Tulip Time Festival

Originally, Ryan and I planned to run a 5K on Saturday morning, but we failed to register before the online registration closed...and by that time the weather report for the weekend was NOT really conducive to running, so we elected to save our money and not do the race. {Good choice since we had to pay so much for the hotel!}

So...we rested instead, which we actually needed...and then we bundled up and headed out to Windmill Island Garden, to check out the tulips! We were kind of sad that it was so cold and gloomy that day, but we were DETERMINED to make the very best of the day, no matter what.

Check out this windmill!!

We stood in line for a while to take the official tour. We got to climb up five floors of the windmill and learn about how they use it to mill flour. Even today! Still an active mill! All the tour guides dressed the part...

After the tour, we got to walk out on the deck. I am {as you might recall} crazy afraid of heights, so this was an exercise in bravery for me.

While we were up there, we looked over the field of tulips.

They...um...didn't get the memo about showing up. Whoopsie!!

After our windmill tour, we walked around both this area and downtown Holland in general...trying to find tulips. We found a few...mostly in little flower beds downtown. Well...first, Ryan tried on some wooden shoes. He found them to be a bit uncomfortable.

THEN the tulips.

Ryan voted to eat a traditional Dutch lunch there at the windmill. This included pea soup. I have never had pea soup...and I'm very picky about peas. I hate canned peas. And I so feared that's what the soup would have. And it did. All in all, it was better than I thought it would be, but still...my thoughts:

We walked through downtown - and I LOVED that district! It was darling! Plus...we found this little chocolate shop. Oh. My. World.

 Why yes. We DID eat a chocolate covered Twinkie. Don't worry. We shared it.

 This was right outside the chocolate shop. Perfect for this day!

And since there weren't many tulips to see, we elected NOT to go visit the other locations...and instead, we headed to the beach!