fine by us.

Finally we arrived at the Aquarium. After stuffing our stuff into a locker and changing TJ, we entered a very crowded (can you say multiple school field trips and harassed parents of toddlers? I knew that you could) dimly lit building. Although the fish (that were bigger than an adult) circling in the big main central tank were interesting, it was the penguins and harbor seals that were the biggest draw for us.

Then once we could see that TJ was nearing the end of his behavior rope, we coated up and trekked back to the trains. TJ was much more relaxed on the trains on the way back to “Momma’s car”. More relaxed than me, because school had apparently let out and there was a massive influx of high school students of many ethnicities and I get stressed in crowds! We certainly looked very clueless to the subway savvy teens! On the Purple commuter train, TJ actually pressed his head against the commuter train’s window to watch the ground go by but he still required sitting on one of us.

Back in J2’s SUV and on the road, TJ promptly fell asleep and woke up in time for us to go to Macaroni Grill for an early dinner. YUM!!! (I have leftovers for tonight!)

J2 said that if we had been able to follow the original plan and take the Blue line all the way to the Aquarium, we would have cut almost 2 hours off our overall time spent on the outing. Ah well. We went, we saw, we got home safe. Trip worked for me: TJ enjoyed his “fish”, trains, and Auntie Sam and J2 and I got to spend some fun time together.

Thanks J2 for putting up with my OCD in having you constantly check your pockets to make sure you had your keys, all our tickets, you knew the way and what train to take, and following pickpocket safety!

Don't you just LOVE this picture?!