As promised, here are my "don't ask me how I know" instructions for getting to the office from the Peninsula via Caltrain!
The Muni is located right next to the CalTrain station (i.e. East of the train station, on that 280 off-ramp that turns into the Embarcadero). The $1.50 (flat rate, exact change) Muni looks like a train, but then goes underground somewhere around the Ferry Building. You want the first stop after it goes underground, Embarcadero. It's a ten minute ride at most. Then it's about a two block walk (away from the water) to get to the office. You will encounter two Starbucks en route. In the morning, there's a CalTrain that arrives around 8:15. At that time (i.e. rush hour), every Muni that leaves from 4th and King goes to Embarcadero Station, so you can just take the first one that comes. When you're going back in the evening, you have to be a little more careful about a few things, and leave yourself more time, accordingly. First, you have to be sure to buy a Muni ticket rather than a Bart ticket - same station, different machines. You need exact change, and the Muni machine - a turnstile - doesn't take dollar bills. So you have to go to a machine to convert your dollar bill to a dollar coin, and a different machine to convert your other dollar bill to quarters (the change machine doesn't take dollar coins). And then you have to get on the right Muni line - T and K, I think, but you'd better look at the sign. If you are returning home much after rush hour, the correct Munis are few and far between and you can wait in the station for half an hour until you get anxious about missing your train and end up taking a cab anyway, which is $8. After rush hour, the trains depart every hour, so you don't want to miss yours. This was all very confusing to me the first few times, but I think I've gotten the hang of it and now you can learn from all of my mistakes. Here are some other things I learned: Depending on the day of the week, your local CalTrain station may not have enough parking, and you will have to try to find street parking that doesn't have a two hour limit. Also there may be varying ways to buy your parking spot, from remembering your slot number and typing it into a machine near the train, to buying a receipt from the machine and running back to your car to stick it on your dashboard. So far all the parking machines and CalTrain ticket machines I've seen take credit cards. Also if you're in doubt about where to wait, remember that the trains run on the right-side track, and once the train is in the station, you may not be able to run to the other side.
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