An interesting way to spend 2-3 quality hours

My wife had her cookie exchange today and it was a girls only event. So, my older son and I had defined something to do during the 2-3 hour stretch of time.

I was thinking about what to do todayfor the last week and especially last night. Should I go to the museum? Should I walk to the park with him? Or should we just chill out somewhere? Perhaps go shopping? This morning I realized one thing after I glanced over at my bus schedule. I realize that my son hasn't taken a bus in Halifax before, though he had taken some overseas when he was too young to remember.

What a great idea! We ended up taking the bus all the way to the terminal, which coincidentally was a shopping center, and we tried to find a pet store there. Unfortunately, I guess my memory didn't serve me that well this weekend and we couldn't find the pet store. Anyhow, we ended up buying some fruit at a local grocery store and then riding the bus back. My son had a wonderful time as I showed him the bridges, buses, people walking around, battleships, power stations, and other sites while he sat on my lap for about an hour and a half. He even saw someone in a wheelchair and also an act of respect as someone got up to let someone elderly sit down.

This really simple lesson has taught me that it is very important to spend time with your kids, that most importantly quality time arises as a result of quantity of time, and that the best things in life are truly free. Such a simple act of writing a bus together and taking the scenic route was completely free, due to my bus pass, but for my son represented several hours of hang out time with his father and a lot of learning by appreciating the world around him. I couldn't have done this otherwise with a car or by walking around.