Travel

Jacob has sure enjoyed our trip. And he should -- after all, he loves trains. His word for train is "toot" or "toh" (after the sound they make, I guess).

He sure was excited to get on the train in the middle of the night in Kansas, and didn't want to go to sleep after we got on because he was too excitedly jabbering about it. "Bih toot!" (big train) and "Too on!" (on the train) kept getting repeated, over and over.

Jacob loved walking up and down the train. It sways side to side, so he didn't want to walk by himself. Result: Terah and I got sore backs from holding his hands. But he got so many smiles as we walked back and forth, back and forth in the lounge car -- or up and down the entire train.

Los Angeles Union Station brought its own set of fun. A few puddles of water were exciting to splash in, but Jacob spotted a fountain nearby before I did, and we had to go over there and splash around a bit.

On the Coast Starlight, there is a parlor car in addition to the lounge car. The lower level of a parlor car is a theater with a wide-screen TV at the front, but it is usually completely empty during the day. Jacob and I liked to go down there -- Jacob because he could run around without getting into people or things, and me because I could sit down there and watch the scenery go by undisturbed.

Eating on the train was a bit of a challenge, though. On the train, you eat community-style in booths. There are no highchairs, so that meant keeping sticky little hands from touching everything. It turned out I had a knack for making this work, so Jacob sat next to me most of the time.

Sleeping, too, was a bit different than usual. Jacob is used to putting himself to sleep in his own room, and if he can see anyone else in the room, he doesn't want to sleep. So since Terah and I were always around, this didn't go so smooth. But Terah had a knack for that, as much as possible, so she held him for naps.

The greatest fun for Jacob was in Portland. Our hotel was right along the MAX light rail line, and we'd ride it to all sorts of places. While waiting on the platform, Jacob would repeat "Toot ahm?" (Train coming?) Then he'd see it, and go "TOOO!!! TOOO!!!", followed shortly by "Too ON!!! Toot ON!!" And, of course, "Jacob, we can't get on the train until it gets here."

Once on the MAX trains, he quickly noticed that at each stop, a prerecorded voice says "The doors are closing" right before they close. Pretty soon he started warning everybody that the doors would be closing. After the doors opened, he'd point to a door, and yell out, "Doh cloh! Doh cloh!" (door close) until they finally did. After a few more days, he'd notice when the train was coming to a stop and yell out "doh clo" before the doors ever opened. I think TriMet should hire him.