Leaving Seattle (or why you should keep your ticket close)

I'm heading back from Seattle today after a good meeting with a client (it was good because they A) understand it's going to be a lot more work than we thought and they're okay with it and B) I put most of the next steps on them).

One inconvenience of traveling by rail is the scheduling. Granted, I'm leaving at 5:25 PM, which is a very comfortable time of day to be heading back, but I had to get to downtown Seattle at a pretty inconvenient time. Still, it's better than trying to get to Seatac at 5 in the evening, but my brother had to kill half his day getting me from Everett to Seattle.

We got downtown around 2:30, plenty of time, and found a place to park. We wandered into a bookstore with a coffee shop, chatted for awhile, gave a couple some ideas on what to do on their upcoming trip, and came out with about 40 minutes to spare.

Unfortunately, as we went to get my suitcase from his car, we found a little trick the city of Seattle has put in place -- it was clearly a 2 hour zone, the little computer took his money and gave him a sticker good through 4:45, but the parking zone apparently became a bus zone at 3 so they towed his car.

This was in very small text, in black (not the traditional red) at the bottom of the sign. It may just be me, but that seems like bait and switch. He called the city, found his car was about 2 miles away, and that it would cost $140 to get it out of hock.

Fortunately for me I had my train ticket (and my laptop) with me. I'll have to figure out someway to get my suitcase before my next trip, but as the grand scheme goes, I think I did a lot better on the deal then he did…