As Justin Bieber fans flooded the Tacoma Dome, the LeMay museum next door offered parents something their screaming children couldn’t: peace and quiet.
LeMay-America’s Car Museum stayed open until 10 p.m. Tuesday and advertised the opening as “Parental Daycare.”
For $10, adults could wait out the pop idol’s concert while perusing the museum’s collection of automobile history.
It was a saving grace for Ruth and Mark Chapman of Auburn.
Their daughters, 16 and 13, told them about a week before the concert that they had a friend who needed their third parental chaperone ticket.
That left Mom and Dad with hours to kill.
“One of us was going to have to draw the short stick and go (to the concert),” Ruth Chapman said at the museum. “We thought, there’s no way we’re going to leave them alone in Tacoma.”
The LeMay is considering extended hours for other Tacoma Dome events as well, head of communications Scot Keller said.
Those responsible for younger fans couldn’t escape the Bieber fever Tuesday.
“If they were old enough to go by themselves, we’d be going to the museum, and then the bar,” said Josh Sanchez with a laugh. He brought his 6-year-old daughter Jaici to the concert from Grays Harbor County with friend Mike Conner and his 10-year-old daughter Zie.
The museum cafe was a hotspot for concert-goers before the show.
Ivy Young from Maple Valley grabbed a bite with her kids and friends, but she had no intention of skipping Bieber. She’s a fan, too, she said.
“He’s 18; it’s OK,” she added with a laugh.
Corissa Olson, 10, had been waiting “forever” to see Bieber in person.
“It feels like a thousand years,” she said.
Mom Linda said she gladly would have sent her 17-year-old son with the girls if she’d known the museum would be open.
Corissa and friends from Puyallup were arguing congenially about who might get to go on stage.
But from inside the LeMay, not one squeal could be heard – unlike the Chapmans’ car ride to the concert.
“They were pretty much fan-girling the whole way,” Mark Chapman said.
Alexis Krell: 253-597-8268
alexis.krell@thenewstribune.com
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