Skagit Valley Tulip Festival???

Well, as I said we might, Phil and I drove up north today to the Mount Vernon area to check out all the beautiful tulips and the festival, which started April 1st. I'm sad to say we didn't find any. I was afraid they wouldn't be in bloom yet. We have had such a cold "spring" so far, considering we just had snow again a week ago! The 2 days of near 70 degrees that we've just experienced, simply are not enough to bring on the blooms. As you'll see from the pictures below, we did find a little color. Yellow to be exact...in the form of daffodils.

We also saw a lot of white. Huge flocks of snow white geese were abundant. There were hundreds of them. They would fly in a circular form over the fields and slowly land. We figured they were feasting on bugs or something. They stayed on the ground for a while and then something would stir them up again and they would go back to their circular flight path. They were very interesting to watch.

Another beautiful color we saw a lot of was blue - both in the sky and the water. We can't go to this area and not spend some time walking the streets of quaint little LaConner. It was quite warm and we enjoyed the views from the docks.

Of course the highlight of our colorful adventure without benefit of tulips, was our stop in the fields for yummy ice cream cones. Over 40 flavors to choose from, so there were many colors as well. As you can see, Phil and I both indulged and Maddie was wishing one of us would share! All in all it was a very nice day and we had a nice time. We may just have to make another trip up there at the end of the month after Phil gets home from Alaska to actually see the tulips. When we were done exploring LaConner, we headed south and stopped in Everett at Katie's place. She and Phil cooked us a wonderful dinner and we had a nice little visit with them.

Mount Baker was beautiful too. It stuck up against the blue, cloudless sky, resembling our ice cream cones and is so snow covered, you can't see anything but white. Definitely worth the drive up!

Tomorrow...back to reality and work!

Spring Break up-date

Holy Cow! I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I must be honest though...it's just another ploy of mine to put off doing what I really should be doing on a Saturday. That being homework, housework, laundry (which I did yesterday), grocery shopping, lesson planning...and the list goes on.

Truth be told, I can't imagine that I have anything much to say that anyone will really be interested in reading, so this may be very short-lived.

We just put Megan on a plane back to Fairbanks on Wednesday evening. She and RJ had been here for part of his R & R from Iraq. He returned about a week ago and Megan stayed with us until Wednesday. The good news is that he only has about 3 months more and he'll be home to stay. We had a lot of fun while they were here, but wished the weather would have been a little more cooperative to show RJ the real beauty of the Pacific Northwest. He seemed to like the area in spite of the rain. Here are a few photos of our explorations:

Megan and RJ caught unaware climbing the stairs at Pike Place Market.

The Happy Couple!

RJ ready to enjoy his "sampler" at The Pike Place Brewery. The last taste of beer until deployment is over!

Megan and RJ at The Pink Door as we wait for Katie and Phil.

Phil, Katie, Giselle, Phil, Megan, and RJ at The Pink Door in Seattle

They had been visiting his family in Pennsylvania for the week prior. It was Megan's first meeting and she fell in love with them, as we have with RJ. We ate out a lot to help satisfy RJ's cravings for good food, which he doesn't seem to get in Iraq. There was the need for good steak (Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse), seafood (Seattle Waterfront), Italian (Pink Door in Seattle), good beer (99 bottles in Federal Way & Pike Place Brewery), and Mexican (Mexico - top floor Pacific Place in Seattle).

We had one nice sunny day in Seattle when RJ was able to explore the waterfront, Seattle Aquarium, and Pike Place Market. We also showed him Point Defiance Park and the 5-mile Drive one day.

It's hard to believe that he is back in Iraq and it's back to business as usual for Megan in Fairbanks when they were just here such a short time ago. Sometimes air travel is still amazing to me!

...and speaking of business as usual...spring break will soon be over for me and it will be back to the business of educating young minds. I guess I've put off my Saturday chores for as long as I can, so I'll leave you for now. Phil and I may drive up north and see if we can find any tulip fields in bloom tomorrow. The Festival started 3 days ago, but our spring has been soooooo cold, I'm not sure there's much to see yet. If we find anything worth photographing, I'll add it for all of you to see too. Stay tuned.....