2017 May. The Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan

FRIDAY, MAY 12.  THE JOURNEY HOME
We left at 6:30 and got home safely at 3:30, only stopping for bathroom breaks.  The trailer is parked on the driveway until I can finish cleaning our stuff out and cleaning it up.  Bye for now.

THURSDAY, MAY 11. DAY 3 OF OUR VISIT TO THE TULIP FESTIVAL

The Historic Pillar Church tour was the first stop of the day.  This building is on the National Register and it was one of the few buildings to survive the fire of 1871.  This congregation began in 1847 when Dr. Van Raalte and 53 dutch immigrants arrived in Holland.  The settlers were fleeing religious prosecution in their homeland.  The church was dedicated in 1856.  A church pastor gave a little talk about the congregation and how there had been a split over philosphies however, more recently, a reconciliation has occured that has allowed the church to prosper again.  

Just down the street from the church is the Holland Museum.  The second floor of the museum is dedicated to artwork from dutch artists from the late 1800's.  

The main floor is a timeline history o the Holland area and we learned quite a few things about the area from the displays.  In a corner of the museum I found some old Life magazines from 1942/43 and in each issue there are tips for your conservations efforts for the war.  One issue explained that childrens coats can be made from old car seat upholstery.  Another issue featured making 13 pairs of childrens underwear from 1 bed sheet.  There were also instructions on how to preserve and/or dry fruits and vegetables.  

Across the street from the Museum in Centennial Park which houses 24,000 tulip bulbs and a statue of Albertus Van Raalte (found of Holland).  Again, most of the tulips were amazing.

Todays main street parade was the Kinder Parade.  There were so many children marching in todays parade and they were accompanied by many school bands.  People in Holland are super friendly, offering advice and assistance even when it isn't solicited.  

After all the parade excitement and traffic died down, we drove to Stromboli's ( a pizza place).  I had never heard of a stromboli but apparently it is a pizza dough rolled up, filled with cheese and your choice of ingredients.  When baked, they cut it into pieces and serve it with a side order of pizza or dipping sauce.  Carl ordered one of these and I ordered a usual pizza.  Both items turned out to be very tasty.  

After supper, we made plans for an early getaway in the morning.  It took us about 9 hours to get here and we will have to contend with rush hour traffic when heading back into Toronto.  At least, we still have this evening to relax before a long drive tomorrow. 

See everyone soon and, thanks for reading.  
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10. DAY 2 OF OUR VISIT TO THE TULIP FESTIVAL

Today we had instant breakfast sandwiches that we found at Walmart to start our day.  They took a whole minute and a half to make in the microwave and did not require any prep or clean up.  The perfect food except it was missing any vegetables.  

Although we had heard that parking would be an issue on parade day we did not have any trouble getting a parking spot close to downtown.  At 10:15 am the mayor and her team performed a white glove street inspection and decreed that the streets were to dirty for tourists and a community sweeping had to take place at 1:15 right before the parade.

 Between the inspection and the parade time we lunched at AlpenRose Cafe where we enjoyed a very tasty jagr schnitzel with spaetzle and red cabbage.  We secured an amazing vantage point for the parade and left our chairs at that spot while we ate.  

The street sweeping involved hundreds of residents of all ages in traditional costumes &cleaning& the streets with their brooms and pails of water.  

The parade that followed the street sweeping had lots of marching bands, floats from local business and community outreach agencies, old cars, new cars and a bunch of dogs in costume at the tail end.  

Following the parade, we walked down to the Capon and Settlers houses.  The Settlers house was a home owned by a family that came on hard times and, in juxtaposition, the Capon house was a business owner whose business and family flourished.  Both homes were restored to their original states.  

Before returning to our trailer, we again did a little shopping. The evening was spent relaxing with a few tv shows.  

TUESDAY, MAY 9. DAY 1 OF OUR VISIT TO THE TULIP FESTIVAL

Brrr!  It was a cold night and morning.  A hot breakfast got us started for our first day of the Festival. We started off driving to the location of the shuttle bus tours.  We bought tickets for the 11:15 bus tour which included three other historical sites.  While we waited we looked at many varieties of tulips as well as some giant wooden shoes.

The tour was interesting and informative and we got off at Windmill Island so called for the original working windmill (imported from Holland).  Many more varieties of tulips were seen here.  The tour of the windmill had us briefly meeting the onsite miller.  She trained in Holland and is one of the only Americans to be a member of the Millers Guild.  The flour that is ground here is sold to tourists, breweries and bakeries.  

Hopping back on the shuttle, we rode back to our truck.  Dutch dancing at the Marktplaatz was the next stop.  It was to far to walk so we drove there.   Seated in the auditorium we received an explanation of the traditional youth costumes from the different regions of Holland and a dancing demo done in their wooden shoes.  This was followed by a dance performance from the younger children.  

By this time, we were both hungry so we decided on dinner at a Brew pub.  Dinner was very tasty and Carl enjoyed his craft beers.  After dinner we again caught up on some tv shows. 

MONDAY, MAY 8, 2017. THE JOURNEY TO HOLLAND

The trailer got mostly packed on Sunday.  We got up early but it took us until 7:30 to get moving so, of course, we hit traffic on the 40.  Fortunately, heading west turned out to be less busy and driving into the city.  Traffic was backed for miles in the eastward direction.  

I had a wildlife viewing when I spotted a beautiful large hawk sitting on a tree by the side of the road.  Carl also spotted another hawk further on.  

Windmills started dotting the horizon about 60 km before Sarnia.  Most of them were idle , although a few were slowly turning.

It cost $8 to cross the Blue Water Bridge into the USA just before noon.  The view is quite nice from the bridge.  In Michigan, we waited about 15 mins at Customs to get through our interrogation.  The Michigan visitor center was the next stop for a bathroom break, grab some brochures and our sandwiches out of the trailer frig.  Somewhere along the way, the temperature on the frig had gotten turned down to be very cold and as a result the lettuce in my sandwich was frozen as were the peppers  that were supposed to accompany our lunch.

Entertaining us along the way were tales from Stuart McLean. He is a gifted story teller and made us laugh quite a few times.  

The I69 is mostly an awful highway.  It bounces and jerks you around.  By 3 o'clock we had to stop and refuel at the Flying J and by 4:30 we were checking into our home for the next few days.  

Beers as well as some groceries were bought at a nearby Walmart. Upon our return to the trailer we feasted on my homemade chili, corn on the cob and a salad and then whiled away the evening with some tv shows that Carl had brought along.