Trains, Museums, and Losing Daddy

I enjoy Chicago and have been there several times. One particular Chicago memory I have is from two years ago. My husband and I decided to take a one-day vacation in Chicago with our three kids, who were 6, 7 and 9 at the time.

When we got downtown, we wanted to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. On our map, we saw that we could take a train from downtown to the museum. So, we went looking for the train station. It took us a long time to find the station. Finally, after asking several people for help, we found out that the station was actually underground. We had to go into a building and down some stairs to get to the station. We were so happy to find the right train and get on it! We enjoyed our ride to our stop.

When we got off the train, there were a lot of people, and I was worried about keeping my kids with me. On the platform, I was happy to see my three kids. However, my daughter said, “Dad didn’t get off!” I said, “Of course he did!” and looked around. He was nowhere to be seen. He really hadn’t gotten off the train before the doors closed! Unfortunately, he also didn’t have a cell phone with him. I quickly thought that he would be okay—he was a smart man after all—and that the kids and I should walk the few blocks to the museum and wait for him there. I even thought it was quite funny that he had gotten left on the train.

My kids, however, saw no humor in the situation, and my youngest daughter sobbed, “We’ll never see Daddy again!” I had to carry her, hold on to my other kids’ hands, and try to console all of the kids with the fact that yes, we would see Daddy again. It took about a half hour, but we finally saw my husband running up to the museum entrance. We were all happy to see each other again--and we enjoyed the museum.

Even now, if you ask my children about that trip, they will say that they had fun but we almost lost Daddy!