We heard on the news that the tulips in Skagit Valley were blooming early this year. We’d seen photos of those tulip farms in full bloom, and it is just gorgeous. So instead of taking the ferry back from Whidbey Island, we decided to drive north, over Desolate Sound Bridge, and through Skagit Valley.
Desolation Sound bridge.
This is the road we took from Marysville to Langley when we first got Bessie in December. My first time driving her was in the rain, in the dark, over Desolate Sound Bridge. It was so dark, I didn’t even realize I was driving on a bridge, just that the road got very, very narrow with a close curb that I bumped with my wheel. It’s just as well that I couldn’t see what was below me. I was anxious enough!
Daffodil fields near Mt. Baker.
When we got to RoosenGaard Tulip Farm, the largest in the valley, there were fields and fields of shockingly bright yellow daffodils, but no tulips. “Those news reports were greatly exaggerated,” the ticket taker at the farm’s garden told me. No dogs were allowed at the farm, so Kate stayed with Bailey in the parking lot and I paid the $5 to go into the garden area and take a few photos. It was a nice garden area, and there were some early tulips and other flowers, but the showcase was definitely the daffodil fields with snowy Mount Baker as a backdrop. And those you can get just as easily from the road. So when it was Kate’s turn to go in the garden, she opted to skip it and drive around the farm roads some more, where she got some good photos, and we found one narrow field of blooming tulips.
Tobi and Ronan.
I would love to see this area in full spring bloom, with fields and fields of tulips. But the daffodils were stunning. It was a warm, pretty day, and our load was lighter without Bessie, so we totally enjoyed the extra drive. We continued on down to Seattle, back to Tobi’s house, and Bessie. Alethia was working late, but we took Tobi and Ronan out to a nearby Thai restaurant that is a favorite of theirs. It was good to see them one last time (and Alethia briefly) before we hit the road for real.
It rained a lot that night and all the next morning. It was so cozy inside Bessie, we let ourselves lounge about the whole next morning, listening to the pattering on the roof, just puttering and getting things just right. There’s so much organizing to do when space is at a premium. It seems like it will be weeks before we’ve got everything in a proper place and can remember where we put things. Good thing we’ll have many of them.