Tiptoe Through The Tulips

So way back when-April 2, 2014 to be exact-while blissfully living in Northern NJ, with hubs still hard at work for the company who'd employed him nearly three decades, and Daughter1 a single girl working in the nation's capital, one week away from becoming engaged, and Daughter2 wrapping up her first official year as teacher, I asked this question in the Wednesday Hodgepodge-

'Several spring flower festivals happen in the US during the month of April. Of those listed which would you most like to see in person...The Skagit Tulip Festival in Skagit Washington, The Dogwood Arts Festival in Knoxville Tennessee, The North Carolina Azalea Festival in Wilmington North Carolina, or Daffodil Festival Weekend on Nantucket Island Massachusetts?'

And this was my answer-

 'I'd be happy to see any or all of them, but if I'm forced to choose I'm going with The Skagit Tulip Festival. Tulips are one of my favorite flowers, and seeing the Northwest corner of the US is on my travel wish list.'

Well. That's something isn't it? 

Guess where I was last Tuesday? 

April 12, 2017 to be exact. 

My daughter had to get married and move to Washington to make it happen, which wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I said it, but here we are. Life is filled with unexpected adventure and plot twists, and I'm learning more embracing-less resisting, as they come my way.

The Skagit Valley is about sixty miles north of Seattle and roughly sixty miles south of Vancouver. I've never visited my daughter in April so when we decided to come she suggested we go see the tulips. She'd been following the 'flowers' on Instagram and as it happens we were going to be in the Evergreen State peak week.

We also studied the weather the week before because the weather!! Tuesday looked like our best bet (aka no rain until late day) so we made a plan for Tuesday. That plan included a stop at her local donut shop because donuts are Daughter2's love language and we had a two hour car ride ahead of us.

Seattle is a little bit like Atlanta in that you plan your life around the traffic. We got on the road at 8:30 and were in the Valley a little before 11. Easy peasy. It pays to plan. Usually.

You pass fields of tulips once you're in the area, which you can't miss if you're looking out the window, but there are also a couple of well known farms and we opted for one of those called Tulip Town. We navigated the parking and paid a small entry fee to go inside.

Which is really outside, but whatever.

There's a small shop, tulips for sale by the bulb, bunch, or pot, and a cafe. We did not eat in the cafe because we wanted to spend all our time in the tulips and be back on the road before Seattle late afternoon rush hour.

It was worth it.

We spent a couple of happy hours wandering around the farm, oohing and ahhing and saying 'that's my favorite color'...'no that's my favorite color'...long story short-they're ALL my favorite color.  As a bonus, the area around the farm is gorgeous, and you wander the fields while the Cascade Mountains and magnificent Mt. Baker look over your shoulder.  Mt. Baker is Washington's northernmost volcano, and one of the snowiest places on earth.

We were thankful to be there on a sunny day as the fields were still quite muddy from all the recent rains. Also, we visited on a weekday so it wasn't too crowded. I imagine the weekends tell a different story, and we did have some traffic coming through town which I'm sure amps up on Saturdays.

Is there anything so lovely as a tulip?

If you find yourself in the Seattle area in mid-April I recommend a day here...

And if you want a truly perfect day, bring your favorite people.