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06/19/2003 Archived Entry: "JP's Meetup Journey"
JP Stewart gets extra points for making the effort to come to the Seattle Weblog Meetup last night -- he's not used to driving to Seattle from the east side, and the Yahoo maps directions weren't easy for him to follow. "Now comes the hard part (this of course is something that I did not realize until much later though). I have to try and find a place to park near where I am going. I thought at the time that I was lucky because I found a cool spot right next to where I was going, and it had a meter, so I thought that it was safe. After I spent quite a while parallel parking (its not easy to parallel park in an SUV apparently), I looked over and saw that there was a sign on the meter that said 'No parking 6pm to 8am except Zone 21 Permits'. I had to look twice because at first I thought that my mind was just playing tricks with me. Apparently though it wasn't, so because I was not the holder of a magical Zone 21 permit, I felt that I should move (since I have friends that live in cities where they have to fight over places to park at night, and I did not want to take someone's 'driveway'). So then, I go driving ALL AROUND and quickly realize that the streets in this area are REALLY messed up, since there were sometimes when the street litterally was in the shap of an S while intersecting with another street, and also having a street curve in the middle of an intersection, which means that I could not see the oncoming traffic to know if it was safe to turn. Finally, I give up and call my friend who lives in the city, and I ask him for suggestions. He luckily knows where I am and makes a suggestion for a place not far from where I was. Along the way, I noticed that there was a pay for parking spot right across fro where I was going that was rather empty. I decided that it was worth it to not park near anyone (I parked in the far corner), and to be close to where I was going."
Replies: 4 comments
JP's saga really shows how difficult it all can be when you aren't used to visiting a city. He's lived here a while but doesn't usually come into Seattle, so exits, highways, streets, all are unknowns. Tough!
Posted by Anita @ 06/20/2003 12:13 PM PST
I parked in the pay lot on the opposite corner. Was worth five bucks not to drive around looking for a spot. And it also came in handy when I couldn't remember if I'd locked the car -- after several attempts, the remote finally worked from Bauhaus (saw the lights flash).
Posted by Jerry Kindall @ 06/20/2003 12:06 PM PST
one of the reasons I like Bauhaus is that it's walking distance for me!
Posted by Anita @ 06/20/2003 07:49 AM PST
I tried for that spot too. As did a car in front of me.
After 10 minutes of searching and parking a good way off, we saw an open, legal spot 3 cars up from bauhaus while walking in.
Posted by eric @ 06/20/2003 07:09 AM PST