In the Duv

Duvall, WA ~ Overrun by giraffes, periodically an island, the greatest little city this side of the Atlantic

What Are You Doing, Duvall? – Week of Feburary 27th

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The most terrifying event of the week happens Tuesday night at Cedarcrest High School. 8th-Grade Parent Orientation Night + My Daughter is Starting High School = I am OLD. The fun starts at 6:30pm.

In other big kid milestone news, kindergarten registration packets for next fall are available at all Riverview elementary schools starting Wednesday.

The monthly Duvall Poetry meetup is happening this Wednesday at the Duvall Library from 7-8:30pm. The mic is open. The poetry is hot. I believe berets are optional.

Do you like trivia games, pizza, popcorn and stinky middle schoolers? We’ve got you covered this week with the Tolt Family Trivia Night on Friday, March 3rd. If you want to trick your fifth grader into thinking middle school is all fun and games, this is the night to do it. 6pm.

Also Friday, if you don’t want to eat your vegetables, paint them instead. NWAC will teach you how. They’ve got classes going on all the time. They’re just not usually this healthful.

If you’re planning to register for Eagle Rock, packets are due on Friday.

There’s a self defense class at the library on Saturday. No black belt required. And if you didn’t get enough veggie art at NWAC, you can come to the library and make a vegetable crown in preparation for March of the Vegetables later this month.

The Cherry Valley Winery tasting room is open on Saturday for all your tasting and wining needs.

If you have event and activity ideas for future editions of What Are You Doing, Duvall? submit them here. I want to keep this short so I can’t include everything, but would love more ideas to choose from each week.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing. Thank you for supporting my website!

 

 

 

A Hawaiian Vacation in Duvall

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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?

What Are You Doing, Duvall? – Week of February 20th

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On Monday, celebrate one of your favorite US presidents or declare your intention to run in 2020.

Need to run errands Monday without your kids, ages 2-8? Drop them off at the Duvall Cooperative Preschool for Parent’s Day Out. Childcare is available from 10am-2pm.

There ain’t no school in Riverview School District this Monday and Tuesday so I’m taking a break from grammar.

Tuesday night, treat yourself to a Duvall City Council Meeting at 7pm at the Riverview Educational Service Center.

This Wednesday at the library is the KCLS monthly middle school book club, Pizza and Pages. It’s at the Duvall Library. The pizza will be hot, as well as the pages.

As penance for missing class Monday and Tuesday, Riverview students will attend school for a full day on Friday, the 24th.

If you’re excited about the March of the Vegetables parade but you haven’t made your costume yet, join Art in the Barns for a fabric costume design class on Saturday from 1-4. Look at their calendar for future classes.

Saturday, February 25th at 8am Rustic Cabin Coffee is cutting ribbons. Perfectly good ribbons, ripped to shreds, deep in the heart of downtown Duvall. Coffee, adventure, defacement of sewing notions.

Remember when you registered for the Riverview Education Foundation auction on the 25th so you could get so so fancy with your school district friends? The wait is over. It’s this Saturday.

It may not be fat and it won’t be a Tuesday, but on Saturday there’s a Mardi Gras party and dance at the B.A.B. at Lake Margaret in Duvall. Dance lessons. Desserts. Masks. Beads.

If you have event and activity ideas for future editions of What Are You Doing, Duvall? submit them here. I want to keep this short so I can’t include everything, but would love more ideas to choose from each week.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing. Thank you for supporting my website!

Big Rock Park – The Smallest King County Park in Washington State

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I’ve heard all kinds of things about the tiny park next to Safeway as you enter Duvall. We moved here in 2006, when Safeway was already a thing and Big Rock Road was no longer the site of a noticeably large rock. The road’s name, at that time, was a mystery to me.

Every time I’d drive along Big Rock Road, I’d look for the large boulder. At one point, someone convinced me that the oversized pebble marking the entrance to Big Rock Field WAS the Big Rock… and I was underwhelmed. Because, when you name an entire road after the largeness of a certain landmark, size is important.

Big Rock FIELD is the sports field on the north side of Big Rock Road just past Roney. It is home to two baseball fields, a skate park where kids can participate in legal graffiti and pretend not to smoke, a giant soccer field surrounded by trees so the sports players’ younger siblings can go Lord of the Flies in the woods, and a playground structure.

Big Rock PARK, which you may remember is the actual subject of this post, consists of a giant rock, two sequoia trees, and a picnic table. It’s at the end of a dead-end road next to a grocery store parking lot. It welcomes you to our city. The famous Duvall 1913 sign is posted here as you enter town from the south.

Several people have told me that it’s the smallest state park in Washington. It is not. Sometimes it’s referred to as “Big Rock State Park” online. That is not its name.

According to SeattleTimes.com, Big Rock Park was acquired by King County in 1952, and then in 1974 they renamed what was then J.D. Mercer Road to Big Rock Road.

At that time, Big Rock Road ran right past the park, to the south of the now-existing Safeway complex. Eastbound traffic ran on one side of the park and westbound traffic on the other. Hence, the road’s name made sense… RE: it was divided by a large rock.

Now, if you’d like to visit the park, and you really should because it’s awesome, you head up Big Rock Road from 203 and turn right just past Safeway onto NE 140th Street. Follow it for 30 seconds until it dead ends at the park.

Have a picnic and let your kids climb the giant rock until they fall and break a limb. Then enjoy looking up at the impressive sequoia trees. There are several stories about the origin of the trees, since they are not native to the Pacific Northwest.

From the Times article:

“Probably the most accurate [story] is that T.R. Hopkins provided the sequoia seedlings, sometime in the early 1900s. A horticulturist and nurseryman who ran a small tree farm in Duvall, Hopkins was considered a sort of Johnny Appleseed of the Pacific Northwest.
Another yarn has a couple of schoolteachers from Duvall visiting in California in the early 1900s and bringing the sequoia seedlings from there.

Others suggest Leo Herzog, a friend of Hopkins, helped plant the trees. Still others say Leo Leyde, who lived on Northeast Big Rock Road decades ago, planted the trees.”

I like to imagine that they walked here as babies and stopped to rest under the shade of the Big Rock, only to feel a little silly when they grew so much taller than their adopted glacial erratic mother. At that point, their root systems were too large to relocate and they were forced to stay there forever, watching people return carts at Safeway. Or NOT return them. The trees don’t judge. They simply observe.

Follow InTheDuv on Facebook or sign up for email updates. I’ll update you on some of the events and activities happening in Duvall and get to the bottom of a few of our city’s little mysteries.

As always, if you find any inaccuracies in this post, please tell me in the comments. I love learning about our town.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing. Thank you for supporting my website!

What Are You Doing, Duvall? – Week of February 13th

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There’s a lot going on In the Duv this week.

Elementary school kids should get their report cards this Monday so keep an eye out for those.

Tuesday is Valentine’s Day so please show love in appropriate ways to your fellow Duvallians. It is the custom of citizens of our fair city to accept flowers, gifts, and chocolate on this day of days. Provisions can be found at Duvall Flowers and Gifts, Country Collections, Tuxedo’s, Duvall Family Drug, Family Grocer, and even Safeway. If you have more ideas, leave them in the comments.

There is also a school board meeting on Valentine’s Day. I am not kidding. So, feel free to show the love to our schools if you’re into that sort of thing.

Thursday night at the library at 7pm, you can bring your writing to the Duvall Writer’s Group for critique and polishing, and possibly apple bread. It’s been known to happen.

On Friday night, I cannot emphasize this enough, everyone needs to go take the pizza-making class at Village Specialty Market from Chef Bartorelli. Then bring some to me. For my mouth. They have other classes this week too.

Starting Friday, February 17th through Tuesday, February 21st there is no school in Riverview SD due to Mid-Winter break. It’s a great time to go for walks on our beautiful trails or head to the library and check out some books on Black History.

Teen Anime lovers can get their art on at the Duvall Library this Saturday from 1-3 where the library is hosting Animania – a festival of Anime. If you’re wondering, “What the Cosplay?!” in downtown Duvall on Saturday… this.

Although not actually in Duvall, if you’re willing to brave the journey into Carnation, Sno-Valley Senior Center is hosting their annual Wine and Chocolate Tasting on Saturday with food and art from local vendors and artists. There will also be live harp music from Cynthia Kuni.

If you have event and activity ideas for future editions of What Are You Doing, Duvall? submit them here. I want to keep this short so I can’t include everything, but would love more ideas to choose from each week.

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means, I may receive a small commission if you choose to purchase something from a link I post. Don’t worry, it costs you nothing. Thank you for supporting my website!

Duvall Tree Lighting 2016

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The Duvall Christmas Tree done been lit.

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And then it was unlit. And then lit again. But wait, no. Not so much. Unlit.

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This happened several times and then people headed back to their cars in good spirits, confident that Public Works would get to the bottom of the mystery. These are the hazards you face in a city where the air is constantly breathing its moist mouth breath all over you and your children and your electrical circuits.

We should ask the Darringtons to count down from 10 again. If that doesn’t work, maybe we can switch back to lighting the huge evergreen tree near the entrance to McCormick Park. Remember how it used to shine like a gigantic glowing pickle, standing on end at the base of Stephens? Sweet memories.

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Last evening started with a new and exciting twist on previous years’ events. It was announced that Santa and Mrs. Claus would travel down Main Street at 6pm, lighting the Christmas lights as they went. If I remember correctly, Santa normally goes stag to this event and he arrives by fire engine.

So, at 6pm we all stood around on street corners along 203, in front of the Old Armadillo BBQ and the old quilt shop and the old book store and the old library and the old Duvall Church, waiting and excited.

When what to our wondering eyes should appear but a Duvall police car making its way through rush hour traffic with lights flashing, as a person in a Grinch costume prowled nearby. Close behind them, the cutest ever Santa and Mrs. Claus stood on a sleigh being towed by the vintage True Value Hardware truck, smiling and waving as they commuted home with the rest of the Duvall workforce.

As they approached a particular block, the Christmas lights were not lit. But as they left the block, the lights were glowing. Like magic, pretty much.

If you’ve never been to the Duvall Tree Lighting, you’re missing out, and not because it’s a huge spectacular spectacle of epic proportions, but mostly because it’s not and everyone still goes and loves it and it feels like home.

I was talking to a friend at the event last night and he said, “It kind of feels like a family reunion every year.” And it does. If a Rockefeller Center or Westlake Center tree lighting ceremony is like the old Microsoft company picnics back when the corndogs and Indian food and bouncy houses were flowing like the Snoqualmie river in November, then the Duvall Tree Lighting is like eating peanut butter sandwiches your great aunt made, while sitting on a park bench and wondering where all your little cousins’ pants went.

The sandwiches taste good, you like your cousins, and they’re cute running through the sprinkler, but seriously, where are their pants?

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There are certain staples every year, like the opportunity to take a picture with the Holiday Heifer. Inexplicably, in ten years I have never been able to convince my kids to do this. They think it’s weird. Well, I think they’re weird. So, I guess we’re even.

There are the Little League carnival games that remind you that, “Seriously? It’s time to sign up for spring baseball already?” Yep. It is. Now throw these rings over a few bottles and win a sticky hand, why don’t ya?

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Hot drinks from the churches. Liquid sugar to warm you up, religion to warm your soul.

They always have a tent full of hay so kids can gleefully jump in and throw said hay in order to then become angry because hay is touching them.

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Usually Duvall Performing Arts has something up their sleeve. This year it was reindeer candy cane crafts and matching reindeer dancers.

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Cherry Valley Elementary choir always performs. They blew our faces off this year with their well-prepared holiday musical stylings. Props to Mrs. Farley. And the kids, I suppose.

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There are carolers and dance numbers and emergency vehicles. So many emergency vehicles. And the fire engine and the patrol car and the aid cars are not there in case of emergency. They’re there so the first responders can have yet another opportunity to connect with the community. I’d say my positive to negative interaction with our police and firefighters and paramedics is about 30:1.

Okay 31:1 because rather than nefariously and illegally speeding through the eternal 20 MPH speed zone around Judd Park and getting pulled over yesterday, I chose instead to sit in the patrol car at the tree lighting and flip the red and blue lights off and on repeatedly while an officer smiled and offered me a sticker.

The Duvall PD Christmas giraffe glowed proudly in the background.

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And it’s all included with the price of admission, which is free.

When I walked around at the tree lighting last night, it occurred to me that I probably knew at least one in four people at the event. That’s part of what makes it so special. We’re a small and tight-knit community. If you’re new or just haven’t engaged before, hang out at the library, sign your kids up for sports, come to a few events, volunteer at one of the schools, shop in town, or audition for a CCT play. In short order, you’ll be hip to the family reunion vibe as well.

The annual tree-lighting is a can’t-miss event put on by and attended by an army of volunteers and friends who love our city and know what makes it great. Us. All of us. And the heifer.

The tree is probably, most likely, almost for surely lit at this point.

Christmas is now.

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Let it Snow

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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.”

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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/152nd/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.)

snow3Back 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.

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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.

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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.

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For school closure info, go here.

For road closures, go here.

For deliciousness supplies from a great local business, go here.

For curry via laundry basket pilgrimage, go here.

For cheap sleds so you don’t have to scratch up your laundry basket, go here.

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My Responsibility – Teachers Over Moms

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I’m in the process of copying over posts from my personal blogs that share a little of our small town Duvall charm. They were all originally published on either DropsofAwesome.com or DaringYoungMom.com. This is one of those posts. It’s about a local teacher.

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Wanda was doing her homework on Monday which was, and I kid you not, telling her stuffed animals about her classroom job. The school is experimenting with moving toward a “no homework” model by giving them little tasks. These are tasks that in the past would have been undertaken without assignment by any normal human child back in the days before they all became tablet-slurping cyborgs.

So now we get lists of things she can do to act like a kid and communicate with “her stuffed animals” (Translation: parents) about what’s happening in the classroom.

With the tasks, comes a worksheet and on that worksheet is a line to write the student’s name.

Wanda looked at the sheet.

“Oh,” she said, “We’re supposed to put our name at the top.”

I smiled and nodded and kept working on digging through my email.

She held her hand out to me, palm-forward.

“No,” she said in a lofty tone, “I need to do it. It’s my responsibility.”

Ummm…okay. No one’s stopping you. I looked after her as she lifted her shoulders into her best possible posture, tossed her hair, and marched off to get a pencil.

I kept on with my email.

“You see, mom? I have a new trait. It’s called responsibility. We’re studying it at school.”

“That is awesome. Good for you.”

All day, she was focused on her responsibility.

I helped her find her missing shoes.

“Thanks for helping mom. But next time I should probably do it myself because it’s my responsibility.”

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Laylee reached for one of Wanda’s dishes after dinner.

“NO!! That’s my responsibility.”

You’d think I had never once or ten THOUSAND times told Wanda to clear her own place at the table. No. This was new news. Her teacher had given her a new trait. For October. And that trait, my fellow Americans, is a little thing we like to call RE-SPON-SI-BILITY!

Maybe if I had a teaching degree I would be qualified to give her traits. Maybe.

The older kids, of course, found this hilarious and sweet. When Laylee taught our Family Night lesson about keeping journals, she made sure to look at Wanda with a grave expression and say, “We need to write in our journals. It’s our… responsibility.”

Wanda perked right up and nodded solemnly. She is now on the journal train.

So I started praising every good thing Wanda did as evidence of how responsible she was. I even noticed Laylee do something good and I called her out.

“Look how responsible Laylee is being! Nice job!”

Wanda looked perplexed.

“Wait,” she said, “Laylee has traits too?!”

Yes. Yes she does. But she’s not in Mrs. Boogaloo’s first grade class! I wonder where she got them!?

Post-Op Grocery Shop

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I’m in the process of copying over posts from my personal blogs that share a little of our small town Duvall charm. They were all originally published on either DropsofAwesome.com or DaringYoungMom.com. This is one of those posts. It’s about a trip to Duvall Safeway.

The worst day for me after my surgery came when I went for my check-up a week later and the doctor gave me a clean bill of health. My blood count was up a bit. My incisions were healing nicely and he said the dreaded words, “You can resume normal activities as you feel able.”

This sounds like good news, but to me it was horrible because it turned on my guilt faucet. When I was on bedrest, I couldn’t move. I just couldn’t. Doctor’s orders. But as soon as he said I could listen to my body and decide, I found myself feeling guilty for not being 100%. I was still dizzy when I stood up. My incisions were still painful when I sat upright for more than a few minutes at a time and even walking for short distances left me weak and out of breath.

But I felt bad because I wasn’t up and doing everything. It’s amazing how hard we are on ourselves, right? The heck?!

I told myself it was fine, to listen to my body and take it easy, but it was a real struggle.

Hello. My name is Kathryn. And I have a hard time being nice to myself consistently without conscious effort. I’ve gotten better over the years, especially the last few, but it’s still a struggle and I still have to be mindful about it.
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So it turned out we needed groceries (re: kids eat food all the days) but I was worried about walking around the grocery store. I’d had several friends offer to pick things up for me at the store, but I thought of a better idea.

The kids could do it!

Isn’t that a good solution to most problems in life?

Newly free of the narcotics, I drove the kids to the store. We had a pep-talk where I told them about looking for brands and sizes with the best price. I took them down the cereal aisle and showed them how to look at the price per ounce and see if a bigger box might be a better value even if the price tag was bigger.

I refreshed their memory on how to pick produce.

I told them that vacation as coming so the budget was tight and I asked them to stick to the list unless they saw something they thought we actually needed for a good price. If that happened, they were to come and ask me.

On the list, I indicated that they could choose one treat that they all agreed on.

If they got along and showed good grocery manners, they could have a free bakery cookie at the end.

Then I planted myself in a reclined position in one of the comfy chairs in the pharmacy waiting room and read a great western novel for book club.

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My 13, 11, and 6-year-old navigated the grocery store beautifully and had a great time doing it.

They came and found me with questions like, “You wrote down red bell peppers but the green ones are so much cheaper. Is there a reason you really need red?” and “We want to get a box of Cheez-Its for our treat but there’s a deal where they are way cheaper if you buy three boxes. Can we please buy three?”

They made hard choices and proudly told me about how they refused to buy the salad dressing brand I specified because it was way too expensive and there was a store-brand alternative that looked just as good.

Seeing the pride on their faces, even though one of them wouldn’t admit she’d had a good time, I wondered why I hadn’t done something like this before.

And when we got to the long lines at the end, I asked the kids to pay for the groceries. They balked. Using my credit card was taking things a bit too far for them. I told them I could really use their help and asked them to try it because I didn’t think I could stand up in line that long.

Then a sweet lady overheard us and asked if we would like to take our massive load of groceries and cut in front of her in line. Drops of Awesome for kind strangers. I meet them all time!