In a moment of weakness, I gave way to peer pressure and signed the girls up for Irish Dance Camp....70 miles away. You can't exactly drop them off and then drive back home, so, even with carpooling, we had a few days when we were stuck in North Bend...looking for stuff to do.

The first day, we went to the outlet mall (to escape the heat), but you can only shop for so long - especially with kids. We tried a couple parks, but didn't find anywhere stellar.

An entirely new approch was needed for day two: sight-seeing....and train-chasing.

We drove over to Snoqualmie Falls.


The kids wouldn't look at the camera...


....because they were too busy looking at the waterfall. It's amazing that you can feel the spray from that far away!

There's a train that runs between North Bend and Snoqualmie, but that wasn't an option - it was "A Day out with Thomas", requiring reservations and line-waiting abilities (neither of which we had). Still, BooBoo was thrilled to see Thomas thru the chain-link fence (I know, hard-core security!), and, since the road runs right along the tracks, we "raced" Thomas the Tank Engine. Thrill of thrills! ( -if you're 4.)

I have picutes...but they're trapped on my phone.

I guess dance camp paid off. Sofia came home from her first feis with two gold medals, one silver medal and a second-place trophy. Shiney things!