All in the Family

My Mom and me on the Coaster together.

In my Coaster commuter world, there are two sets of regulars on the train who are couples: an older couple who sit quietly and read the newspaper in the morning, and a young couple who bike to the train station together and work at UCSD. I am also part of a commuting family group, although the dynamics are a bit different. One day per week my Dad rides the Coaster to see his grandkids, and another day my Mom rides the Coaster, also to see the kids. They share a Coaster pass, and so can't ride together. Plus, the point is to help my sister out with her two children, so she gets help from either Mom or Dad twice per week.

My Dad and me during our morning commute.

On those mornings, I get to ride with one of them half-way to downtown. (They get off at an earlier stop.) It's a nice way to spend the time in the morning, plus I know that some annoying person won't sit next to me. They take an earlier train home, so I don't see them in the afternoon, but, those two days, I look forward to talking to them during the morning commute. I wonder how many other people are part of our elite group of family commuters.

Where I Begin and End

San Diego Santa Fe Station, on the National Register of Historic Places.

To give you a sense of place in my commuter world, I begin in Oceanside in the morning and end in San Diego. The trip takes me almost exactly 1 hour. At the end of the day, I do it all over again (but starting in San Diego). The San Diego Santa Fe Station is a historic landmark, or something important like that.

Oceanside Train Station, not on any sort of historical list.

Oceanside doesn't have any type of cool designation, but it does have free parking in an enclosed garage, and connections to buses, the Sprinter (train going east), and trains going north (Amtrak, Metrolink). It is also two blocks from the beach, and smells of ocean air.

And so my work days begin and end.