Clara goes Modal

We're off to New York! The pull of friends in NYC is taking us out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. We left the house at 7am to head up to the Salt Lake City airport. From Utah to New York, Clara experience five modes of transportation. A pretty big event in her life; I figured it'd be fun to chronicle each.

1. The Bus - we took a shuttle bus from the economy parking lot to the main terminal. Clara sat in a seat sans car seat. She was ECSTATIC! She kept looking around, smiling, giggling, and generally enjoying herself. She even stayed seated the whole time, thankfully.

2. Plane - Clara is quite adept at saying "airplane." When we boarded the aisle seat was empty. Clara plopped herself down and started messing with the seat belt. She was having a grand old time ... until the girl who had paid for the seat showed up and she was pulled into Mom & Dad's laps. To say the flight was a struggle would be an understatement. Plenty of distractions failed to satisfy her constantly shifting demands. The four hour flight, plus an abundance of taxi and wait time, took its toll. We ambled off the plane into the Newark Airport.

3. Monorail - we took the Air Train (Newark Airport's monorail system) over to the NJ Transit station. Clara was in her stroller, but kept grabbing on to the handrails, claiming them for her own. At one point Kristin was told to move her hand as the rail was "mine!" Kristin, not wanting to put up a fight after four hours of doing so, obliged.

4. Train - from the Newark airport, we took the New Jersey Transit train to Penn Station. Clara was fascinated by the train, and a handicap row allowed us to keep her in her stroller. And the people watching was money.

5. Subway - David, Bonnie, and Michael met us at Penn station, which was a total zoo. The number of people heading out of the city was astounding. I caught a quick picture (right). The people, the noise, the chaos. I love cities. We walked back to their apartment. We decided to head out after dinner (next post) and we rode the subway. She smiled each time a train rumbled through the station, and sat in her stroller on the train, loving the sites and sounds.

One day. Five modes of Transportation. And that's not even considering walking, stroller, and the car.

And before we leave, one last cute picture of Clara from the plane. Enjoy!