Parking in Monterey Sucks!
I hate it when I have an experience that leaves me feeling as if I have just been ripped off and there is not a thing I can do about it.
Today, we drove down to the Monterey Bay Aquirium with family that is in town for the weekend. Parking was, as expected, non-existant. Normally, I wouldn’t mind parking in a lot somewhere for some silly amount of money, but the house guests were not up for a lot of walking up and down hills.
As luck would have it, I found a metered spot close to the aquarium. After dropping $5 in quarters into the meter, it had 3 hours on it. We were at the aquarium for 2 hours.
Yet, when I got back to the car, there was a $25 ticket on the windshield and the meter was expired. The ticket was written up 30 minutes after I had dumped $5 into the meter.
I would like to believe that it is just a broken meter, but I can’t help but feel taken. Especially since a number of cars around where I were parked all had tickets, too. Except for a couple, both of which looked to be local (tags, stickers, etc… that would indicate a resident).
So, if you are going to Monterey, be careful where you park. Not that being careful will help. It is hard to predict that the meter next to your car will drop from 3 hours expired in less than 45 minutes.