James' First El Ride!

It was cold. And it had snowed. But we all knew that James likes trains. And we all knew that Ava liked the el. And we all watched for the Pink Line that ran outside the living room window. So after dinner we bundled the kids up and walked down to the Damen station. We used Matt's CTA card, and waited on the platform. It was Thanksgiving, and evening, and very cold so there was not a lot of activity. There was a very nice gentleman who worked for the CTA emptying the trash cans and we chatted with him for a minute under the heat lamps provided for train passengers, hoping he would find a moment of warmth on this cold Thanksgiving night. When the train arrived, Ava was excited, but James was apprehensive. He is still smallish for these things, and although he fussed only a little, I think during the whole experience he was feeling unsure. We rode 4 or 5 stops down, and got off to ride back. We realized after detraining that we had lost one of his mittens. (It occurs to me that the other one is still on the dashboard of the wagon.) We held his hand and waited for the train to come and take us back, again under the heatlamps. I laughed on the return trip as Jason and I were reminiscing about trips to Bullocks at the Fashion Square (where Dillards is now) where he would be buying Marithe and Francois Girbaut clothes, and one of the gentlemen on the platform on the first leg of the return trip was wearing MFG jeans. By first leg of the trip I mean to say that we got off the train a stop early accidentally. Instead of walking (it was snowy and icy) we opted to wait for the next train. It was fun overall, but will become much more fun next summer when James is a bit bigger and it is less chilly!