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

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Events

Duvall Days – The Days of Duvall

May 27, 2017 by Kathryn 1 Comment

Duvall Days

Every year. First weekend in June. Duvall has its day…s. Duvall Days is next weekend! Our city celebrates its awesomeness. So, if you plan to miss it, be warned. You will live a life filled with regret and die alone.

Some years Duvall Days blows our minds and other years it’s kind of meh. However, even when it’s meh, it’s kind of amazing. We love Duvall Days. And this year looks like the best one we’ve had in many years, maybe ever.

Of course tractors will drive and horses will dance down Main Street. I pray Kathy Lambert notepads will be distributed because my supply is running low. Vendors will be all along the parade route again like last year. But, there are also a few new and exciting things happening.

Here’s a brief look at what’s in store Saturday:

Arts, crafts, and food vendors will set up shop along main street, in the Police Department parking lot, and in McCormick Park.

A mechanical bull will be bucking people off in the Duvall Tavern parking lot from 9am-4pm.

The Big Rock Car Show will be set up in the Safeway parking lot from 9am-4pm. (Stock up on groceries by Friday night because this gets to be crazy town. Fun, crazy town.)

Scavenger hunt, fun/kid/family zones (I think that’s code for bouncy houses and probably water fun), beer gardens.

Parade starts at 10:30 along Main Street.

KCLS will have a library van in the upper area of McCormick park so you can check out library books from a van… down by the river.

There will be a rock climbing wall, zip line, bubble soccer, laser tag, basketball tournament, and a frog jump contest.

You can take a nap at Duvall Co-op Prechool or get your hands duty at the petting zoo.

A photo booth will be set up near the depot building.

You can purchase cow pie bingo tickets on Saturday and watch the live streaming pie drop on Sunday from the comfort of your own home. Running of the Balls down Stewart Street sounds like a blast.

Face painting and tattoos will be administered in the Windermere parking lot. They don’t specify what kind of tattoos will be given.

Blitz, the Seahawks mascot, will make an appearance.

The historic Dougherty Farmstead will be open for tours and Cherry valley Winery will have an art show and wine tasting. Shuttles will be provided.

There will be tons of musical and dance performances and at 10 PM they will detonate things in McCormick park. #fireworks

You can even order food in the evening from local restaurants and have it delivered to you wherever you’re hanging out.

On Sunday:

Race in the REF 5K, 10K, or Kids’ Obstacle race.

Carb load with fire fighters at the pancake breakfast.

Watch the cows make pies on a giant bingo card. Or tour Cherry Valley Dairy and watch the cows make pies there.

There’s tons to do, most of it free. The weather is looking to be perfect. I can’t wait! Check out DuvallDays.org for more details.

Filed Under: Community, Cuteness of Duvall, Duvall Days, Events

March of the Vegetables

April 1, 2017 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

I had to go. How could I not? You had me at “people dressed up as vegetables.” You had me. At. “People dressed up as vegetables.”

If you ask anyone who knows me well, they will tell you that my single favorite exhibitor in any valley parade for the last ten years was a man dressed up as a stalk of corn at the Carnation 4th of July Parade. I became obsessed with seeing him again. Obsessed.

And last year’s Duvall Days heralded the first human corn in several years. It cheered my heart.

So, when I heard about March of the Vegetables, I was stoked. It’s a parade focused on art and agriculture and community, celebrating creativity and the return of the growing season for local farms and gardeners.

I’ve been following news and announcements for the past couple of months leading up to Saturday’s March of the Vegetables. I knew people were making art. I knew people were planning to march. I had no idea there would be a band of musical vegetables playing “I Heard it Through the Grapevine.”

That was just icing.

Over a hundred people in handcrafted costumes marched down 1st Avenue smiling, waving, cheering, showing off their art and celebrating their favorite vegetables.

Some costumes were cute.

Others beautiful.

They were all creative.

One woman handed out hand-colored packets of beet seeds she’d saved from her own garden. Could these be cuter? No. The answer is no.

And I love that we’re glorifying growth and community and nutritious foods. It was seriously magical and odd and endearing in a way only Duvall could pull off.

I hope they do it again next year. I may be forced to join in on the fun.

Filed Under: Community, Cuteness of Duvall, Events, March of the Vegetables

Duvall Tree Lighting 2016

December 3, 2016 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

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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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Filed Under: Events, Tree Lighting

Concert Despair

November 20, 2015 by Kathryn Leave a Comment

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 middle school band concerts.

concert-despair2Do you ever feel sad, angry, or bored when forced to sit through a middle school band concert? When the music starts, do you instantly feel thirsty or need a restroom break? Do your counting skills become weak when faced with the overwhelming task of counting down songs on a musical program, causing you to ask your mom over and over again, “Just one more, right?” only to have her respond that there are still seven songs left, as she told you at the beginning of this song and please stop talking because we’re at a concert?

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This is called Concert Despair and it can happen to anyone. Usually more pronounced in young children, CD can also be experienced by teens and even adults. Adults whose uterine-fruit are not currently performing are especially vulnerable, as is frequently the case with parents of eighth graders while the sixth grade band is performing or the parents of non-jazz-band members when the jazz band plays and gives ten-measure solos to Every. Single. Child. in the band.

concert-despair

Symptoms include hunger, thirst, loud whining, bad posture, limp noodle disorder, numb bum, insatiable desire to use electronic devices, inability to count down from ten, and sudden brain flashes to all the things remaining on your to-do list.

If you or someone you love is experiencing Concert Despair, there is hope. From the creators of The Universe and Your Body, comes the cure for CD. It’s called Time.

Time is a fast acting (depending on your perspective), proven pain reliever. In fact, 100% of CD sufferers experienced elimination of all symptoms with Time. Time is available to everyone, usually found in one minute doses. With just sixty minutes of Time, you can conquer your Concert Despair.

Common side effects of Time include aging, changes in perspective, and weight gain. Do not take Time if the building is on fire or if you really REALLY need to pee.

Filed Under: Community, Events, Riverview School District

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