Many years ago, when I lived in Buzzard’s Bay, MA, I wanted to go to the Daffodil Festival on Nantucket.  I never made it.  When I heard about a Tulip Festival I decided I had to go.

The tulip farm is not quite 3 hours away, so I decided it would make a nice day trip.  Our oldest, Joe and his girlfriend, Bridget, came along for the ride.  We knew ahead of time that it was not a great year for the tulips.  The tulip fields had flooded in January.  It had been a very cold spring, so the tulips that had survived the flooding got a very late start.  Then, when it finally warmed up and they started popping up, it got very hot, very quickly.  This shortened the usual month-long season to about a week.

Despite the problems, we were not disappointed by the journey.  There was still a beautiful field full of gorgeous blooms.  There was a bounce mat and a bounce slide.  It was a joy to see Joe, 25, behaving like a small child for a few minutes.

We wandered through the many tulips, enjoying the scenery, and taking beautiful photos.  Joe purchased a small collection of blossoms.  They also had a variety of vases available to buy.  The baby ducks and chicks at checkout were a treat as well.

On the way home, we stopped at Hector’s of Nokesville for some yummy Mexican food and margaritas.  We did lose the GPS signal and got a bit turned around on our way home, but with a little delay, we managed to figure it out.  Note to self…download the map for offline use when heading to the boonies.

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