summer travel

Joan taking a "spin" in the Jolly Jumper. Not a happy experience- John kept spinning her around and around. But he took a break from his fun to snap this photo - I'm off to the side - she's giving me that "why me" look.

Ah summer. How it comes out of nowhere. Now that it's here, we've been discussing John's vacation plans. Life here is a little crazy until the end of June, but after that I am free to escort him to Dryden for a visit. We've been exploring our options. Bus is obviously the cheapest, but not even Mike is that cruel. Surprisingly, the plane and train are comparable, because kids ride free on Via this summer. Otherwise, plane would have been much cheaper.

Obviously, I'm favouring plane. Mike thinks it would be cool for John to take a train, and unfortunately, John agrees strongly. When I ask him if he'd like to fly on a plane, he screams "no!" and practically bursts into tears. I wonder what Mike's been telling him to make him react that way.

I don't know how much weight we should give John's vote, though. Technically, when asked, his first choice would be to travel by monster truck, with train a distant second, followed closely by tractor, then concrete mixer.

I must admit, when the idea of a 24-hour train ride with two kids was first proposed, I was pretty horrified, and more than a little peeved at Jer for first suggesting it, but maybe it would be fun, in a masochistic kind of way. Both times I took a train, it had tons of kids and babies on board, so it's not unheard of. And it would plop us in Sioux Lookout, which is a heck of a lot closer to home than Thunder Bay or Winnipeg. But we'll see. I guess I should be phoning home to work out dates and such. It's not like John, Joan and I have schedules to work around. If it weren't for a newsletter and community BBQ that I'm somehow in charge of organizing, we could leave this afternoon.

Anyway, speaking of the association, I had better get back at it!