Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

My brother-in-law Jason is getting married in August, and we're all very excited. The only hitch is that he's getting married in Ohio, and I travel with a toddler. Originally, we were pretty certain that we would drive. Jamie and I travel fairly well together, and we enjoy long car trips. I felt fairly certain that we could entertain Duncan in the car by purchasing a DVD player and making lots of pit stops. But then, the Terrible Two's kicked in, and we really had to consider whether saving a little money was worth four days in a car with a toddler who likes to say "NO!" John and Melissa actually crunched the numbers; considering the price of gas (which is supposed to achieve a record high this summer...can it go any higher?) as well as two additional nights in a motel, they would save an amount of money about equal to one plane fare. We didn't crunch numbers; eventually, we made our decision based on gut instinct. We found plane tickets under $300 and jumped on them. I still don't know if the hassle of getting Duncan and his accoutrements through security will be worth it, but I'll let you all know. The flight is less than 2 hours; the drive is about 4 days. Why were we second guessing? I'm sure Duncan will be really excited by his first plane trip, and we will ultimately be glad that we spent our George W. Bush economical incentive check on plane tickets, when I adamantly REFUSED to spend it at all. In the meantime, Duncan has a special role in the wedding. Anna is calling him "The Ring Man," so here is a shot of him in his first suit (sans tie; we've since bought two; you try finding a tie for a toddler...no, just try). I think that for the 5 minutes we can keep it on him, he's going to be pretty darn cute.