We Love Durham NC

Broad Street Cafe Discount for Duke Employees

The newly renovated Broad Street Cafe is offering a 10% discount for Duke employees with a valid ID.

Duke families, I bet you’ll be surprised at the number of local businesses offering discounts. Click here for a directory. 

Duke Hospitals

All quiet on the WLD front here yesterday because I was in the hospital. All’s well now, nothing chronic or contagious.

I don’t hide the fact that we are Tarheel born and bred in this family, but I am just as big of a Duke Hospitals fan after experiencing patient care first-hand. I kept thinking, so this is what they mean by world-class care. I mean, people come from all over to get treatment at Duke (like recently Ted Kennedy).

I found the emergency room nursing staff extremely efficient and just plain good at what they do. The RN up on the ward, again, efficient, professional, and kind.

There were residents in the team of specialists, and I’m not a big fan of having to tell my symptoms over and over, but I do understand it’s a teaching hospital, and that it improves the level of care. I did feel like the residents were helping rather than just learning, of course, and I met with the head specialist as well, who did not require a recap as she had been supervising the overall plan. They took my concerns into consideration in the treatment options, and answered my questions with respect.

The facilities were clean (well, that ought to be a given), but also comfortable. They warm the blankets for you! There are plenty of other amenities like cable TV, telephone, snacks. Dinner was roasted chicken, greens, potatoes, salad, milk, iced tea, roll with butter, and chocolate-cherry cake–tasty fare (I regret I didn’t have my camera to contribute to Durham food blogging). Maybe all this is standard, but it felt like a multiple-star hotel.

Props also to Durham EMS. We’ve had Parkwood Fire out before for unrelated EMS calls, but I think this was a different squad. When I find out which team it was, I will come back and update this. Wherever they came from, they were here in a jiffy and had me stabilized and to the hospital quickly. Exactly what you want.

A big thank you to everyone involved!

Duke Athletics Tour

Event Name: Duke Athletics Tour
Date: Friday, August 8, 2008
Time: 5pm
Location: Tyler’s Taproom, 324 Blackwell Street, Suite 400, Durham NC 27701 (American Tobacco Complex)

Event info: Presented by the Iron Dukes, the “Duke Athletics Tour” will stop in Durham on August 8, 2008. Blue Devil alumni and fans are invited to meet Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe at this event, and official Duke Gear and golf packages to the Washington Duke Inn will be given away. Dinner will begin at 6 P.M. Tickets are $18 which includes a ticket to the Durham Bulls game ($10 without a ticket to the game). Please RSVP by calling Shawn Sease at (919) 613-7554.

Duke Child Studies

Duke Psychology and Neuroscience has ongoing studies for children of all ages.

I signed the kids up for a Reading Study… really an eye-tracking study that would not involve any reading… and Wednesday hauled them out to Duke in the morning. They would each earn $10 for 10 to 45 minutes of research.

On arrival, we discover the lot they told us to park in is gated. There’s little to no free parking on the Duke Campus, so after trying to call and driving around a bit, we default into the Duke Clinic lots. We learn a lot about how elevators work.

Then we try to find the building. It isn’t marked. (Oh, yeah, my husband said later, Duke buildings aren’t marked.) And being a very small building, Duke Social/Psychology Building, nobody knows about it. We’re directed to the Info desk at the clinics and they give good directions, but it involves too many turns and I get us lost. A very kind administrator finally walks us over to the building (and gives the kids a cookie).

Forty-five minutes later, we’re in the departmental office, where the receptionist tries to call, with no answer. She does not know where the reading lab is. We walk (remember there are FIVE of us, like herding cats, man) around looking at door tags (well, we’ve come this far) and finally find the Reading Lab, but the door is locked and no one is around.

So we walk back to the car in the heat and the hungry, and I think-think-think how I can rescue the morning for the kids, who now don’t have their $10 each.

Ah, we’re near Hillsborough Road. Play area at Chik-Fil-A. That’s a treat for them. Do not underestimate the value of an enclosed play area with lemonade. With a glass window so you can sit in the air conditioning.

If you do the Duke Child Studies, and they do come highly recommended by lots of people, make sure they give you detailed directions, a parking pass, and a cell phone number for contact. And call the day before to confirm the appointment.

Duke Gardens Field Still Blocked

The Boy reports, from his field trip, that the big field with the lily pad pond and climbing magnolia trees is still blocked off. That is a bummer, but there are many other things to do at Duke Gardens, like see baby turtles, feed ducks, walk across bridges, run down hills, smell the flowers.

Honestly, this is a bit of a relief, because… can I use the phrase “nerve-wracking” more than once a week?… seeing him clamber up those trees really does it. Once when he was about 3 years old, we saw some “big kids” up at the very top, and I declared that he would not be allowed to do that until he was, like, 8. I hope he has forgotten this conversation.

List of parks in DurhamÂ

Duke Family Day

Duke invests quite a bit of time and money in family fun perqs. Each year we attend a Santa event, Halloween event, (usually) an awards ceremony of some kind, and (every 5 years) a time-of-service event. There are others that we don’t make it to; until this year, we had not attended Duke Family Day.

Attendance was controlled tightly by DukeCard to Duke employees and a maximum of 2 adults with 5 kids. There’s certainly an incentive to try to crash the party, since all rides and food are free. Security and emergency personnel presence ensured that everyone had a fun, safe time.

One area was devoted to rides for “kids of all ages”… including a roller coaster, Skat twisting ride, rock and “tree” climbing, another twister, a slow-for-preschoolers Crazy Tugs ride, and a swinging flags ride.

Another area had more inflatables than I’ve seen in one place since Pump It Up: bouncy castles (princess, Mickey Mouse, Spider-Man, and Cars), slides, boxing ring, bungee, an inside-the-alligator obstacle course.

The third area was set up for food (fried fish, BBQ sandwiches, hot dogs, potato salad, slaw, and four different vegetarian options). Also available were sodas, cotton candy, and funnel cakes.

The entertaining announcer, clearly hired from a pool of State Fair hawkers!, led a limbo contest, hula hooping, Cha Cha Slide dancing, and more for prizes.

There was Bingo and FlexMan made an appearance. The Bouncing Bulldogs–national jumprope champions–thrilled with their athletics.

If you go next year…

• The event is fun for kids at least from preschool through middle school.
• Go early, since nearby parking fills up quickly and the lines get a bit long towards the end.
• No need for money; it’s completely free.
• Food and treat options were nicely varied, but if you want something to drink other than sodas, bring along a water bottle.
• Bathrooms: coed porta-potties were clean, did not have long waits, and had full handwashing units outside. I did not see diaper-changing stations.
• There was lots of shady seating under trees and tents, but you probably want to bring a hat or umbrella for the sun and heat.
• Let the kids wear sandals or Crocs they can slip off and on quickly for the bouncy castles–the ground was a little muddy from the rains.
• It’s prime naptime (2-6pm) so if your littler ones will conk out, take a stroller or carrier.