April happens to be the time of year when tulips bloom, and thus is the time of year in which the Skagit County Tulip Festival happens.

As the tourism board puts it, “The Mission of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is to coordinate and promote a countywide Spring celebration of the tulip bloom, in commemoration of the valley’s annual tulip harvest, and to be an advocate for Skagit Valley agriculture.”

Essentially, it’s a ploy to lure droves of people into small towns to visit local tulip growers and hopefully stimulate the local economy. Judging from the day’s traffic, and the subsequent number of online dating profiles featuring people posing in front of beautifully arranged tulip beds, it is a pretty successful venture.

The three main tulip farms are RoozenGaarde, Tulip Town, and Garden Rosalyn.

We opted to visit RoozenGaarde, and to make it a longer trip by stopping at Deception Pass State Park, and enjoying a couple of beers and a boat ride on our way home.

 

 

RoozenGaarde

RoozenGaarde is a tulip farm, and it was full of lovely flower arrangements, gift shop opportunities, and, well, a decent-sized crowd.

Most, but not all of the flowers are tulips (in all colors), but there are also a few other species on display, including some phenomenal daffodils.

The tulip fields themselves are a cool place, one with lots of squishy, bumpy, sometimes muddy walking paths.

Deception Pass

Deception Pass was so named when George Vancouver felt that its narrowness ‘deceived’ him into thinking that Whidbey Island was a peninsula, connected to the mainland.

At present day, it’s the site of a bridge, and a small state park providing dramatic views of the pass.

Ferry

From Deception Pass, we continued along the length of Whidbey Island, enjoying the scenic island roads instead of the mainland interstate, until we eventually caught the Clinton-Mukilteo ferry.

Weirdly, we seemed to be directed to an HOV ferry boarding lane, and as a consequence were the first car to embark and disembark from the boat… and, also, got to be parked at its front.

All things considered, it was an epic, lovely day!