My first Mother's Day was a couple weeks ago. I spent the morning downtown with Sweet Pea and LA at the Walk to Empower event (formerly the Y-ME Walk). It was great to have Sweet Pea with us and we had a great morning. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining. I could not have asked for a better start to my day. After the race was over, I met up with an old friend from college and her mom who were walking for their sister/daughter-in-law. It was great to catch up with them and introduce them to Sweet Pea.
The only problems we encountered dealt with parking. Or should I say getting to and from the car in the parking structure. It was a mess. We parked my car in the Grant Park South lot underground. Three stories underground. Making it up to the race wasn't bad. There were escalators going up and there was an elevator from the first floor underground to the street. Although there was no way we were getting in the elevator, so we grabbed the stroller and hauled it up those last stairs. I should clarify that I'm not talking about a little umbrella stroller. I'm talking about a Chicco Travel System. With the car seat part. And a 12 pound baby. No small feat for 7:30am. We were proud of ourselves when we made it to the top of the stairs.
Going back down to the car was a whole other story. Had we been paying attention, LA and I would have realized there were only escalators going up...not down. We might have noticed that there were only narrow stairways. We might have figured out that it was going to be almost impossible for the two of us to make it down the stairs with the "stroller" and all the goodies we would pick up after the race. But that did not happen. We were in too much of a hurry when we got downtown to notice any of this.
I had taken Sweet Pea out of her stroller after the race so she wouldn't be cooped up the whole time. I figured I would just carry her down to the car and we would be on our way. When we got to the entrance of the parking lot, LA and I realized that it wasn't going to be that easy. Thankfully a woman noticed us staring at the stairs wondering just how we were going to make it and she swiftly grabbed one end of the stroller and helped us down to the next level. There we were greeted by the payment lines. Oh yeah, we have to pay here before we can get out of this lot. Great. Oh and I left the ticket in my car. Even after the 10 signs I passed reminding me to take my ticket with me? Nice. I hike down the next two levels to my car, grab the ticket and haul myself back up to the payment area. LA and I pay and then make our way to the stairs. I am pretty sure I laughed out loud when I saw what we were going to have to do. However, once again, a nice woman came to our rescue and helped LA with the stroller while I carried Sweet Pea. Woo Hoo I thought. Only one more set of stairs left. Of course, these were the narrowest and steepest (maybe not, but they certainly looked that way). We stopped and tried to figure out if there was a way for me to get the car up to that level. We must have looked lost because a gentleman carrying an armload of water bottles came up to us and asked if we needed help. We quickly agreed and he helped us manuever the stroller down those last stairs.
Wow. I really just posted three paragraphs on parking. That's lame. More to come tomorrow on the rest of my first Mother's Day.
Why didn't you wait with Sweetpea while LA went to get the car and met you at the top? Pregnancy brain should be wearing off soon! LOL!!
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