Sunshine and tulips, it doesn’t get much better than that. Ten years ago when I was up visiting Gail, we went north to see the tulips before I flew back home to California. Little did I know we’d be living in Washington two months later (and her back in California, we moved the same week). And since we’ve lived here, we’ve yet to go see the tulips. Now that we have a backyard and gardening looks like it’ll become a thing, I’ve been checking out the local nurseries with Katherine while the kiddos are in school. Getting ideas and pricing things out. And seeing all the tulips at the nurseries reminded me of the tulips up north… so we went.
It was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm, the first taste of summer. (Perhaps I should have looked at the weather in advance since we were a little overdressed.) Beautiful day, beautiful flowers. Tulips are my favorite—always have been.
When Gail and I went, we only drove around. Katherine had gone years ago also and knew of a touristy-type place where you can walk the grounds, fields, have a picnic, buy mementoes… the whole shebang. RoozenGaarde. It was a nice place. A beautiful setting between mountain ranges. We visited the landscaped grounds before walking the fields. Saige walked a little, then rode in the stroller, then walked again, then kicked off her boots, typical Saige. Vaile hung out in the stroller mostly, dozing between fields before basking in the shade while we picnicked. Blaise and Laine were as usual, full of energy and running about (mixed in with some, “I’m hungry” and “I thought you said you had cake pops” commentary). The kiddos thought the flowers were pretty but the mud puddles won. (Two points for me brining the kiddos rain boots.)
After flowering, we had a picnic in the shade. There is a food stand there with hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, drinks, kettle corn… all the typical foods at these type of places. We were all tired at that point so we enjoyed sitting and resting before hitting up the flower shop. The kiddos each wanted some tulips for their rooms like everything else they want for their rooms. I encouraged them to get potted tulips to plant in their garden boxes out back (instead of buying cut for dead tulips). Blaise picked pink and Laine red. Saige and Vaile suffered from me being too cheap to spend another $20 on potted tulips (I’ll buy them some at Trader Joe’s for their garden boxes). The big kiddos also grabbed a post card each for their rooms.
The kiddos seemed to enjoy the experience. Me too, despite it being my first all-day outing with the four and testing my limits. I survived (barely, and at times!). Thankfully, Katherine was there and was a tremendous help. We left the tulips and made our way back home via the 9, a much better drive than the 5. We even stopped at Snohomish Pie Company to get an apple pie for Brian. A fun tidbit: after dropping Katherine back at home and wrapping our day up, we ended up driving behind Brian on the 202. He was driving home from work. We couldn’t have timed that better if we had tried.
We’ll make this an annual tradition. And now, for pictures galore:
Jumping Raccoons 