No matter how hard we try, whenever my friend Melissa and I go anywhere it somehow turns into an adventure that is worthy of an “I Love Lucy” episode. Tonight we drove to Reston to the lovely Scrawl Books for a little book talk on the most recent Newbery and Caldecott Award winners. (This is the kind of exciting event we live for.)
After 15 wrong turns we found the parking garage but Even Though We Followed the Signs we ended up stuck between a wall and that parking arm thingy, which would not go up. After I got us out of there we couldn’t find a place that wasn’t parking for either Balducci’s or residents Even Though The Sign Clearly Said VISITOR parking. So we left and tried to park on the street but after 10 minutes we still weren’t able to understand the parking restrictions AND neither one of us could download the app. This is when Melissa remarked that the parking situation is so bad in Reston that it was featured on NPR.
So we decided to go back in the parking garage and park in the section for Balducci’s customers only.” I wish I had taken a picture of the sign that said my car would be “immobilized” if I didn’t park “head in,” which of course meant that I had to get back in the car and move it AGAIN.
The elevator ride was uneventful, however, it took another 5 minutes to find the door to get out of Balducci’s.
We then tried to walk to Hen Penny to get some chicken, except that the Google map was upside down so we couldn’t tell which way we were walking and then she said “you have arrived,” but of course there was nothing there so we walked around the block and then walked back again. Did I mention that it was freezing? It was. While I was trying to reprogram the Google map on my phone, Melissa was Googling Hen Penny and found out that they closed at the end of December — and, get this — it was because of the parking situation in Reston.
We were forced to rush into the Panera for dinner and just barely made it to Scrawl Books in time for the presentation. Afterwards we couldn’t find the door to enter Balducci’s so we could get back into the garage, and then it took us 11 wrong turns to get back on the road.
You’ll be glad to know we are both back in our respective homes.
