Start with the peak of tulip season, add 75 degree, blue-sky weather, and throw in a dash of spring break. What do you get? A train wreck of a visit to Mt. Vernon, Washington, to visit their tulip festival.
It started out fine. We spent the night in Mt. Vernon so we could get to the tulips early. The first farm we visited wasn’t crowded at all. That’s where I took these photos:
Happy wife … :-)
Rows of different colored tulips. I don’t have Ann or Daniel’s photos downloaded just yet, but I’ll post them Saturday morning.
Despite their beauty, I asked myself multiple times, What was I doing here??? Because, as soon as I saw a single tulip, I was done. Okay, been there, done that, pretty flower and all …. now let’s move on. But, I knew my darling and patient wife wanted to see the tulips, so I bravely marched along with her, showing off my sherpa skills as I carried two of three cameras she had with her. When we finished with the field, we left for a second destination.
By then it was 11:00 am and half of Seattle had descended into the Mt. Vernon valley. Parents were letting their kids run into the tulip rows (a no-no posted all over). Adults also wandered into the fields and, after someone told them to get out, they’d go back into them! At one point we got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to “Tulip Town“, only to learn that it was closed (full up). These people really were maniacs, suggesting little has changed since the tulip economic bubble of the 1630s.
After the hordes descended, Ann, Daniel and I were all done with tulips and we left in a rush.
We drop to Anacortes, then booked it for home, with a stop in Leavenworth where I had some pork and spaeztles.
PROST!
We didn’t arrive until late tonight, so no updates until Saturday morning.
Reminds me of Washington, D.C., where all of the parents were letting their children crawl all over the FDR memorial, pose sitting on the dog and etc!
I live in Stanwood, just a few minutes south of Mt. Vernon. That tulip festival is insane with traffic and often has traffic backed up for a mile or more on I-5 (our major freeway) just to get into town! Great for the economy, but man, it sucks if you hate crowds and bumper to bumper traffic. Anacortesisca great alternative. We’re headed to Leavenworth today as well. The wife is craving deep fried pickles at Kristals…
Who is the guy in the picture on the wall!
Mark: that’s a mirror and my, albeit spooky, reflection.
Rob: I’ve always driven by Stanwood, never visited the place. As we sat in the Anacortes park parking lot I looked longingly at the ferry. I wanted to hop aboard and go back to San Juan Island for a while. I love the area.
Whew! What a relief. I thought you were about to say that the I-5 bridge fell down again…. (lol.)