mindless ramblings

Check out the pictures here!

After wanting to go to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival since last year, we finally had the chance to do so this week. The festival runs yearly from Apr 1 to 30, and well… it’s basically of fields of tulips. The blooming dates are determined by nature, but the official site has a bloom map so you can check if there are what fields are blooming before you go. You definitely don’t want to go down with no flowers blooming yet!
After not enough sleep the night before, we headed down in 2 cars. The border crossing was thankfully short as they opened a whole new section of booths just as we got there. By some stroke of luck we managed to be the first 2 cars chosen for the new section so we got through right away! The visa office was deserted too, so our visas got processed right away (now with RFID tags!).

Our plan was to grab lunch at the Tulalip Casino, check out the Tulip Festival and then head back to Seattle Premium Outlets. You might realize that it is somewhat of a circuitous route, but we wanted to get some good tulip pics in while it was still sunny. The drive was fairly uneventful except for a speeding ticket for going 73 in a 60. Guess I am US$122 poorer.

Lunch was pretty decent. The buffet runs from 10am to 330pm, costs only $9.95 and there is a fairly extensive range of food. These include mexican food (enchilada, tacos), meats (roast beef, ham), pastas (smoked salmon pasta which was quite good, fettucine alfredo which wasn’t), a salad bar (unlimited bacon bits!), desserts (ice cream, cakes). You even get some Lindor chocolate when you are done with your meal. The casino itself is quite big (and you can smoke inside), probably bigger than River Rock Casino. The machines were pretty much the same as the ones here, just waiting to suck your hard earned cash.

Next up: Tulip Festival! We took exit 221 to Conway and got some gas ($2.99/L!) while perusing the map for the best way to get to the flowers. A quick drive brought us to the flowers. We stopped at the Roozengaarde fields, walked around and took lots of pictures. Although we came towards the end of the blooming season, there was an huge field of colourful tulips in their full blooming glory. We didn’t bother going into the display gardens, it cost money and we had enough from the fields outside. Getting back in the car, we followed the tulip route out to Burlington and headed back down to the outlet stores.

It was a great day for outlet shopping. It was nice and warm and pretty empty (since it was a weekday). We made the usual rounds but didn’t find all that much. I picked up a pair of shoes for $29.99 (in the clearance rack no less) and Esther got a hoodie for just $10. The other guys picked up some random stuff at some pretty good prices.

Our final destination was Bellis Fair Mall. Just 20 miles from the border, it’s a favourite haunt of Vancouverites looking for stores like Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister. We found some nice stuff in the stores but ended up not really buying anything. Foot Locker was having a good sale on some nice shoes and some of the guys picked some up. We had a quick dinner at the food court before heading back. Canadian customs was really friendly, and we headed home with little fuss. A satisfying end to a wonderful day!