Is it Monday again? What I did this weekend.

On the weekend the little man and I took a trip over the Island to visit some of the Grandparents.  This was my first experience travelling on my own with a toddler.

The trip didn't start out well when I bought tickets for the wrong ferry. Thankfully Dad had walked us to the ferry and could watch the little man. Meanwhile I SPRINTED back to the ticket desk to get them fixed before the 10 minute cut off.  I don't sprint often and certainly not that distance, so I was pretty out of breath.  But I got there in time.  I guess the run must have dried my throat out because as we were standing in the cafeteria line up I started to cough... just that gotta get that tickle out of my throat kind of cough. Which of course only goes away when you either get out a really good cough. Or you get water.  So the people around us in line gave us lots of space, leary that I was going to give them some plague or something.

For both ferry rides we rode one of the new ferries.  It certainly was fresh and shiny new.  Not sure that I love the layout.  But I may just need to get used to it.  

Some pluses on the new ferries: 

• 2 separate play areas
• seats within the play around and just outside so those of us with smaller kids can stay close
• parents room - was nice to have a larger space washroom to take the little guy when he said he had to go (of course once there he was much more interested in the shiny new bathroom. And then the flush scared the crap out of him - I had to laugh as he jumped).
• Sun deck was fun, although windy.

The downside:

• You have to walk outside a pretty long way when you enter/depart the boat. Not a big deal normally, but when you have a 2yo dying to touch everything and everything blowing in the wind it was a pain in the butt.
• Seemed like I had to walk a lot of stairs. 

I sat in the cafeteria on our return trip - while the 2yo tested out a new theory on maximum blast radius of a muffin - and watched the cafeteria staff.  The cashier that had served us was very efficient, courteous and nice.  First he was patient with us - me balancing a 2yo in one hand, a tray with soup and a muffin in the other and somehow managing to pour myself tea and then pay.  Then I watched a lady return her sushi because the rice was hard.  He quickly and politely told her to replace it with something else.  And then when she came back he refunded her the price of her original purchase and compted her replacement salad.  I didn't see him run off to get permission.  I didn't see a big fuss made. He simply took care of an unhappy customer.  WOW!  A true customer service experience on BC Ferries.  Of course that immediately got offset by my grumpy and useless cashier in the gift shop (another story for another time).

The big lesson is that a 3rd or 4th arm is really helpful when dealing with a toddler and travelling.