Adequate bike parking is great, but inadequate bike parking can be an invitation to park right out front. The Paramount Theatre’s website doesn’t mention bike parking, but I didn’t have high hopes as we headed downtown for the Yo Gabba Gabba show. A twitter query about parking yielded a few “I locked up to a chain-link fence”s and The VeloBusDriver’s great suggestion to use the bike rack across the street in the Convention Place Station.

That was my plan, but we were running a little late and usually taking the bike means I don’t have to walk a block at two-year-old-leg speed. So instead I locked up to a trash can by the box office. The bulk of the foot traffic was around the corner at the entrance and there was ample room on the curb side of the bin that the pokey bike parts were shielded from kids walking by on the sidewalk. Win-win.

The bus station looks like a nice spot for future Paramount parking, but I don’t know if the rack is covered. That was the only problem with my trash can spot. The drizzle stopped by the time we arrived so I didn’t think to cover our seats and they were wet by the time we got out. I imagine I’ll forget all my rain lore every fall, but this year I’ll get very used to dealing with the rain again soon enough.

Another bonus of the front row Joe parking spot was that I got to talk family bikes with a couple moms waiting for the second show. However, had we not spent so long layering up in the lobby to prepare for the wet ride home, we would have been outside in time for Biz Markie to walk by us. Darn! As it is was, we merely saw him through the door as we were shoving our feet into boots and hands into gloves.