North Bend is situated in the foothills of the Cascades, near the upper end of the Snoqualmie River Valley.  With a population of about 4500, the town has managed to preserve its older buildings and downtown area, and also has been able to keep the small town feeling that makes places like North Bend so great to live in.

North Bend has two main "sections" of town... the "old town" area, where the traditional city sprung up, and the "commercial area", which is over by the highway which runs past the town.

The train depot, once the busiest building in the little town, is now part of a Train Museum and Rail Road Park. 

A train travels from Snoqualmie and back several times a day, mostly for the kids, and to cart tourists...

They painted it during the summer of 2007... I managed to get a "Before and after" of sorts.  The "new" color is actually the one that's historically accurate.

 
This is the train station after it was painted back to its original colors.

On a separate note, red was a very cheap paint color, because it was so easy to make - its literally made from rust.  That's why a lot of barns were painted that color.  A bit of useless trivia... =]

 
The older section of town, to me, is the 'good' part of town.  If I can, I'll do most of my shopping and what-not here, rather than in the newer section on the edge of town.

 
Ace hardware is probably the place I visit the most... except maybe the grocery store.

 
Los Cabos, a Mexican Food Eatery, is one of our favorites in town... the food comes good, hot, and fast, a GREAT combination!

The Dairy Freeze is a nice stop of a great shake or cone...

The movie theater is small, but its very quaint, and the sound is excellent.

 
The post office is pretty impressive, especially for a small town.

Its much larger than the Post Office in the city I grew up in back in Maine, and it's population was more than 10,000 when I was growing up.

Its pretty well equipped, but it doesn't have an "Automatic Postal Machine", which is too bad.

 
Mt Si sits literally on the edge of town... you can see it from just about everywhere.

Even the drive through at McDonald's has a good view of Mt Si!  :)

The town, about 10 years ago, apparently tried an experiment with turning itself into a "Bavarian Village", like Leavenworth... but no on in town was German, and it didn't go over well... the Bakery, though, was an "early adopter"...

There's a plan in the works now to revive the "western town" feel that it already has... they want to bring that out more.

 
The TV show Twin Peaks was filmed in North Bend.  The Cafe in the show is now "Twede's"... the name has changed a few times over the years, but the same family has owned the corner diner since it opened in the 1940's.

 

Quite a few buildings in the "old downtown" area are from the "early days" - right around the turn of the century.  North Bend was a good stop over point for folks heading over the pass, and there were a few hotels... they're now offices and shops...

 
This Chevrolet Dealership is the only place in town to buy a new car... they also have the only used car lot, too... right across the street.

Nice view of the Mountain, though, eh?

Frankie's Pizza is the best Pizza in town... way better than "The Pizza Place"! 

Gastore's is a GREAT Italian restaurant... we REALLY like it there!

North Bend is home to the Forest Service Station, which is on the edge of town.

 

QFC is the large grocery store in the "old town" portion of North Bend.  Safeway is located in the newer section of town, near the highway. 
 

 
North Bend Bar and Grille is a great place for food... Really good "Black and Blue" steaks, and a very decent plate of fish and chips, among other things, of course!

For a small town, we have an AWESOME Les Schwab's.  GREAT service, nice prices, and very friendly employees... its a very nice store to have around! 
 

 
North Bend Automotive.  I brought my Jeep here, but they wouldn't work on it because it was too old -- they didn't have anyone there who dealt with Carburetors and non solid state ignition.

Nice people, though.  Very honest and up front.  

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