DMB at The Gorge

While we were still in New Zealand, Bill saw that Dave Matthews Band was playing at the Gorge at the end of August. They had a “family weekend” thing going on where kids under 10 were free on Friday and Sunday night for lawn seats. We decided to take the kids.

Bill said we need to be there at 3pm so we showed up right about that time. The kids were stretching after the 5 hour drive.

Quick family snapshot of our first concert together.

Heading into The Gorge.

the view is incredible!

After we found a good spot and settled in – we started talking to some people around us who had been there all weekend and said Dave wasn’t coming on until 7pm. OUCH! for some reason he thought they were coming on early. Oh well – we realized we had many hours to burn so Bill and the kids took trips here and there for food and drinks and bathroom breaks. Then the opening act – Brandi Carlile came on and she was great. The kids had fun dancing to her music.

these two were adorable.

there was another little girl near us who came much better prepared. Coloring books, toys, ear protection, younameit. She brought the coloring book and crayons over on her own to share and play with E&C. So cute watching 3 – 3 year olds play together while at a concert.

a panoramic of the scene.

at dusk it was awesome. I had to run to our car to get more towels and warm clothes. it got cold fast!

bill was beyond excited that Tim Reynolds and Jeff Coffin were there.

our kids were naturals with the glow sticks and people were handing them over to the kids like crazy because they thought they were cute.

like any concert there was smoking going on – both pot and cigarettes (remember WA has now legalized pot). But overall it was a pretty tame area that we were in and the kids didn’t even mention the various smells. so glad we took them!!

this was about 9:45pm and we were still going strong. the flash was hard to anticipate though.

this photo took forever to flash and take and it was PITCH black out there so we were a bit stunned by the brightness. The kids and I would occasionally sit down and cozy up for some warmth.

when all the kids started laying down and getting cozy and settling in. It was about 10:30 and we still had a 2 hour drive home. Once the kids started looking like they were going to fall asleep I convinced Bill that we should leave soon. We left about 11pm, which I thought was really good for us. Bill was a bit bummed to miss out on all the rest of the songs and had to check out the set list this morning to see how long they played. I hope we can do this again sometime. It was great fun!