Parking

When our family was at a state park a few weeks ago and had plans to visit the interpretive center there, my grandson warned us that it would be expensive.  He had been there with other relatives a year ago and he said that it cost fifty dollars.  “That’s crazy,” I told him.  “No visitor center associated with a park is going to charge that kind of entry fee.” When we got there, the parking lot was crowded and it wasn’t really of sufficient size for the number of vehicles jockeying for a Saturday spot.  There was an area that didn’t have official yellow lines for parking places but it looked like two vehicles could be squeezed in — so two of us in our group jimmied our cars at odd angles and parked there.  When we returned a couple of hours later, both cars had non-moving parking ticket violations, compliments of the city of Long Beach, Washington. Big tickets, half a hundred each.  Turns out my grandson was correct — the interpretive center did cost fifty bucks.