No Such Thing as a Free Ride

When I first moved to Seattle 13 years ago, I took the bus everywhere. In fact, I didn't have a car the first four years that I lived here. This is to say that I was a huge proponent of public transportation (specifically, the bus). So earlier this year, when the local Metro had a green promotion going that offered ten free bus passes in return for a pledge to use public transportation more often, I jumped at it. In fact, I jumped at it twice, because a few months later I was offered ten more free passes in return for filling out a survey regarding my opinion about the bus (bus riding, bus routes, etc.).

Well, I am here to tell you that I am no longer the big fan that once was. It turns out I like the idea of riding the bus a lot more than I actually like riding the bus. A lot of this has to do with having children. They are not easily entertained when you miss a connection and have to wait 30 minutes outside in the cold at a bus stop with no seating. And when they're on the bus, they want to test out ALL the seats, and when the bus stops they like to lurch themselves forward with exagerrated full-body gestures (reminisant of some old SNL skits). They're also loud and they have no qualms about holding the handrails on the bus and then placing their fingers in their mouths moments later.

Take last weekend, for example. Last weekend was Thanksgiving weekend, and since we were in town with very few concrete plans, I thought it would be fun if we went downtown on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I thought if we went in the early evening we would miss most of the impassioned shoppers and parade-goers, and we'd be able to take in the tree lighting ceremony, the kids could ride the holiday carousel, we'd get a light dinner and then maybe tour the gingerbread house display at the Sheraton before heading home around 8:00. The rest of the family liked my imaginery evening and they were quick to commit. At this point I took things one step further and suggested we take the bus. "Hey, we won't have to hunt for parking," I say joyfully. So off we go at about 4:30. We miss our first bus because it actually comes to our stop three minutes early. The bus driver sees Randy flailing about as we all try to dash to our stop upon hearing the heavy bus wheels on the tarmac, but for some reason, she must have just thought he was consumed by the holiday spirit, because she just kept on going. We walk toward a more significant intersection/bus stop area, but when we get there we discover that we will still have to wait for the next bus--there are no other routes on this street. Fine. We wait, we freeze, we try to keep calm as our children start bouncing off each other in their overstuffed down coats (much like sumo wrestlers), and eventually we catch the bus. We get downtown. We quickly realize we've made a mistake, because while the tree was beautiful, the entire area is packed. We spent about ninety minutes wandering around checking the various wait times at venues and restaurants, but even the fast food hamburger joint in Pacific Place was boasting a line out and around the promonade on this evening. Eventually we abandon our efforts and catch a bus back out of town. We decide to salvage the evening with dinner in Fremont, and this was in fact a good call. We hop off in front of one of our favorite family-friendly restaurants (Norm's Eatery and Alehouse) where we have an excellent meal. We try to time it so that we leave close to when the bus schedule says the next bus will arrive at the stop just outside the restaurant, but we had another long wait. While waiting, our children started to play on a bike rack. They were laughing and having a good time, but soon enough Griffen (age 3) was in tears. He had hit his chin on the rack, but we didn't think much of it until he told us he couldn't talk. We asked him to open his mouth, and when he did, Randy and I were both horrified. His teeth were swimming in blood. It's hard to come up with an emergency plan when you don't have a car. You can't just call a cab or a friend, because in our case, you need a vehicle with two car seats designed for kids over 40 pounds. So there we sat...for what seemed like the longest eleven minutes of my life. And then there was the ride home and the bitterly cold uphill walk with two very tired (and one injured) children.

Lesson Learned
The value of having a car when you really need one: priceless.