Tiptoe through the tulips….

We took the camper and went to Des Moines last weekend. Mom and Doug were still here, it was opening day for the Des Moines Farmer’s Market and the Pella Tulip Time Festival was going on, and it was a gorgeous weekend!

The Des Moines Farmer’s market is huge (ok, it’s huge for what I’m used to….maybe those of you who live elsewhere have a bigger one, but I soooo wish we had this one nearer to us). It had flowers, tomato plants, veggies, bread, and anything else you could want. I was surprised that we didn’t see any asparagus or rhubarb, but we found lots more to buy anyway.

There are blocks and blocks of vendors. Did I mention that I wish we had this closer to us? We may have to just make the 90 minute trip once a month or so and go more often.

There were also lots of dogs. Everyone brought their dogs.

Big dogs. And little dogs.

And everything else.

Mom and I hit pretty much every booth. Everyone else just stood around waiting for us to come back. Even Matt brought his dog.

We then headed to Pella for the annual Tulip Festival.  Pella was founded in the mid 1800’s by Dutch Separatists, and they have had the Tulip Festival since 1935. There are up to 300,000 tulips planted each year for the festival. They have the festival to celebrate the Dutch heritage and history.

My boss is from The Netherlands. I have seen him in his wooden shoes, listened as he spoke to his mom and dad on the phone in Dutch at my desk, and tasted the treats he brought back from his visits. But that’s pretty much the extent of my knowledge. I wish we had a bit more time to spend there. I think I would like to go back when there weren’t thousands of people, though.

We have had a late spring this year, and the tulips were spectacular. They were everywhere around town. In every color.

 

It was funny to watch all the people taking pictures of the tulips.

There were people dressed in costume.

And entertainment about the Dutch history.

And a parade with beautiful floats.

It was a great weekend with beautiful weather.  (and I spent $11.00 and won $90 bucks at the casino on Friday night….so that just added to the nice weekend)