A family race to catch a train
My sister was in town last Saturday, with Nadya, Kira and Nadya’s best-friend-since-practically-birth, Dawn, in tow. They were there for a children’s concert my mom got tickets for months in advance. Well, Anna and the older girls were. Kira is still 1 years old, so it fell to my mom to watch her during the concert.
I had to do some work stuff in the first few hours, when the concert actually happened, but I joined everyone when they went to the Maggie Daley Park playgrounds on the east side of the Loop. My mom covered that part over on her English-language blog, and the pictures over there should give you a decent idea of how spiffy the playgrounds were. But what she didn’t write about was what happened when she went to O’Hare to pick up Anna and Vlad’s dad, and I stayed with Anna and the girls at the playgrounds.
Anna and the girls took a morning Hiawatha Amtrak train from Milwaukee to Chicago, and they were going to take a 5:07 PM train back. My sister thought that 37 minutes would be more that enough time to get to Chicago Union Station and even grab some dinner to go. If it was just Anna, it definitely would’ve been doable. If it was just Anna and Nadya, it might have been doable. But two four-year-olds, plus a stroller with a toddler…
Suffice to say, it became pretty clear pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be that simple.
I was reminded of all the times when Anna, Vlad and I were kids and we had to rush to catch a train - whether it’s the elektrichka train back in the Liningradskaya region or the Metra trains during our first few years in this country - and how Anna used to be the one who’d walk quickly and Vlad would always complain about how we were talking too fast, and all the times we cut it close but made it.
So I went into the focused mode, the kind of thing I muddled through as a kid but got a lot better at as an adult. No questions, no second-guessing, no complaining - just focus on catching the train. I grabbed Dawn’s hand and walked as quickly as I could. Except, while Nadya did a decent job keeping up with Anna as she pushed a stroller, her best friend clearly wasn’t as fast. And Dawn was already complaining that I was walking too fast.
As we approached the east edge of the elevated ‘L’ tracks and Anna tried her best to encourage the girls to maintain their pace, I realized that it wasn’t going to get any better. Dawn was getting tired, and our pace would deteriorate even further.
And I remembered something else from my childhood - all the times I gave Anna piggyback rides. So I asked if Dawn might be up for one.
Dawn climbed up with practiced ease, but I had to navigate around the huge shoulder bag I was carrying (the gentleman who was begging for money nearby offered some pretty helpful advice). Honestly, carrying a 4-year-old wasn’t that big of a deal, but the bag kind of ended up hanging around my neck, which… wasn’t run. Also, while I held her by her feet, Dawn used her hands to hang on to my head, and those hands sometimes went over my eyes. That part wasn’t that bad, since I know the Loop streets pretty well, but I did sometimes need to remind her to move the arms a little higher at intersections, and just to make sure I didn’t bump into any unexpected things.
With Dawn on my shoulders, Anna pushing a stroller and Nadya hanging by the strap from a stroller, we were making… enough of a time that it looked like we could make it. We’d only have a handful of minutes to spare, but it would be doable.
Of course, grabbing a meal wasn’t an option. Luckily for our visitors, they had some leftover Panda Express food from lunch that they were going to give to me so I could heat it up and have it at home. Since Hiawatha doesn’t have a café car, it was either that or nothing, and I think that lukewarm Chinese-American food isn’t too bad of a “that.”
The last few blocks were especially tense, and I felt a bit bad for Nadya, since Anna and I both said that it won’t be long now several times, and every time, there were more blocks to go. But Nadya was a trooper, and we made it to the Union Station at around 4:57 PM, where Dawn asked to be put down.
With the stroller and everything, we had to take an elevator down. We got through the gate just as it was closing - and I do mean “we,” since Anna wanted me to help with getting the girls and some of the bags onto the train, and, for the sake of expediency, I got onto the train.
With 3 minutes to go before departure, the door was already closed. I was fully prepared to just take the train for one station (in suburban Glenview) and get back to Rogers Park using the combination of Metra trains and buses, but I asked if I could disembark, just in case it would work. The crew member was deeply, deeply not amused, but she let me leave. And, apparently, she gave Anna a polite, but firm lecture on the topic as well. But they got on the train, and that’s the important part.
Kira basically slept through the whole thing, and even if she didn’t, I can’t imagine she would’ve remembered much. But I do wonder how Nadya and Dawn will ultimately remember it - as a triumph, or as example of grown-ups exhausting them.
And I wonder how many times my nieces will have to hustle to catch a train.
I had to do some work stuff in the first few hours, when the concert actually happened, but I joined everyone when they went to the Maggie Daley Park playgrounds on the east side of the Loop. My mom covered that part over on her English-language blog, and the pictures over there should give you a decent idea of how spiffy the playgrounds were. But what she didn’t write about was what happened when she went to O’Hare to pick up Anna and Vlad’s dad, and I stayed with Anna and the girls at the playgrounds.
Anna and the girls took a morning Hiawatha Amtrak train from Milwaukee to Chicago, and they were going to take a 5:07 PM train back. My sister thought that 37 minutes would be more that enough time to get to Chicago Union Station and even grab some dinner to go. If it was just Anna, it definitely would’ve been doable. If it was just Anna and Nadya, it might have been doable. But two four-year-olds, plus a stroller with a toddler…
Suffice to say, it became pretty clear pretty quickly that it wasn’t going to be that simple.
I was reminded of all the times when Anna, Vlad and I were kids and we had to rush to catch a train - whether it’s the elektrichka train back in the Liningradskaya region or the Metra trains during our first few years in this country - and how Anna used to be the one who’d walk quickly and Vlad would always complain about how we were talking too fast, and all the times we cut it close but made it.
So I went into the focused mode, the kind of thing I muddled through as a kid but got a lot better at as an adult. No questions, no second-guessing, no complaining - just focus on catching the train. I grabbed Dawn’s hand and walked as quickly as I could. Except, while Nadya did a decent job keeping up with Anna as she pushed a stroller, her best friend clearly wasn’t as fast. And Dawn was already complaining that I was walking too fast.
As we approached the east edge of the elevated ‘L’ tracks and Anna tried her best to encourage the girls to maintain their pace, I realized that it wasn’t going to get any better. Dawn was getting tired, and our pace would deteriorate even further.
And I remembered something else from my childhood - all the times I gave Anna piggyback rides. So I asked if Dawn might be up for one.
Dawn climbed up with practiced ease, but I had to navigate around the huge shoulder bag I was carrying (the gentleman who was begging for money nearby offered some pretty helpful advice). Honestly, carrying a 4-year-old wasn’t that big of a deal, but the bag kind of ended up hanging around my neck, which… wasn’t run. Also, while I held her by her feet, Dawn used her hands to hang on to my head, and those hands sometimes went over my eyes. That part wasn’t that bad, since I know the Loop streets pretty well, but I did sometimes need to remind her to move the arms a little higher at intersections, and just to make sure I didn’t bump into any unexpected things.
With Dawn on my shoulders, Anna pushing a stroller and Nadya hanging by the strap from a stroller, we were making… enough of a time that it looked like we could make it. We’d only have a handful of minutes to spare, but it would be doable.
Of course, grabbing a meal wasn’t an option. Luckily for our visitors, they had some leftover Panda Express food from lunch that they were going to give to me so I could heat it up and have it at home. Since Hiawatha doesn’t have a café car, it was either that or nothing, and I think that lukewarm Chinese-American food isn’t too bad of a “that.”
The last few blocks were especially tense, and I felt a bit bad for Nadya, since Anna and I both said that it won’t be long now several times, and every time, there were more blocks to go. But Nadya was a trooper, and we made it to the Union Station at around 4:57 PM, where Dawn asked to be put down.
With the stroller and everything, we had to take an elevator down. We got through the gate just as it was closing - and I do mean “we,” since Anna wanted me to help with getting the girls and some of the bags onto the train, and, for the sake of expediency, I got onto the train.
With 3 minutes to go before departure, the door was already closed. I was fully prepared to just take the train for one station (in suburban Glenview) and get back to Rogers Park using the combination of Metra trains and buses, but I asked if I could disembark, just in case it would work. The crew member was deeply, deeply not amused, but she let me leave. And, apparently, she gave Anna a polite, but firm lecture on the topic as well. But they got on the train, and that’s the important part.
Kira basically slept through the whole thing, and even if she didn’t, I can’t imagine she would’ve remembered much. But I do wonder how Nadya and Dawn will ultimately remember it - as a triumph, or as example of grown-ups exhausting them.
And I wonder how many times my nieces will have to hustle to catch a train.