We left the house about 9:15, planning to park at the metro station and take the train to the zoo. We got to the station about 10:30, but there were absolutely no parking spaces. We drove around the parking lot for several minutes but all we saw was several other cars driving around looking for parking spaces. We left the parking lot and drove around the station. No additional parking. No street parking. There were a couple metered spots, but we didn't have enough change to use that option.
We decided that we would drive in a little closer to the city to the next metro stop. We had been there before, when we went to the Museum of Natural History and had no problems. This time, there was traffic. Creeping along, rush-hour-type traffic. At 10:45 in the morning!! AAUUUGH!
We finally made it to the metro station and immediately noticed that the parking lot also had a sign out front that said the lot was full. We drove a bit further to the parking garage. Closed because it was full. Are you kidding me?!?! We decided that we would just feed the meter and guess how long we were going to be gone. I went into the metro station to get some change. It was pretty quiet at that time of the morning, and there were two metro workers standing there chatting. The conversation went something like this: Me: (cheerfully) "Excuse me. Good morning. Is there a change machine where I could get some quarters for the metered parking?"
Metro worker: "No."
Me: "Is there a way to get change from the ticket machines?"
MW: "No."
Me: "So there is no way for me to get some change?"
MW: "No."
Me: "So do you have any ideas where I could get some change?"
MW: "Uhhhh ... there's a Giant [grocery store] 'round the corner. Or the cabbies out front."
Gee. Thanks. (for nothing)
Well, I did go ask some cab drivers for change. I knocked on the windows of at least six cabs. Not one had change. Or, they did, and they just didn't want to help me out. Well, okay, one guy had 4 quarters, but that wasn't enough for 3-4 hours being parked at the meter. By now it had been almost an hour and we had basically run out of options. We were left with turning around and heading home. Sure, we could go find the grocery store, get some change, and come back to the metered parking. But by the time we did that, then took the metro to the zoo, we would only have a limited amount of time to spend there and we were facing heading back in rush hour traffic to get me to work on time.
I cried. It's one thing when I'm disappointed, but I really felt like I was letting Sierra down. I know she's probably not quite old enough to really understand, but we had told her we were going to the zoo, and she had spent 2 hours in the car, only to be forced back into it (she was not pleased. not that I can blame her.).
On the way home, we stopped and picked up some sandwiches and then a very helpful woman at Subway (a helpful person! first time I ran into that yesterday!) actually looked up a park for us online. It was a little bit out of the way, but the drive there was pretty and the park was really nice with a trail, a large playground, and a beautiful lake. We ate our lunch outside and let Sierra run around on the playground.
We checked out the lake, which was lovely and still now, since it's still the off season. 
The guy working there said that on a busy summer afternoon, it's like a beehive there, with a concession stand, and boat rentals, and a boat launch. It wasn't what we had planned, and I'm still sad we missed out on the zoo, but at least we got to enjoy some time outside on a lovely day.
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