Last post for The Music Man.
The performance started at 7, and the plan was to go out to dinner beforehand. I wanted to leave at 4:30 and get downtown and park by 5:00 which would give us 2 hours to walk to and from the restaurant, order food, eat, etc.
Since it was a Sunday, street parking was free. Because of this parking was not plentiful. As a matter of fact, I went around and around searching for parking for almost 15 minutes. I really did not want to have to pay for parking.
Eventually I decided to cut my losses, and pay for parking. I needed to simply park so we would have enough time to eat before the show. August said “There’s 5th Avenue Theater parking,” and I didn’t believe him. “The 5th Avenue Theater doesn’t have its own parking garage, August.”
I turned the corner, pulled into the parking garage for the Washington Athletic Club/Hilton Hotel and Alamo Rent-A-Car. It offered public parking and was on the same block.
Turning in, we need to go up a level, which I do. The second floor is reserved for car rentals, so I go up to the 3rd level. Déla asks if we really need to be going up so far as I prepare to go up to the 4th floor in search of a place to park. I figured it would only add another minute or two, so I decided to drive over to the other side and drive down a level to see if there were any spots.
As it was, the entire second level was reserved for car rental returns. I couldn’t get back up from there so I had to go down to the first floor then drive over back to the other side before ascending the parking garage.
It was on the first level we found a spot. Right by the exit.
The lesson doesn’t end there.
We stopped off at the box office on our way to dinner to pick up our tickets, hoping to avoid the inevitable line just prior to the performance. The person asked if we needed parking. I said we already parked, and her reply was that it was $6 for the Hilton parking garage, it wasn’t free, but it was a discount. Then it dawned on me. We parked at the Hilton parking garage, and indeed August apparently did see a sign for 5th Avenue Theater patrons to park there.
After the performance we were able to not only get into our car quickly, what with it being on the first floor of the parking garage, but we were facing in such a way that when we leff I was able to pull right onto the freeway and make it home quickly.
Listen to your kids.