Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

As a child, my family and I didn't travel a whole lot. Oh, we made the frequent trip over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house, and the almost annual family vacation to Colorado. And who could forget the summer vacation to Branson, Missouri and Silver Dollar City! Gareth, we will never subject you to a frontier oriented theme park. Your mother and I promise. In defense of my own parents, I should mention we stayed at a motel with a nice pool and a killer shuffle board court. While we did the travel around the Midwest bit, my family and I never traveled by air. In fact, I think I was well into my teens before I ever flew in an airplane. Kathleen, on the other hand, had a very different experience. With a commercial pilot as a father, she was jet-setting by three or four years old.

Before Gareth entered our lives, Kathleen and I decided we'd try to take him everywhere. When he arrived, we followed through on that commitment. From two weeks old on, he's been zooming around with us on errands, hiking the wooded trails of Iowa (two months old, I believe), and, most recently, flying the friendly skies. Oh, and riding the rails. That's right, our recent trip to Boston exposed Gareth to a whole host of planes, trains, and automobiles. And we caught it all on film!

We began our journey with a three hour drive, through a snow storm, to Minneapolis, the city of departure. After staying overnight in a hotel, we hopped into an airport shuttle. That's vehicle number one! Alas, we didn't think to snap a photo of the van. We'll let everyone use their imagination for that leg of our journey.

Arriving at the airport, we passed through a full security sweep (why does this always happen to me?!) and made our way to the gate. Gareth could barely contain himself with all the excitement.


With a brief layover in Chicago, we finished our flight to the east coast, caught another shuttle, and arrived a few minutes before our train arrived at the station. That's right, Gareth also traveled by Amtrak!

A couple weeks before we left on our trip the airline decided to discontinue their Chicago to Boston flight and shifted us to another airline for that leg of the journey. Unfortunately, that airline only flew to Providence, Rhode Island, about 40 minutes away from Boston. So, we booked a train to take us from Providence to Boston. Gareth couldn't wait to get on the train!

Arriving safely in Boston, our stack of luggage in tow, Tess greeted us at the train station, hailed a cab (another vehicle!), and took us to our lovely inn. To this point in the journey, Gareth had traveled by car, shuttle (twice!), airplane (twice!), train, and cab.

The next day, we hopped a commuter rail line to the Back Bay area of Boston. Here we are waiting for our ride. Please note the rails in the beautifully framed photo.

Gareth loved looking out the window at the passing sights.


Just so we don't forget to mention one mode of transportation, Gareth also rode about town in his mom & dad powered stroller.


After a long day of journeying, Gareth retired early.


The last day of our visit to Boston, we played tourist and visited the historical areas of the city. I had to visit the esteemed Samuel Adams, a man with whom I became intimately familiar while writing my MA thesis, Samuel Adams and the Rhetorical Requirements of Leadership.

Gareth paid his respects to Mr. Adams, too.


Sunday morning, we woke at 4 AM and started the trip back to Iowa: Cab>Train>Shuttle>Plane>Plane>Shuttle>Auto. All in all, Gareth was a marvelous traveler. In fact, several people approached us throughout the trip and said, "He's an amazing traveler." But of course! We raised him that way.