Lost in Raleigh

Not really, but come on Raleigh! with the freakin' signs!

Day Two of Spring Break was to hit the Museum of Natural Science. I have been to this museum three times before; the last time being last month's 3rd grade field trip with my daughter's class (I was the cool chaperone). But today, I couldn't seem to **get there**.

Course, I didn't look it up before heading that way. I got a bit cocky after my trip to Fearrington Village yesterday, which I hadn't googled and read the directions briefly from the website. Plus, it's a city museum, how hard can it be?? Surely there will be signs to direct me -- what else do I need?

Luckily, I had an old Raleigh Rand McNally map in my car. I struggled to find it behind the passenger seat (to which my daughter thoughtfully reminded me that 'it's been there all the time') after circling the area twice.

The first time I headed that way, I saw the sign to the city museums. Ha! I was right - the city was going to get me there. So I followed sign #1, turned as it instructed then followed sign #2 and suddenly, I'm on Capital Blvd. headed AWAY from downtown Raleigh. Where the hell did sign #3 go? Sure, I passed a sign telling me where to go to the State Capitol, but nothing indicates that it also includes the museums.

Then I miss the turn to Peace Street and I'm almost back to where I started from on Glenwood. I am reminded of the movie "Groundhog Day".

I try a different route - and end up heading away from where the musuem is supposed to be. Come on now! I've driven to the museum before, why the heck can I not find out it now (answer: because I didn't map it like I did before)???!!!???

So I sit at some parking lot, trying to figure out where the hell I need to turn to get to it -- making sure my streets are going the direction I need to go in. I went the different route mentioned in the previous paragraph - forget the Raleigh signs -- and somehow ended up where I had wanted to in the first place. As we walked to the museum, I told the girls that I don't even know how I ended up here and probably wouldn't be able to find it again (on my own).

Oh and the best part of it: we were there maybe an hour, no more than 1 1/2 hours. When we left, I couldn't find the damn parking ticket anywhere and paid $8 for a lost ticket -- as opposed to the $1 it would've cost with the ticket in hand.