Don't Shop On Bainbridge Island

I know this sounds pretty harsh and I'm not sure I'll stick to this myself for very long because I love Churchmouse Yarns, but for now I'm boycotting.

Bainbridge Island is a cute little town just across from Seattle by ferry, an expensive ferry. Its downtown has a bunch of cute little shops and resturaunts. I've been 3 times (yesterday included) since I moved to Seattle in September. I was even there last week spending my money on yarn at Chruchmouse Yarns.

So why am I boycotting? Well, yesterday two of my friends and I took the ferry (cost $44 roundtrip) to Bainbridge Island to go to Churchmouse Yarns which has an excellent reputation for being a great yarn store. It is one of my favorite yarn stores.

We spent about an hour in the store. I bought some Noro yarn last week when I was there, so I'm set for yarn (although they do have a nice selection of Malabrigo worsted and a pattern book I almost bought but I'm over my yarn budget for the month). However, both my friends bought yarn. Between the two I'd say they spent $60 or $70.

After buying yarn at Churchmouse Yarns we walked on the main road looking at the shops. We went into this great fabric store, Esters Fabrics, and then decided to go have lunch at Isla Bonita which is a mexican food place (not bad but I'm from Texas and I'm yet to have great Mexican food up here). We spent about $32 for lunch for the 3 of us.

Then we walked back to the car to drive back to the ferry to go back to Seattle. And there was a parking ticket on the car! We had exceeded the 2 hour time limit they have for parking. 2 hours?!? WTF.

Well, I think this is ridiculous. There is no way if you are taking a leisurely walk and stopping in several stores where you make purchases and then have lunch or dinner that you could do that in 2 hours! I would think the city of Bainbridge Island would want you stay there spending your money for as long as you want to instead of running you off after 2 hours.

The ticket was $20 which isn't a lot. I'm sure there are signs that state the 2 hour limit. But I've been 3 times and never noticed them. So I can't say how far apart they are. But IMHO if they are going to have such a ridiculously short time to park they should have better signage so that one would actually notice it.

In my 3 trips there I have never seen a whole lot of people strolling the street and I always wondered about that. Yesterday, when we were at Churchmouse there was at most 4 or 5 people in the shop and I thought this was strange because it is such a great shop.

Well, maybe other people have gotten tickets for parking too long and they don't want to make the trip over on principle too. I don't know. I just know that it will be awhile before I head over there myself, which is sad because did I mention, I LOVE Churchmouse Yarns.