Tulip Time

I’ve written so many blogs about Holland, Michigan I almost allowed this adventure to get away without a single word. I thought back on our past adventures and realized they aren’t ever the same. They all have their own unique flavor. In this one, I plan to allow the pictures to tell most of the story. We planned to spend a couple of days in St. Joseph, Michigan before moving on to Tulip Time in Holland on Saturday. We worried it might rain the entire time.

Rooster and I went to Michigan a day early to scout out Holland’s Tulip Time festival. We checked into our room at the Holiday Inn in St. Joseph, Michigan but didn’t get much exploring done. It rain for the entire day. The above picture was taken at Silver Beach.

The adventure time showed when the rain ended. The participants included Rooster, my daughter Marci, her husband Jeff, and one of our granddaughters Courtney. The sun shone bright above us as we assembled in Centennial Park in Holland to look at the tulips there.

Red and yellow tulips sprouted everywhere at Tulip Time.

Purple and white tulips didn’t seem as common at Tulip Time.

Some more red and yellow tulips.

Unique sculptures are scattered throughout the small city of Holland. I wrote a previous blog concerning the relationship of L. Frank Baun and Holland, Michigan. A collection of statues assembled outside the library are a tribute to the famous book.

We found the wicked witch.

A scary tree.

The Scarecrow stood under a magnolia tree.

A guy pretended to be part of the orchestra near the downtown area.

A neat statue of kids raising the flag.

Downtown Holland is a fantastic place to visit, filled with a lot of old buildings and interesting shops.

I managed to get all of my steps in during our walk.

The city planted a large number of tulips all over the downtown area. One of the people giving directions told us an interesting story about the recording artist Prince. He spent time in Holland, Michigan. After a trip to the Netherlands, he donated money to create the same street heating method he observed over there. In the winter, the city doesn’t need to plow the downtown area. How cool is that?

We found more tulips at Window on the Waterfront.

Window on the Waterfront was crowded with people and flowers t Tulip Time.

Windmill Island off in the distance appeared too for us to get in, so we turned around.

A crane enjoyed the warm water, wondering what all the fuss was about.

We endured a major traffic jam to get into the area where the artisans set up their tents at Tulip Time.

Unique handmade art pieces sold at reasonable prices.

I found a lot of chicken pieces at the Tulip Times Festival.

How do those people dance in wooden shoes? I want to know the secret.

No visit to Holland would be complete with going to see Big Red.

The women on the adventure team walked to the end of the peir.

The wind blew brisk at the end of the pier.

We had a great time on our trip to Holland. The time we spent in St. Joe was fun even if it was a little wet. We’ll know what we’re doing the next time we attend this festival. Our biggest problem center around not understand how spread out the attraction were from one another.

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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