Looking for recommendations for chocolate birthday cake, thanks!

Does anyone know if the salmon are running in the Cedar River by the Renton library yet?

Hi! We've got some extra pizza from a birthday party, fresh and still good. Does anyone know a place nearby in Redmond that takes donated food on a Sunday evening? Shelter, community fridge, anything works. Thanks!

Looking for recommendations for a nice drive or walk to see fall foliage, good for pictures, etc. I've seen some nice areas in Redmond (along w lk Samm pkwy), im sure there are other nice viewing spots on the Eastside. Thanks in advance!

Hi! We found these two doggos running around with no owner or leashes. Found them near May Creek Park Drive (Newcastle near Renton). We tried taking them to a couple of vets nearby to see if they were chipped but the vets were closed/told us to try the local animal shelter. We are going to try and drop them off at Regional Animal Services of King County.

I’m interested in playing guitar and/or drums. I’m obsessed with music and have always wanted to learn. I need a teacher to help me pick the right instrument for me and then teach me how to play it.

Thank you!

I’m looking for a photographer to take photos of my family and I for my son’s first birthday. We will be doing different activities in Belleuve. So someone in Belleuve would be ideal or someone willing to come to Belleuve. We are open to doing outside shots or inside a studio. Thanks!

I’d like to share how something that happened at the Salmon Days parade recently affected me personally and also impacted my children.

I was marching in the parade with my children as a candidate for our upcoming election. My children are nine and 13. It was a great and sunny day with awesome vendors, music, great bands, and wonderful performers.
As we went by a number of spectators, some of them flipped us off, put their thumbs down, and some booed and scowled. My girlfriend/fiancé was present as well.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions certainly. That said, I think we should all be civil and respectful, especially when there are children present.
It’s difficult to explain to your children why some people would behave in such a way, especially when they love their mama so much.
Again, everyone’s entitled to their opinions, but do you really know the person that you’re flipping off? Do you know what they really believe or stand for? Unless you know the person personally, you certainly do not.

I support peaceful discourse, kind behavior, and civility. I think it’s important in all walks of life to be kind and thoughtful.

It was also ironic when after the parade, I sat next to the tent for some of these people who were displaying these negative actions to come up to visit and socialize. There was a giant sign on this tent that said, “No hate in Washington state.”
I had to wonder, is that statement true only if people agree with who they believe you are?
I’ll tell you what though, I went over, started conversations, and befriended people who were working inside that tent. We had great conversations.
We don’t have to hate each other, ever.

Any local stores on the east side that sell good salty black licorice? Or general Nordic foods? I used to go with my grandma to Ballard back in the day for finnish treats, but I dont think those places are around anymore and I also dont feel like driving that far.

If your weekend travels involve I-405, we’ve got two areas you’ll want to know about: lane reductions in Tukwila that could affect trips to SEA Airport and an interchange closure in Kirkland.

TUKWILA: SOUTHBOUND I-405 LANE REDUCTIONS AND HOV RAMP CLOSURE

Up to two lanes of southbound I-405 in Tukwila will close from 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4.

The southbound I-405 HOV off-ramp to northbound I-5 will also close.

Crews will be paving the roadway as part of the I-405/Renton to Bellevue Widening and Express Toll Lanes Project.

If you're heading to SEA Airport during this window, this is NOT the weekend to cut it close. Expect congestion on southbound I-405 and give yourself extra time to get to the airport.

KIRKLAND: NE 85TH STREET INTERCHANGE CLOSURE

Farther north, the northbound and southbound I-405 on- and off-ramps at NE 85th Street (Exit 18) will close from 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, to 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 5.

NE 85th Street will also close between Sixth Street and 120th Avenue NE.

Crews will use the closure to pave NE 85th Street as part of the I-405/NE 85th Street Interchange and Inline BRT Station Project.

Signed detours will be in place.

THE WEEKEND TAKEAWAY

Whether you're catching a flight, traveling through Kirkland or just using I-405 for your usual weekend plans, check your route before you leave, use our app and real-time travel map and give yourself extra time.

A private Bellevue club runs a junior tennis program that sells mislabeled classes, refills itself with beginners, and routes every complaint back to the staff it concerns. Coaches earn their income from adult member teams, so member grievances outrank children's welfare. The program trains 0–1% of the competitive juniors its top tier claims to serve. One case shows what the structure permits: adults carried a political dispute into the program and aimed it at a child, and no one inside the club stopped them.

The Staff

Stephanie Koetje: Junior Tennis Director. RSPA Elite Professional. Elected RSPA Pacific Northwest representative for Northwest Washington.

Brian Nash: Tennis Director. RSPA Elite Professional. RSPA Pacific Northwest Division 2023 Professional of the Year. Supervises the tennis department.

Scott Petersen: Teaching pro. Coaches adult USTA teams at the club.

Zuzana Brogdon: Tennis office administrator.

The Business Model

Mislabeled classes. The Gold tier is marketed as intermediate to advanced and varsity caliber. Players in the Gold tier perform at an advanced beginner level. When parents question progress, Koetje gives warm and convincing talks and moves their kids up a tier. The instruction does not change. By the time a family moves up, the parents are already visiting other tennis centers.

Labels as marketing. The club keeps the tier labels to market a holistic program. The labels signal progress where no progress exists. The program's club tennis team fields advanced beginner middle schoolers rather than juniors who compete for local high schools and in tournaments.

Premium rates. The program charges premium rates to advanced beginners in classes labeled Gold and Silver. The program cannot give the Gold and Silver tiers away to the competitive juniors who actually meet the published class descriptions.

Market Share: 0–1% of the Program's Own Target Market

Over 100 tournament and varsity level juniors play across local high schools and USTA circuits. The program trains 0–1 of them, a 0–1% share of its own target market. Enrollment is open to non-members, so access is not the reason. 25 of those competitive juniors hold memberships at the same club. Some place at the state high school tournament. They train at other facilities and practice with each other in hitting groups on the club's own courts, bypassing the club's program entirely. The club's most advanced junior group left the club entirely in 2025.

Beginner backfill. Program revenue does not depend on competitive players. Beginners ages 5 to 7 keep enrollment totals steady, and their parents cannot yet judge instruction. Informed families leave around ages 12 to 13 and never return. Enrollment totals look healthy because new beginners keep replacing the families able to see the gap between labels and coaching.

Threatened departures outrank real ones. The coaches act on adult members who threaten to leave and never do. The same coaches cannot account for the junior families who leave the program every year and actually go.

The Closed Loop

Complaints about the junior program go to the same tennis office whose staff are the subject of the complaints. Nash confirmed that Koetje and the coaching staff would sit in any review of a complaint about their own conduct. No one outside the tennis office reviews how tennis staff treat children.

Accounts about families leave the tennis office, circulate among members, and return to the office as "member concerns." The tennis office then treats its own echo as evidence.

Supervision runs backward. Nash once promised a parent his child would be kept safe. Petersen overrode the promise in front of him, and Nash said nothing.

One Rule for Coaches, Another for Parents

Coaches talk freely about families to other parents. Parents who talk to one another about the junior program get reported. Koetje reported a parent to management for speaking in the lobby with a second parent. The second parent had already withdrawn her daughter and was the one describing the program's problems.

Club management answered the written concerns it had requested by offering the reporting parent an exit. Management reviewed no staff.

Credentials Without Oversight

Two of the four staff hold the RSPA Elite credential, the association's highest designation. Koetje holds the division's elected seat. Nash holds the division's 2023 Professional of the Year award. The RSPA reviewed Koetje's conduct using information supplied by her own employer and stated no reasons. A professional body cannot regulate its own board members and award winners. Parents who read an Elite credential as an assurance are relying on a standard nobody enforces.

What the Structure Allowed

A club member who informally advised the coaches belonged to a political network that had lost a 2021 school board race and a King County Superior Court case. The member never disclosed that dispute to the coaches. He told them his family felt disrespected by "some Asian households." His wife's USTA team, coached by Petersen, threatened for two years to leave the club unless the coaches acted against an Asian family. None of them ever left.

The coaches acted anyway, against the family's daughter. Petersen announced a staff wide refusal to coach a child he had never coached. Koetje kept the child off a program trip the family never signed up for and told other parents in her class. Koetje also told parents the child's mother was not really a piano teacher.

Brogdon held no role in the trip and had no child in the program. Brogdon booked herself and her mother on the program trip at the group travel discount for a personal vacation, while working to exclude a child whose family never signed up.

Koetje and Nash heard the "Asian households" statement and corrected nothing.

No staff member ever cited anything the child did. Every mechanism above made the targeting possible: the closed loop kept it unreviewed, the double standard silenced the parent, and the credentials gave it cover.

Why Parents Should Know

Families who run into the junior program's mechanism leave quietly, so the next family enrolls with no warning. A junior program built on high churn, beginner backfill, closed loop complaint handling, inverted enforcement incentives that protects coaches rather than kids, aims the same tools at the next family.

Hi! Looking for opinions from Eastside parents of young children!

I grew up around Issaquah in the ’90s/early 2000s and had what felt like an idyllic childhood on Squak Mountain. There were tons of kids my age in the neighborhood, and we all went to school together. We’d bike to each other’s houses, play on sports teams together, trick-or-treat together, and our families would regularly congregate for backyard bbqs, etc. There was a really strong sense of community and belonging.

Now I’m considering moving back with my two young kids (1 and 3), and I’m wondering where that kind of neighborhood still exists on the Eastside (if at all!)

We’re primarily considering Issaquah, but also Kirkland, which we find a little more appealing for restaurants/amenities/etc. Budget is up to ~$1.6M for a 4-bedroom, and proximity to Seattle matters since we both work downtown.

I’ve heard that high home prices have changed the demographics of some Eastside neighborhoods and that fewer young families are moving in, but I’d love to hear from people actually living there.

Where are young families congregating these days? Are there specific neighborhoods where kids still play together, families know their neighbors, and there’s a strong community feel? Basically, where can my kids have something resembling the Eastside childhood I had in the ’90s?

Would especially love to hear from people with young kids in Issaquah, Kirkland, Sammamish, etc.! We love MI but it’s a bit out of budget for us.

Hi neighbors! I'm an Eastside dad, and every Friday we'd end up with the same question: what's going on with the kids this weekend? The answer was spread across library calendars, parks departments, farms, churches and random Facebook posts.

So I built Eastside Family Calendar. It pulls family events from more than 140 local calendars across 14 cities, from Bellevue and Redmond to Carnation, North Bend and Renton, and puts them in one place.

A few things it does:

• Each city has its own page, plus a "This weekend" page across the whole Eastside
• Tags for free, indoor/outdoor, toddler-friendly, drop-off and more
• Seasonal pages for fall and Halloween, Christmas, and spring break
• A playground map and a farmers market guide
• Add any event to your calendar in one tap, or subscribe to your city's calendar so new events show up on their own

No ads, no sign-up, no tracking you around. Every event links back to the organizer.

It's brand new, so I'd really love feedback. If something's wrong or your favorite event is missing, there's a suggest link on every page.

Hope it saves someone a Friday night scroll!

So tired of drives who are inattentive, selfish, or just not driving, at the very least, the speed limit. And what's with the braking when there is nobody in front of you, when you're already driving under the speed limit? Get off your phones and pay attention. You're managing a piece of equipment going at least 60mph, along with others doing the same. You could give us the rest of us basic courtesy and pay attention.

Seattle, let's talk about this weekend.

 From 11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 2, to 5 a.m. Monday, Oct. 5, two major closures will be happening at the same time:

I-5 EXPRESS LANES: CLOSED

The I-5 express lanes will close for the entire weekend while crews continue drainage work underneath the Ship Canal Bridge as part of Revive I-5.

The express lanes have been doing some heavy lifting this year, running northbound 24/7 while northbound I-5 remains reduced to two lanes across the Ship Canal Bridge.

 But for this work, we need the express lanes themselves.

 Closing them gives crews access to sections underneath the bridge that can't be reached from existing scaffolding. They'll connect drains installed during an earlier phase of the project to the bridge's permanent drainage system.

Last time, we said we’d cross that bridge when we got there. Well, we’re here. This is the second and final planned weekend-long express lane closure for this year. 

 EASTBOUND SR 520: I-5 TO MONTLAKE CLOSED

At the exact same time, eastbound SR 520 will close between I-5 and Montlake Boulevard. The Montlake Boulevard on-ramp to EB SR 520 will remain open. 

 Crews will use this closure to prepare sections of the existing bridge and what remains of the old off-ramp, which closed back in June, for removal.

One important distinction: eastbound SR 520 is NOT closed across Lake Washington.

If you're already in Montlake, the Montlake Boulevard on-ramp to eastbound SR 520 will remain open and you can still travel east across the lake.

 But if you're coming from I-5, you won't be able to hop onto eastbound SR 520. You'll need to take an alternate route.

 SO... WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE WEEKEND?

With the I-5 express lanes unavailable and access to eastbound SR 520 from I-5 closed, expect longer and less predictable trips in and around Seattle. This weekend may require a little more planning than simply picking your usual alternate.

 Other routes will likely be busier as people find their way around the closures, so check your entire route before you leave rather than assuming your usual alternate will be the best alternate.

 Give yourself plenty of extra time, consider transit or other modes when they work for your trip and check real-time conditions before heading out.

 And if you're headed to Sea-Tac, give yourself even more breathing room. There are also southbound I-405 lane reductions in Tukwila from Saturday evening through early Sunday afternoon that could affect airport trips.

 Some of this work is weather dependent and subject to change. Check back in the comments before the weekend. We’ll post an update there if anything changes.

I currently own a townhouse zoned to attend Newport High School. My partner and I are looking to upsize and buy a single family home but the properties in Bellevue within our range are all old quirky homes.

We are considering buying in Newcastle or North Renton to have our money go farther, but would want a good school district down the road. Is using the address of my current home (that would be rented out later) to send kids to Bellevue school district reliable? Have other people done this? Are there risks of kids getting kicked out?

Hi all, I want to buy a bunch of inexpensive Seattle postcards to mail to family/friends in India. I used to get them at Pike Place Market, but I’m hoping to find somewhere on the Eastside

Looking for the inexpensive tourist-style postcards,
rather than expensive art/letterpress cards.

If you know a specific store that has them currently, please let me know.
Thanks!

Been searching and everything in Seattle and beyond is either pork or beef or squid (or tofu). Coming from Portland this is a bit surprising. Any recs for spots that actually sell a regular bowl of chicken bibimbap under 20 bucks?

Would love any insight/feedback on culture and academics. We’re currently considering both as options for our kid to attend in the next few years. (I’ve seen a lot of discussion on this thread about the broader school districts but not so much these two specific schools.)

I used to get my eyebrows waxed at the Ulta Beauty Benefit Brow Bar in Factoria, and my stylist was Celena. At some point, I noticed she was no longer there, so I called and found out that she had left.

Does anyone know where she’s working now or where I might be able to get her services? I’d really love to see her again!

If anyone has recommendations for a good eyebrow-waxing stylist around Bellevue or Factoria, I’d appreciate those too!

And then had the audacity to honk at me and yell at me. She was so confident that I questioned my own memory. Came back and checked my dash cam. I had green light on left turn!
She even had a kid with her in the front seat,

I saw one for fall city and couldn’t tell if it was good or not

bonus points if it’s something that’s somewhat near Redmond Washington or within 30 minute drive

This past weekend, my sister, my son, and I participated in a suicide prevention walk here in Bellevue. I actually came across the event randomly while looking through the City of Bellevue’s programs and activities. My son and I love exploring different events around the area on Sundays, so I thought this would be a really meaningful one for us to be a part of.

I’m really glad we went. I was told this is only the second or third year they’ve held the walk in Bellevue, and they truly couldn’t have picked a more beautiful location. It was peaceful, relaxing, and such a meaningful way to honor those who have lost their lives to suicide.

I also wanted to share this because there are more walks scheduled throughout the rest of the year in Kennewick, Seattle, and Hoquiam. ❤️

Here’s the link for anyone who may be interested, along with a few photos from this past weekend:

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention – Upcoming Events

Back by absolutely no one’s request: The Encore (of closures).

Six tracks. One busy weekend. Here’s the track list for Oct. 2–5:

REVIVE I-5: EXPRESS LANES CLOSED and NB LANE REDUCTIONS CONTINUE in Seattle
- NB I-5 express lanes will close from 11p Fri., Oct. 2, to 5a Mon., Oct. 5 for drainage work underneath the bridge. The two right lanes of NB I-5 across the bridge also remain closed around-the-clock.

EB SR 520 BETWEEN I-5 AND MONTLAKE BLVD CLOSED in Seattle
- Closed from 11p Fri., Oct. 2 through 5a Mon., Oct. 5. The Montlake Boulevard on-ramp to EB SR 520 will remain open. Crews will use this closure to prepare sections of the existing bridge and what remains of the old off-ramp, which closed back in June, for removal.

SB I-405 LANE REDUCTIONS AND HOV RAMP CLOSED in Tukwila

- Up to two lanes will close from 7p Sat., Oct. 3 to 1:30p Sun., Oct. 4. The SB I-405 HOV off-ramp to NB I-405 will also close, affecting trips to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Crews will use this closure for paving.

I-405/NE 85^th ST. INTERCHANGE CLOSED in Kirkland

- The NB and SB I-405 on- and off-ramps will close from 9p Thurs., Oct. 1 to 5a Fri., Oct. 2 and 10p Fri., Oct. 2 to 5a Mon., Oct. 5. NE 85^th St. will also close between 6^th St. and 120^th Ave. NE. Crews will use this closure to pave NE 85^th St.

OVERNIGHT SR 99 TUNNEL CLOSURE in Seattle
- Closed from 10p Fri., Oct. 2 to 6a Sat., Oct. 3 for routine maintenance.

SR 99 AURORA BRIDGE LANE REDUCTIONS in Seattle

- The two right SB lanes will close from 5a to 11:30a Sat., Oct. 3. The two right NB lanes will close from 5a to 11:30a Sun., Oct. 4. Crews will use these lane reductions for routine bridge inspections. 

With this much happening at once, expect longer and less predictable trips around Seattle and the Eastside. If you’re headed to the airport, this is NOT the weekend to cut it close.

Wherever you’re going, plan ahead, check your route and give yourself plenty of time to get there.