Saturday, December 13, 2008

Valet Parking at a Mall?

With all the horror stories of the economy, you wouldn't guess it was all that bad looking at the mall parking lots today. I drove up to Denver for my last drum lesson (more on that in a bit) and on my way home thought I would stop at the Park Meadows Mall in south Denver to do some shopping. I'm not super familiar with the area, but it is right of the interstate and C-470 so finding it isn't hard. I made my way into the mega shopping complex (and I mean MEGA) and needed a place to park. I don't mind a bit of a walk, but I didn't expect to see valet parking! Why would a mall need that? $7 a car. Then I saw that the parking area was completely full. That's why they need valet parking. I was not interested in that kind of crowd so I decided to skip the mall and get back on the interstate. It took me at least 20 minutes in thick traffic to figure out how to leave the parking lot and go the 1/4 mile to the interstate on-ramp. Everyone must have been out and about today! If they are buying, so much for poor retail sales! Don't know who would want to fight that kind of traffic mess if they weren't getting anything!

Once back on the interstate, I headed 10 miles south to the Outlet Mall in Castle Rock. Although it was full as well, it is a much smaller mall and I could handle these crowds. I found a kids clothing store with cute things to buy for Joey's first birthday. Spent a little too much (thank goodness for the items on sale!), stood in line for maybe 10 minutes and was on my way out. While in line, one register was ringing up a couple who had about eight big bags full of clothes. Lord help them if they have that many kids! I can only wonder what they were shopping for.

Back to my drum lesson. It was my last of the free lessons I won in the silent auction, so David filled my notebook with some classics. My Sharona and Brick House are a couple just to name a few. It should keep me busy for a while. If anyone in the Denver area needs drum lessons, I do recommend David at Littleton Drum Studios.

13 comments:

Terry Odell said...

What about Pipline?
I went to the Mall at Millenia this morning to get the one thing that I couldn't do conveniently on line. That's an upscale mall, and seems to have plenty of parking, but they've got valet parking near the entrance which is where the high-end restaurants are. It's "only" $5 BUT it's free if you have a Lexus. the dealership foots the bill for that one.

I got there shortly after the mall opened, went to the one store I needed, then browsed one more but couldn't find anything I liked. My gripe is the music -- it's too loud to hear yourself think. Then you go into a store, and they're playing their own music -- too loud as well. Can't even hear the clerks.

All in all, it was a one hour trip, portal to portal. And I'm glad I have an orange car!

Nicole said...

do you meam wipeout? i got that one a few weeks ago. ;-)

Terry Odell said...

No, I'm pretty sure there was one called Pipeline -- back from 'my day'. Of course I could be wrong, but I thought you had the music once in one of your books.

Unknown said...

i haven't set foot in the mall!! I've done almost everything online! Woo hoo!

Nicole said...

I found the song Pipeline online but it didn't seem have a drum beat I recognized. My 'anthology of rock drumming' does have Wipe Out, though.

Terry Odell said...

I'll confess to not paying a lot of attention to drum beats when the song was popular, but it still seems to stick in my memory. Which doesn't mean it would be part of yours.

Nicole said...

Pipeline
looks like it was a popular song, but there you go dating yourself again! hehehe.

Terry Odell said...

Hey, I'll admit to growing up with the "good" tunes.

Nicole said...

:-)

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Dennis Bell said...

Considering the convenience of Ezybook's Long Stay Parking Stansted option, wouldn't it be fantastic if malls offered valet parking too? Imagine the ease of pulling up to your favorite shops without worrying about finding a parking spot. Ezybook has certainly set the bar high for stress-free parking solutions!