I really can’t adequately describe the feeling I had when I popped the trunk open and saw no suitcase. From the look on John’s face, he had exactly the same feeling.

It was 8:20 a.m. John, Toby and I had tickets for the 8:30 Amtrak train from Ashland to D.C. We were 20 minutes from our house. We were spending two days and a night in D.C. And I’d thought John put the suitcase in the car, while he thought I had done it. Somehow, we both walked back and forth by the carefully-packed-the-night-before suitcase (and shoulder bag with Toby’s camera, iPod, and lovely travel guide crafted by my aunt Liz) sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor without actually grabbing them and putting them in the car.

Given the tight timeframe, we silently somehow agreed to skip the accusatory back-and-forth, ran through a few options, then decided we could manage 36 hours without clean clothes and we could buy toothbrushes and toothpaste in D.C., so we’d hop on the train and carry on. I had the book I’d been given for Christmas, the train tickets, and our three rain coats. That’s all we boarded the train with.

I’m really hoping Toby uses it in the future as a learning moment—not to let details like clean underwear derail your plans. Going with the flow and figuring it out as you go can be just as valuable as practical planning and preparation. Well, those lessons and to always make sure your bag is in the car.

My parents have been great about the idea of giving Toby experiences, versus ‘things.’ Sure, they do still give him some ‘stuff,’ but they do like to go on adventures with him, so this Christmas, we decided Toby was old enough to enjoy a trip to the Smithsonian museums in D.C. So, Mom and Dad gave Toby a two-day foray into D.C. on the Amtrak for a gift.

He loved the train, but he really wants to marry the Metro. The combination of escalator entrance and a little G-force on the acceleration made him grin like the proverbial Cheshire Cat.

Two hours on the train plus a few stops on the Metro brought us to our hotel and meet-up with Gran and Grump. We grabbed some lunch there (somehow finding a bacon cheeseburger that John didn’t like) then headed to the Smithsonian Museum of American History for the afternoon. On the way, we walked past what Toby called “the giant toothpick sticking up.”

We really enjoyed the 1/100th of American History I feel like we saw, but after a few hours, Toby was saying, “I think we’ve seen everything in here. Time to go.” He wasn’t as fascinated with the prototype generators and light bulbs as Grump was.

We’d logged about 12,000 steps by the end of the day. My planning didn’t include making dinner reservations, and the Friday night D.C. scene was busier than I anticipated, so we ended up walking about another 1 1/2 miles to dinner. My brand-new Fitbit told me we finished out the night with about 20,000 steps. Then again, when I woke up in the morning, the FitBit tried to tell me I’d already walked 142 steps in my sleep, so…

When I went to put him to sleep in the hotel room (in his very own queen-size bed, which he considered VERY exciting), I told Toby that we hadn’t brought any books, so we couldn’t read before bed. “You’re wrong, we have a book!” he told me, pointing at the copy of Michelle Obama’s autobiography I’d brought along on the train. So, I read him the first three pages of Becoming and he happily drifted off to sleep.

The Museum of Natural History the next day was definitely more Toby’s speed, with intriguing creatures with teeth. A surprise hit of the day was the live butterfly exhibit, where Toby was delighted to see two butterflies land on Gran. He was entranced with the butterflies. He also was really interested in the room of amazing photos in the Nature’s Best Photography exhibit, which made me happy.

We ended Day 2 with a ride on the Circulator bus to the Lincoln Memorial, which was far more crowded than I expected. By the time Gran and Grump dropped us off at the train station again, Toby was definitely running on fumes. He face-planted into the seat and zonked out just a few minutes into our train trip home.

John carried him from the train to the car, where he slept the whole way home from Ashland, and then again from the car to his room. Toby somehow got himself undressed, and as he was sitting on the toilet, swaying back and forth in a bit of a stupor, he asked me with alarm, “Are we back at our house??!!”

I told him we were, and he exclaimed, “But the train doesn’t come to our house! How did we get here?” He was truly worried and confused. I assured him that we’d driven and that he’d just slept through it. He nodded and promptly nodded off. I had to hold him upright to bush his teeth as he stood at the sink, and after I plunked him down in bed, he was snoring before I shut the door. He slept for 11 straight hours.

In the end, we made a lot of jokes about our missing luggage on our trip. We had a great time, laughed a lot, learned a lot, and answered about 2,864 questions from Toby. But what I really hope our trip taught him was that even if you don’t have your luggage, just get on the train and go. It’s when the best things happen.