I don’t know about you, but we learned how to ride the bus.

Crazy, no? We’ve only lived here for nearly two years now.

Did you know that Google Maps makes it EXTREMELY easy to figure out how to get from Point A to Point B on the bus?

Yet another thing I learned today!

With an afternoon class on the schedule for the girls, we decided to try the bus and let Zak take the car to work.

The Plan:

Ride the bus together, I would bring my bike along to ride home (not far by bike for an adult, but too far for small children), ride back to get them a few hours later and then we’d ride the bus home together.

Sounds simple, right? Sounds like the perfect opportunity for lots of real life lessons? Learning opportunities at every turn, RIGHT?

I thought so too.

Like reinforcing concepts about time. About being on time to catch the bus. Better yet, getting there a little early. Learning how long we’ll be waiting for the bus to arrive once we get to the bus stop.

Learning that asking “How long now? How long now? How long NOW??”

tells mom that we need to start talking a little bit more about subtraction.

I also learned that if I brought along a big enough back pack, I could swing by CSA pick up and our weekly vegetable share could join me for my ride home.

My celery totally gots my back, yo.

Left with kids, returned with dinner fixings? Not a bad swap.

(I do want them back, though.  Eventually.)

Of course, there was plenty to be learned on the trip home too.

Like learning that sometimes, there can be two bus stops, one on each side of the street. Sadly though, it’s not until AFTER the bus you were waiting for blows right by that you learn the importance of being on the right side of the street if you want the bus to actually stop.

We learned that when you miss your first bus, you can still catch a second bus, but you have to walk a bit further to get to this other bus stop.

Me too, kid. Me too.

And this other bus? A bus that requires you to make a transfer if you want to be dropped off anywhere near your house? Yeah, that’s when we learned that figuring out WHERE to get off to make this “transfer” is not exactly intuitive.

This is also about the time that we learned empty seats aren’t as abundant at 5:00 in the evening as they are at 12:30 in the afternoon. Or that very few people are eager to be friendly or especially forth coming with helpful information at this hour of the day too. And that mom gets just as cranky at 5:00 on the bus as she does at 5:00 when we’re at home.

It was at about 5:30 that I “learned” that dinner was going to be extremely simple and comforting tonight.

Like warm hummus and cheese on toast with baked CSA sweet potatoes lugged home just hours earlier?

Sounds about right.

Tonight’s final (and perhaps most important) lesson? Dad learned that he will be the one taking the bus tomorrow.