Going Nowhere Fast in San Francisco

San Francisco has a public transport system. Obviously, the city is near the sea, which is fortunate. You can dump the bodies of those visitors who didn't make it from point A to point B.

We arrived at the airport (the nicest airport I've ever seen, and I've seen an airport or two), and took the BART into the city. You put your credit card into a machine, figure out how much you have to pay from a table on the machine, and decrease the amount via buttons from the default of $20 to the $5.35 you have to pay. You put the ticket into a machine to access the station, which spits it back out at you (hey, I'm used to handling spit-up). When you leave at your destination, the machine at the exit swallows the ticket. That part went well. It was the last part that went well for a while.

We had heard that we could buy 3-day passes on MUNI (which aren't valid on BART). Turns out, the places where they sell them are closed on Sunday. Trust me, it's not because they're all conservative Christians there. Did anyone ever tell them to sell their passes via machines? We returned to Powell station the same afternoon to buy some type of ticket to get us to the Japanese Tea Garden. Unfortunately, MUNI expects quarters there, six of them per person. Of course, you need the same to get back home. How many people do you know who run around with 24 quarters (Ly and me) in their pocket? Fortunately, they have change machines. You can change 20s and 10s. They give you 5s for them. You can also go to the BART machine, which under option H changes dollars into quarters. To change the 5s they gave you into dollars, you need to go to Starbucks and buy something, and beg them to give you 1s for change, so you hopefully end up with six dollars that you can change into 24 quarters. There was a guy in a booth, but he wouldn't help you, and didn't know much English, either. There were a few beggars that offered help...

They are not prepared for strollers, either. When you get to the turnstile, lift the stroller over it, or you won't be able to enter yourself. Later, when the N street car finally goes above ground, station names end together with the darkness around you. Good luck guessing how far you have traveled. There are no announcements. We made it to the tea garden nonetheless (years of public transport experience, hah!). As we prepared to return, we expected to pay $1.50 again. The machine at the driver's said $.50. I dropped in the first quarter, and the driver handed me a ticket. I thought that was a little cheap, so I dropped in another quarter. Then, I explained that I wanted another ticket (for Ly). I handed him a quarter, counting myself lucky to travel so cheaply. He ripped out a ticket, and barked something about more money. So I gave him a few more quarters and sat down. They don't care much for people who don't understand their system (I think the machine wasn't reset correctly, and in addition, it counted up what you paid. You're expected to understand their system, even though they don't explain anything anywhere).

The next day, I took the BART to my training site, since the MUNI was a mess. I paid credit card to keep expenses on the same bill. Ly was going to buy a 3-day pass now, but they don't expect anyone to buy such things before 9:00 a.m. Go figure. I had settled on paying cash for my vacation-part travel. I met Ly for lunch later (I walked!!!), and was going to help her on the California cable car line. The driver barked at her that she couldn't leave Jo in the stroller so she said "forget it" and walked back to the hotel. Do you want to be on a crowded cable car going up a steep San Francisco street with a 25 pound squirming infant in one arm, holding on to an empty stroller with the other? That night, I was going to take the BART home. Unfortunately, the BART won't accept the same credit card more than once a day. Why would anyone want to buy two tickets in one day?

I did lots of walking while we were in San Francisco...