300 miles for some street ball? Uh, sure.

Road trip—Woohooo! Road trip to Spokane, Washington for Hoopfest—Woohoo! Road trip to Spokane, Washington for Hoopfest with three fifteen-year-old girls—Woo-hey, wait a minute. That's not the kind of road trip I remember.

Well, I reckon that's just part of being a dad. You sign up for stuff, that stuff eventually rolls around, and before you know it, you're driving down I-90 for a five-and-a-half-hour trip to do the stuff.

Such was the case this weekend, as my daughter and three of her old basketball rec league cronies set sail for the largest three-on-three basketball tournament on the planet, 300 miles away in the Lilac City of Spokane. 6,700 teams, 3,000 volunteers, 200,000 players and fans, and 428 courts spanning forty downtown city blocks comprised this colossal event. Another dad, Chris, accompanied me as a fellow chaperone. This is my good friend, Chris:

Hang on a second, why don't I also introduce our awesome team? Okay. Here's Maddy:

And Halle:

And Emily:

And of course, the member of the team who is indebted to her mother and me for the very air that she breathes, Zoe:

At first the girls were a little apprehensive about their competition, especially since most teams were made up of tall, high school and club basketball players. Our kids wore their concern on their sleeves:

But eventually, as the young tend to do, they shook off the butterflies and started enjoying the atmosphere:

Normally, I would post a photo of the last remaining member of our entourage—me—but since I accepted the local beauty college's promotional offer for a free haircut, I'll just use an older image:

The kids played aggressively and fought hard in the sweltering eastern Washington sun. The competition was rough. Oh, and by the way, here's another picture of my baby, since this is my blog:

Dads don't usually get to spend entire weekends with their teenage daughters, so I consider the entire weekend a double-overtime win with a three-pointer at the buzzer.

Nothing but net.