I attended a couple MUNI Heritage Weekends while I lived in San Francisco, but I didn’t attend the one last year due to being pregnant, and I was going to skip this one due to having the little one in tow. However, we both got the rare good night sleep Friday night, I wanted to go, and I was eager to begin introducing little 8 month old Adam to my beloved old streetcars.
We took BART up to the city and arrived just as things began. Unlike the last one I attended in 2016, this was a much bigger and more populated affair. Several booths were set up to promote various organizations related to transit and trains, a fake cable car had been brought into the plaza for people to climb up on and take pictures with, which we availed ourselves of.
After the picture, we made our way over to the vintage buses which were doing 20 minute loops toward North Beach. The old 2230 bus was about to depart, so we selected that one.
Volunteers happily helped lift Adam’s stroller into the bus, and we were off. As we rode along I realized that this was Adam’s first bus ride, and while I’m not sure I’d say he had fun (based on his expression throughout the ride I texted MJ a picture with the caption “recreational bus rides? Mom, ur so weird”).
By the end of the ride he was dozing, which lasted as we returned to the plaza and walked around a bit. I made a stop at the San Francisco Railway Museum & Gift Shop right there where they were selling some vintage pins, which I happily scooped up.
We then did a bit more walking around the plaza waiting for street cars to come by, which is when we got our second look of the day at the old 578, built in 1896, making it the oldest streetcar still in operation in the world.
Always a crowd-pleaser, we also saw the 228 boat tram. I was a little disappointed to miss the 737 which I’ve never seen in operation (only parked in the barn), but we also got to see the lovely 496 from Melbourne, another one of my favorites.
As the afternoon crept up on us, it was time to meet MJ for brunch! He’s been working a lot, including over weekends, so it was nice for the three of us to spend a nice brunch in the city together.
It was nice to go out and have everything go well. Adam was in a good mood, he got in a couple on-the-go naps, and though he was quite lively at brunch, making for several baby hand-offs as we each attempted to finish our meals, he was happy. You have this vision in your head about what it’s like to have a little baby sidekick you can carry around with you, and then there’s the reality of making sure he’s always fed, changed, slept enough, and a bunch of other things to juggle in your mind while you’re out. I’m glad I went up into the city that Saturday, but it was still a tiring affair.
Sunday began by walking the couple blocks into town for the Castro Valley Fall Festival. It’s probably the most vendor-filled event we’ve been to thus far in town. Lots of vendors selling all kinds of interesting things, plus local businesses, non-profit organizations, and schools representing their place in our town. We got some food to nibble on as we walked around, Adam enjoyed looking around for a while, but I think ended up getting a little bored being pushed around in his stroller for so long in the warm weather. It was nice getting out and mingling with the neighbors and getting more familiar with our town, if only for a couple hours.
The rest of the day was spent making our first attempt at getting the closet doors installed. It turns out we needed a few more tools, but in the meantime we were able to continue a project started a few weekends ago to start hanging pictures around the house. We got my A New Hope script page hung in my office! And MJ made a valiant, but ultimately failed, attempt to hang my MUNI signs on the door going into my bathroom from the office. We’ll try that one again soon when we have the right equipment to hang it solidly on the door.
This weekend is much quieter. We have some home improvement tasks to complete and a bunch of little things to wrap up before our trip to Philadelphia next Saturday. We’re also going to get our flu shots (well, Adam gets his on Tuesday), so we’re all set before we start traveling. Looking forward to our visit back east, most notably we’ll be doing our first little road trip with Adam up to Rochester for my cousin’s wedding in early October.