Dancing with Daffodils

I had discussed making a side trip to Vancouver with Seattle friend 1 before my trip and she said wanted to go with me. Then as it got closer to my trip, she started to bail out. She said she would let me borrow her car so I figured I might as well just go by myself. In the morning, I had a wonderful brunch with Seattle friend 2 who I had stayed with the previous night. She commented on how pretty the clouds were that day. I thought it was hilarious, but I guess in a place that is constantly overcast, you have to take what you can get and find joy in the little things. Later, she dropped me off in Queen Anne so I could get friend 1's car and my stuff and head out on my little adventure.

Friend 1 had mentioned a place to me north of Seattle where there were supposed to be amazing fields of tulips in bloom in April. It was said to rival the tulip fields of Holland I have seen in so many pictures. I did a little research online and found out it was called the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. The location was more or less halfway between Seattle and Vancouver. I decided I had to make a stop there.

I headed out on the highway and drove through the city, the suburbs and eventually the wilderness and small towns. I felt peaceful, happy and at ease. When I reached Skagit Valley, I wasn't quite sure where to go, but luckily there was a visitors center not too far from the freeway. I stopped and talked to a man who told me the tulips hadn't really bloomed yet. I was disappointed. But then he told me there was farm called Roozengaarde with plenty of daffodils and that he had been to a farm called Tulip Town earlier that day and saw that the first rows of tulips were beginning to bloom there. He gave me a map and showed me how to get to the farms. Seeing that I was confused by his directions, was kind enough to highlight a route to the two farms and directions back to the freeway.

I first went to Roozengaarde where there were rows and rows of yellow daffodils and beyond that, rows of white daffodils with yellow trumpets. The setting was wonderful-- blue skies with thick white clouds and snow-capped mountains in the distance. I next headed to Tulip Town. I asked the guy working at the door if there were any flowers in bloom and he said that there were just 5 varieties of tulips that had begun to bloom. I asked if there would be more in bloom in a couple days when I would be heading back to Seattle. He said that it would be more like a couple weeks until they all bloomed. So I figured I might as well just check it out. I paid my $5 fee and entered (I think Roozengaarde has a fee too if you enter the tulip section). There were just a few rows of color, but it was better than nothing. There was the same lovely background scenery along with a cute red barn in the distance. Another upside of my timing was that there were no crowds to contend with!

I got back on the freeway to continue my drive to Vancouver. I had heard there were two border entries, one for regular cars and one that is mainly for trucks but also lets regular cars through and is said to be faster. It said that there was only about a 5 minute wait to go through the regular border crossing so I figured I might as well. It turned out to be more like 40 minutes.

I used the time to call my friend who I had traveled with in Southeast Asia last year who lived just outside of Vancouver. We were supposed to meet up for dinner that night but she told me she had to cancel. Being a big four day weekend, she was getting on the ferry early to get out of the city before the rush and had some festivities going on at home. She said she might be able to meet up the following day for lunch. She was super apologetic about leaving me alone on my first night in Vancouver. It would have been nice to see her, but I had already taken to the idea of being solo for a couple days. And it's just Canada, not some place completely foreign!

Once I reached the customs official, he checked my passport, asked a few questions and decided it was okay to let me into Canada. British Columbia, here I come!