As part of getting settled into Redmond, I thought it would be good to join a bowling league. I haven't bowled in league for a long time due to wrist and hand pain, but I figured a few games a week shouldn't bother me too much.
Each week, my son has asked if he could come bowling with me. We told him that this week, we'd all go together to bowl a game before my league began. As we got there, we decided we'd actually just have my son bowl a game by himself, so that he could bowl his first-ever game. The bowling alley I attend for league has a sign that says you must be 4 years old to bowl, and since my son just turned 4, we thought we'd be all set. We'd just pay for him to bowl one game, probably in his socks. However, the plan fell through.
As it turns out, Tech City Bowl no longer lets you just pay by the game unless you're a league bowler. Even though I'm a league bowler, my family doesn't qualify. We had two options: "Bowl all you want for $13/person (shoes included)" or "$15/hour + $4 shoes." This means that for him to bowl one game, it would cost $13! But there's another catch too; they don't have shoes that fit him. He wears a 7.5 and the smallest they have is a 9. Without shoes that fit, you're not allowed to bowl.
I really hate telling the boys we're going to do something and then not being able to make it happen. Fortunately, he took it in stride, but I was pretty ticked. I thought Tech City Bowl was supposed to be a family-friendly bowling center!
I ended up talking to a lady that works there during league tonight. She said that they discontinued the per-game pricing because prices had gotten to $6/game and they felt they were doing their customers a disservice with that price. Seems to me they did me (and themselves) a disservice by turning us away when they had 25 empty lanes.