Laundry woes, or laundry wonderland

Today our family headed off on a brand new adventure - off to the laundromat.

Our almost-new (only two year old!) washer had been squeaking, and we had generally ignored it, assuming that we had some time to figure out what was going on.  Unfortunately, it turns out that what would have been a $70 repair had we done it when the squeaking started turned into a $700 repair when we let it go for a few weeks.  Word to the wise - call a specialist at the first sound/sight of trouble with a major appliance!  Steve and Christina wish they had, and thought of the downfall of our washer as a woe.

Clara and Elena, on the other hand, found it to be a wonderful new adventure as we headed off to a spot where we let them help do the laundry!

Everything about it was fun to them, from shoving in the clothes to putting in the detergent to shoving in the quarters.  (It takes a lot more quarters than we remembered - man!).

What else made this laundromat trip a fantasy trip for the girls?  This circa 1960's laundromat has a built-in ice cream parlor that we took full advantage of.

There was also an arcade area where the girls pretended to be crazy cab drivers in one of the games, and where Steve played pinball with them on another.  And three loads of laundry got washed in 25 minutes, so that's definitely a plus!  We may be headed to this adventure spot again, since the new washer won't arrive until the middle of next week (and we do a LOT of laundry!).  It's always fun to find something new to do in this small town, even if it does come in the form of an inconvenient surprise!