Weather Archives - In the Duv

I was at a basketball game in Bothell last weekend when an old college roommate called me out of the blue. She and a friend were headed from Salt Lake City to Hawaii with standby tickets for the long weekend. But they’d gotten stuck in Seattle and couldn’t get a flight out to the islands.

So, she asked if they could come stay with us instead. Duvall is almost like Hawaii, right?

While they drove their rental car from the airport, we stopped by a party store in Woodinville and picked up some leis and Hawaiian décor items. We pumped the ukulele tunes and did our best to give them a little piece of the islands right here in The Duv.

How do you have a Hawaiian vacation in Duvall? I’m glad you asked.

If the weather is sunny, you head down to The River, aka the sandy beach in McCormick Park, dip your toes in the sand and feel the gentle breeze on your face. To maintain the tropical illusion, don’t ever EVER touch the frigid water.

After the beach, head up to C.C.’s for some ice cream.

The weather was cold and wet last weekend so we just went straight for the treats. One of our guests has a severe gluten allergy, so she asked the ladies at C.C.’s to open a new container of ice cream from the back and use a fresh scoop that hadn’t come into contact with any cones.

They graciously agreed and even sold us a gluten-free cookie to go with our Maui Waui.

The staff at C.C.’s are always awesome and accommodating and we love their ice cream. Remember late last fall when the weather prognosticators predicted the biggest wind storm in 100 years, so CCs gave everyone in Duvall free ice cream, “in case the power went out and everything melted”? And then the wind blew for ten seconds and the sun came out? And we felt okay about the lack of storm excitement because we were so full of free ice cream? Good times.

We shopped along Main Street and when one friend said, “What I really wanted to do in Hawaii was stand under a waterfall,” we gave her a waterfall. A good one. Just a few miles up the valley. She did not stand under it. Because of death.

If the weather had been better, we could have hiked up to Cherry Creek Falls.

Eventually we made our way by bridge over to the “big island” for some pineapple, pulled pork, and flying fish.

Not Hawaii. But, not bad.

How would you create a faux-Hawaiian vacation in Duvall?

I didn’t plan for my first post on this blog to be so controversial but I think this needs saying – I’m hoping for snow next week.

Because I’m Canadian.

And a freelance writer who doesn’t have to commute anywhere further than the Ticketyboo bag in my pantry.

And because snowmen.

When you’re having trouble getting across the WooDu after work in time to take your son to Karate practice in Woodinville, just sit there parked in traffic in our beautiful valley, smile, and think, “It’s Kathryn’s birthday this week and she loves the snow. Smiley emoji with heart eyes.”

Cliff Mass thinks there may be snow next week. So that means there’s at least a 3.6% chance.

Snow is so rare in Duvall that when it comes, it’s like fluffy white magic sprinkles are turning everything into a Christmas wonderland. And I like fluff and magic and sprinkles. Also Christmas. Also wonderlands. You get the point.

Snow wasn’t a huge deal where I grew up in Calgary, where I went to school in Utah, or when I lived in Denver.

But it’s a big deal in our town.

Winter storm – December 2008.

So much snow fell in Duvall followed by such low temperatures that we turned Stephens/Bruett/152^nd/The Big Hill into a snowboard hill.

(It should be noted that no one ever calls it Bruett, unless their name is google maps, or they are intent on causing trouble. It is not marked as Bruett on the street itself. We will be digging into this in detail in a future post.)

Back to snowpocalypse and the impromptu snowboard hill.

I don’t snowboard, but I do eat Thai food, and The Thai Restaurant does not close. Not ever, from what I’ve observed. So, a neighbor and I got into laundry baskets at the top of The Big Hill and rode to the bottom of the hill alongside the youngsters to enjoy some curry.

We also picked up a few necessities at the Duvall Family Grocer and then hauled our catch back up the hill with bungee cords attached to our baskets. These are the days of joy and gladness.

Like most Decembers, that year contained my birthday and Christmas. And I was a little stir crazy not being able to get my mini-van out of the driveway for the holidays.

But my husband worked from home, the kids’ school was canceled and it ended up one of the best weather event-related “vacations” we’ve had since we’ve lived in Duvall.

There have been many.

And now we have all-wheel drive which means we can get out of our driveway. And up and down hills. We can go wherever we want. We just can’t always choose where we stop.

Stay warm next week. And if you see me zooming past you in a laundry basket, please don’t run me over in your Hummer.