Tiptoe Through the Traffic

As hard as it may be to believe, I have never been to see the tulips in Skagit County despite living in Puget Sound my entire life.  Some years it's been too wet, other years too busy.  I didn't even know that visiting the tulips was a thing until I was an adult.  I must of missed that episode of Evening Magazine every year.  The gaping hole in my life experience is now filled.  I finally went to see the tulips.

Dave has been working incredibly long days every day.  My father works nights and sleeps during the day.  I decided we were due for another adventure and I invited my mother to come along for the ride.  The kids were ready, enthusiastic, and dressed appropriately without any help.  Things were looking good, and then we attempted to get to Mt Vernon.....

So.much.traffic.  First there was heavy traffic in Everett and then starting a few miles south of Mt. Vernon traffic went from slow to a crawl to a standstill.  At the some point, another car had the idea that all of us trying to take the exit to the tulips should just pull off to the shoulder.  And then we sat and sat and sat.  Having not done my due diligence, I missed that the third weekend of April is the Tulip Festival street fair.  Not only was there traffic to see the tulips, but most of the downtown Mt Vernon streets were closed, parking was insane, and pedestrians were everywhere.  This did not bode well for getting a quick bite to eat.

Once we did make it off the freeway and somehow found parking, we wandered around until we found a diner with a cheap brunch.  And then we were on our way.  Leaving town towards the fields, there was no traffic.  In fact, Tulip Town was not that crowded at all.

Tulip Town is kind of like going to one of the commercial pumpkin patches with decidedly less bling--no cow train rides, tulip chunking with a catapult, or tulip mazes.  It's just a large area of tulips (about the size of a soccer field), many sections with the flowers chopped off.  There is a trolley that you can pay extra to ride that will drive you around this square patch.  You aren't supposed to go in the rows.  Small sections are cut out so you can take the obligatory photo where you look like you are in among the tulips. 

 My mom struggled with using the camera.

Linus picked out a bouquet of flowers to commemorate our trip.

Leaving the tulips proved even more difficult.  The road leading back to town was clogged.  After twenty minutes and not budging, I turned on my route navigation, set it for HOME, and just headed south, ignoring all attempts to get me to the main road.  It took a long time, but we eventually found our way back to the freeway.  My mom and I thought the route we took was quite scenic and lovely.

The kids were not impressed by either the scenic drive or the tulips.  The Dairy Queen in Marysville on the way back went over much better.  Robin couldn't get enough and was moaning as he tried to climb across the table to get at Linus' blizzard.

I finally visited the tulips.  I'm glad I went.  The tulips were pretty and the kids were well-behaved.  I had fun, but I gotta say, the whole thing is a little overrated.  The next time I go (which won't be for a few years), I'll just swing by on a weekday after a fun adventure in Bellingham.  I think I can safely say that no one is going to be receiving a Christmas card from us with a picture of the family nestled in among the tulips.