Go By Train

With an early morning blood draw, the loss of my bank card, a mammogram, and endless Passover cleaning and prep to do, this isn't turning out to be such a great day. So let me procrastinate further and tell you a bit about yesterday, which was quite delightful.

We joined a bunch of other homeschooling families for a day trip to Seattle via Amtrak. This required being downtown and fully awake before 8 am which was slightly traumatic, but we pulled ourselves together. The Dark Lord had yet another day off school so he joined us. I don't get to do so many things with all my kids anymore and I was delighted to have him along.

The train ride itself provided many hours of enjoyment for the kids, especially the little ones who enjoyed traveling without the restrictions of seat belts and car seats.

Once in Seattle, we decided to visit the central branch of the public library, which is a truly stunning structure. The Spouse is the real architecture enthusiast in our family, but I found the building absolutely breathtaking and had a field day taking pictures. After the library we walked down to the Pike Place Market. We failed to locate one particular vendor from whom we'd hoped to purchase a bar mitzvah present for MonkeyBoy's dear friend, but we had lots of fun wandering and eating piroshky and crumpets.We were pretty well worn out by the time we walked back to the train station for our return trip. I thought it would be quieter on the train what with all those worn out kids but they seemed determined to get the most out of every minute and they played hard until the train pulled into the station back in Portland.