She took him to the lake and he fell in love

(Lake Nebagamon, south of Superior, WI)

I'm back in Los Angeles, after a week's vacation. We had a wonderful time in Wisconsin, lovely lakes, great people, and just a fantastic sense of how folks outside L.A. live; very refreshing. We visited Lake Nebagamon Saturday afternoon, not long before driving down to "The Cities" to catch our flight back home.

OK, now to serious business:

I've never done this before, and I don't do it lightly, but based on last night's experience, this place is a rip-off:

http://www.laxparkingcenter.com/

Son-in-law Randy organized parking for our vacation for both groups: Him, Michaelle & Bella, and Pam & I. We both made reservations, and arrived at slightly different times a week ago Friday night. The lot is actually on 99th St., one block above Century, east of La Cienega.

Pulling in to 99th St., we saw different signs for airport parking on both sides of the street, with a well-lit valet-style setup on the right side. We pulled up, and were told to park in the lot at the end of the street. Driving the 100 feet or so to the entrance, we saw the driveway entrance blocked by barriers. We pulled back to the valet station, and were told to park in the structure on the other side of the street. We unloaded luggage, Pam drove in, took a ticket from the attendant, parked, and came back down. Self-parked, kept her keys and the ticket, just like any parking lot.

So far, no problem. But here's where it gets strange. When our flight landed, we called the lot 3 times for pickup. After almost an hour, the van finally showed up, we loaded our stuff in, and off we went. Meanwhile, Randy tells us he left his keys with the attendant, which we didn't do. This proved to be a mistake.

When the van dropped us off, Pam went up the the 6th floor, retrieved her car, payed the attendant in the lot the agreed-upon amount, and we were ready to go. Randy meanwhile goes into the office behind the valet station to pay his bill and retrieve his keys. They over-charge him by $18 with no explanation: "It's what the screen says; no, I don't know how to print the screen". We're curious now as to why Pam paid the attendant in the lot while Randy had to pay in a different location.

Armed with no receipt but having his keys, Randy now goes into the same structure we had parked in to get his car. And is he steamed when the attendant tells him that it is a different company, and he will have to pay $34 to get his car out just like we did.

An angry confrontation with the first lot people went nowhere, never mind that they mislead Randy, and us, into thinking that the lot on the other side of the street was also their facility. We were just lucky that they waved us on and didn't insist on holding our keys too. Bottom line is Randy had to fork over almost $90 to 2 different parking lots to get his car back. Further examination of signs on the structure we actually parked in revealed: "We have no relationship with the parking facility at 9920 S. La Cienega". The attendant at the good lot (9800 S. La Cienega) told Pam that the other guys often mis-directed customers to the other lot, so this scam may have been going on for some time.

Here is the good company: http://www.airpark-lax.com/

So fellow travelers searching for good long term parking, take my advice. Don't go to LA Parking Center at 9920 S. La Cienega.

Instead, park across the street at AirPark LA at 9800 S. La Cienega.

This is just my opinion, your mileage may vary. But I doubt it.