Saturday, February 21, 2009

BARTing with the little one

Today, I finally decided to take my now 4 months old to the city via BART. We've been bringing him everywhere by car but I've hesitated on the BART experience for all sorts of reasons. First, if you've read previous posts, you know that I cannot ride BART without drenching Purell on my hands immediately after. So naturally, I didn't want to expose my newborn to a germs nest just yet. Secondly, I just wasn't sure if there would be room to fit a stroller on the train, especially when crowded. I've seen strollers causing parents and surrounding passengers problems on trains. Then there is the elevator issue-- elevator conditions are always an unknown-- they are either out of order, dirty, or too crowded. Finally, I just wasn't sure how my 4 months old would react to the loud squeaking of the train movements.

I have to say BARTing to the city with an infant isn't bad at all and certainly beats Saturday traffic across the bridge. We found enough space on the train both ways to position the stroller. We actually didn't have to deal with elevator or escalator issues because we were able to take apart the stroller and use the stairs. The little guy was calm throughout the ride. And as for germs...sure, sneezes and coughs were all around us as were shoes on the seats, but a bath as soon as we got home fixed that. All in all, the experience was fairly easy and we got to the city much faster than we would have sitting through traffic on 80.

Will we take the little one to the city by BART again? Definitely!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Elevators are pretty reliable, but the one at your stop (Civic Center) is being rebuilt, and is out of service for a few months.

Anonymous said...

Aw. Did you hold him up to watch the trains go by? I remember sitting at Embarcadero once and a mom would hold up her daughter because she absolutely loved to watch the trains go by--noise didn't seem to bother her at all.

Glad to hear the trip was successful.