Getting around town with a stroller

Until I started pushing a stroller from A to B, I never really stopped to think how inaccessible some so-called accessible places are.

On Wednesday, Alex and I met a friend at the Yonge-Eglinton Centre to see Sex and the City at the SilverCity. I drove down and parked at a Green P on Holly Street -- one block east of Yonge at Eglinton. The first spot I found was on the third level and after I got the two of us all set up, I discovered that there were no elevators in this garage. My options were to carry the stroller down three flights of stairs or push it all the way around three levels of ramps.

So around and around we went.

Then I walked to the Yonge-Eglinton Centre and tried to go in the doors at the corner only to discover that immediately after entering the building you have to climb a half a dozen steps. So I turned around and went back out.

I walked up Yonge Street to the next entrance, which was at street level, and followed the signs pointing to the SilverCity. Suddenly, I was at the top of a down escalator that was too narrow to accomodate my stroller. The Yonge-Eglinton Centre is sort of an open-concept mall, with many levels and to get to the SilverCity, I had to take this escalator down walk across the lower level and then take another (too narrow) escalator up to the level above the one I was currently on.

A maintenance worker happened to be nearby, so I asked where I could find the elevator. He looked at me and said "oh no, to use the elevator, you have to go in the Dominion entrance on Eglinton".

Already late now, I had to go back outside, walk down Yonge Street and along Eglinton to the entrance by the Dominion; find the elevator and take it up to the second floor where I was finally at the SilverCity. Then of course, after I bought my ticket, I had to wait for the disabled elevator operator to bring me to the next floor because the escalators were, yet again, too narrow for strollers.

Thank goodness for commericials and previews or I would've missed the first 15 minutes of the movie thanks to this little adventure.

And to add insult to injury, when the movie was over and my friend waited with me to take the elevator back down to the Dominion doors, we got on the first elevator to arrive (there were two). But on the ground floor, this elevator let you off maybe 20 feet from the first elevator -- but in between the two elevators were five stairs.

I think the next time I try to go to the movies with Alex, I'm wearing the Snugli and leaving the stroller in the car.