Of Bakfeits, Xtracycles, tag-a-longs and trailers (oh my!)

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in the baby carriage.  Then what do you do?  I'm not speaking metaphorically.  I'm talking transportation and I'm not one to drive much if I can help it.  So, does one sell a car and buy an expensive cargo bike?  Well, we wanted to.  Haven't managed that one yet.  Well, selling the car part happened but it seems like a luxury to spend thousands on a family bike.  So, I've read reviews, dreamed of bakfiets and own an xtracycle (which is still in pieces as part of a rebuilt.....) but funny thing is for a few years now the trailer and tag-a-long has been the family car.  Personally, I don't much like it.  It's heavy, unwieldy and just plain goofy.  Although it is nice to get a cheer once in a while from someone who appreciates seeing the family bike effort (at least I hope it's a cheer and not a jeer!).  Lately though my opinion has been changing.  Here's why.  Our daughter is starting Kindergarten in the fall (yikes, that's less than a month off!!!) and until now brother and sister have been going to the same school.  Now they won't for a couple of years.  So, we have a 1.6 mile commute right now and it's mostly on paths or back streets.  Very nice.  Next month we add a stop that just happens to be in the other direction.  We'll drop off at kindergarten first, then preschool.  At the end of the day it's kindergarten and then preschool again for pick up.  Seems simple right?  Well, if we were riding a bakfiets then it actually gets complicated.  The end destination (preschool) is where the family bike would be left but it's the second stop on pick up and the farthest point from my or my wife's place of work.  With the big train of tag-a-long and trailer we can leave the respective parts with the respective kids.  It actually works out better in the end.  It's still heavy and unwieldy but it's easy to organize.  Of course, as a friend of mine in CA would say, we could just buy two bakfiets!  Elegant solution for sure but at the current going price for something like a CETMA that would be roughly $6,000 all told.  Two xtracycles start to make more sense.  Anyway, enough rambling.  Based on practice and cash we'll just keep doing what we're doing.  Still, it's fun to figure other ways.