Sharing Toddlers' Awe for Public Transit

Practical tips for encouraging childrens' awe for Bay Area public transit and rediscovering it for ourselves.

Community events!

Spotlight on: Muni Heritage Weekend, September 21-22 !

You’ll be able to experience transit at its finest from decades past…riding through the streets of San Francisco on vintage streetcars, your parents, grandparents, and even great grandparents rode (if they lived here). Heck, if they lived in several other places, for that matter.

And our regular events:

• Our Tuesdays Manny's meetup will be changing to Thursdays, starting in October. We're there from 11:30am-1:30pm with the kids play pen & toys. Kids play while parents chat.

• Roller skating is back from a short summer break! Every Monday 3-6pm in the Hayes Valley Playground rainbow basketball court. Local parents bring all sizes of used roller skates for people to borrow for free, starting from toddler size 8!

• Parent Circle is every Saturday from 10:30am-12:30pm at The Commons in Hayes Valley. Local high school students play with the kids while parents reflect on our week in community.

• We are doing a special barbecue Sunday Sept 29 3-8pm to meet other families in the Mission District! Join us. 🙂 Couples planning on starting a family in the mission are welcome too.

Public transit adventures!

Kids and teens love public transit. That’s great news for the environment! Coincidently, we read this piece about cultivating children’s awe in everyday life, and it’s transit month. So here are some thoughts about witnessing and encouraging our children’s awe for public transit and rediscovering it for ourselves.

We’re so lucky to have preserved cable cars and street cars in San Francisco. It’s easy to forget how magnificent the views are along those lines—or just how beautiful the Embarcadero is. Muni allows live tracking of the streetcars on this map, plus gives you a rundown of the streetcar’s history. And they’re so pretty! Plus, the Boat Tram is out until October 14, Sundays and Mondays, along the Embarcadero from 10.30 to 5.30. Try catching it in the middle of the line, as it’s often busy!

A Day’s Worth of Transit Adventure in San Francisco and on the Bay

Hop on a street car on Market Street. Take a ferry to Larkspur, Sausalito, Treasure Island (not much to do but it’s a short ride and they have a nice beach), Jack London… and back. Back on a Street car to Ghirardelli Square. Visit the boats of Hyde Street Pier (weekends only). Watch the cable car turntable, and walk to a later stop to avoid long lines! Hop off on Market and catch a bus or Bart home. Get all the pictures, grab fun food along the way and don’t forget your water bottle!

Bonus: Hop off the cable car to visit the Cable Car Museum in Chinatown, or off the street car to visit the small San Francisco Railway Museum at Embarcadero.

Hiking by transit

That leading research on awe is conducted in Berkeley might have something to do with the incredible Bay Area landscapes. Did you know many trailheads and campsites are accessible by transit? We love this map. More about hiking with young kids and supporting their awe for nature soon—but as a rule of thumb, I choose trails of 5 miles or under so my forest-schooled two year old can walk them independently.

The Tula toddler carrier can be handy to carry kids on your back (up to 40lb) when they get tired of walking, and more serious hikers with younger kids might prefer a specialized hiking carrier.

A Day Trip to Sacramento Train Museum

Leave around 7.30-8am to hop on Bart to Richmond. Transfer to Amtrak. The California State Train Museum is a short walk away from the station. If you can, go on a Friday to catch the toy train mechanic and the historical hardware store next door (10am-2pm). Visit the museum: it’s a historical roundhouse with one of the few working locomotive turntable! The upper floor is dedicated to toy trains and has a play area. Hop on the historical train along the Sacramento river. Visit Old Sacramento on the way back. Recommended: cowboy hat and boots, train engineer and conductor costumes! More trains on the way back!

A Half-Day at with Toy Trains at Bay Area Museums

Randall Museum is free and has miniature train sets and toy trains. You can bring your own trains to play on the tracks, or borrow a set for a few bucks. OMCA, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and the Children’s Creativity Museum all have toy train areas. There’s also a model train museum in Richmond.

A Half-Day to Hop on Small Trains

They appear to all be in the East Bay! Fairyland is a short walk from Oakland and 19th street and has a cute pastel colored train for kids to ride. You can hike up to Tilden Park Steam Train from Orinda Bart, a 4 mile trail that begins near the station. It doesn’t have cover, so avoid hot days! The SF Zoo has a regular train, and Oakland Zoo is famous for its gondolas.

And more…

• An unofficial Bart documentary

• A South Bay loop itinerary to catch the Historical Railway Museum

• Fremont Pacific Bus museum

• Take the Hydrogen Fueled ferry at Pier 41 on the weekend!

• Take the ferry to Larkspur and hop on their shuttles to connect to the SMART train to Santa Rosa

• There aren’t enough train songs if you ask me. But here are a few: Little Red Caboose, Puff ‘n Toot, Choo choo train

• Train books for toddlers: Terrific trains, Freight Train, Quel train incroyable, Train Song, Trains Then and Now

Enjoy your public transit adventures!