A Seattle Anecdote

If you were to go back in my weBlog to November 2008, you would know that we visited Seattle once before.  However, I just read the post and saw that I never shared our tragic car-towing story from that trip.  So here it is.  It will give context to the following post. 

Because we were jobless at the time, we tried to be super-DUPER frugal.  During 2 1/2 weeks of travel, we managed to either camp or stay with friends or family nearly every night.  I think 2 of the nights, because it was raining, we broke down and stayed at the local dodgy motel.  (I think we found a $30 hotel somewhere in Oregon.)  We ate things like apples and PB&J in our car, and if we ate out, it might have been something like sharing a $5 Footlong from Subway.

But when we got to Seattle, we decided to reward ourselves and splurge a little.  Plus, Austin wanted me to know what good fish could really taste like, since I've never been a fish eater.  A famous Seattle restaurant called Ivar's came highly recommended, so we parked our car in a place that we thought was nearby, filled the parking meter, and headed down.  Our dog, Seamus, was with us on the trip, and he was more than happy to hunker down inside and wait for our return.  The whole lot of us was highly intimidated by the vast busyness of this great city.  (Remember, we were Paonia country bumpkins at the time.)  I did notice that, although I had paid for 2 hours on the parking meter, there was a sign that said something about "No Parking" during certain hours.  I pretty much ignored that thinking, "But I've paid for my 2 hours!"

We went down to the waterfront, discovered that Ivar's was quite a ways further south than we had imagined, but went in and had a delightful lunch.  Many dollars later, I discovered that I do rather enjoy salmon and halibut and that Carson didn't like mashed potatoes.  Noticing the time and remembering the "No Parking" sign, Austin ran ahead to check our car just in case anyone was ticketing.  I paid for the lunch and began the hike back up to our car.  (I remember at the time thinking, "Crikey!  I'm carrying a baby and wearing flip flops, yet I'm running up the stairs from the waterfront like a bloomin' athlete!  I guess it pays to live at 6000ft and then visit the seashore!")

I met Austin halfway.  "The car is gone," he said.

"What??!  You're kidding, right?"

"No, the whole road became a bus lane at 2:00, and they have two tow trucks hauling everyone out of the way."

Good heavens!

Anyway, after more running thru the city and trying to figure out the correct bus route to the impound yard, we retrieved our car and our dog.  Ridiculous.  Including lunch, the entire venture put us out somwhere over $200.  When we splurge for lunch, we really splurge for lunch!