Tulip Festival

Going to a tulip festival has been on my wishlist for a while. We almost made it last year, but couldn't quite make it work with our schedule. This year, we planned way, way ahead and made our arrangements early enough that it was definitely going to happen! I am so glad that we did.

We decided to head to Holland, Michigan. The drive from Chicago isn't too bad- a little less than three hours. Tulip Time is a seriously cute festival with gorgeous flowers and lots of great stuff to do. We started at Centennial Park which was full of stunning tulips in a variety of colors. Olivia was so excited. She kept running from section to section. She said the pink ones smelled like strawberries, the yellow ones like lemon, the purple like grape..and so on. She really loves flowers which made this even more fun.

It was a little (or maybe a lot) colder than I expected on our first day. The wind was absolutely brutal and I felt like for the first time, my over packing did not come in handy. I wanted a winter hat! We ended up popping in some stores in downtown Holland to warm up and also took a little break at our hotel. 8th street was so charming and Waterfront Park was also gorgeous (although even windier it seemed, so we didn't stay too long.) The tulip lanes were charming too and fun to see as we drove through town.

After a warm up break in our hotel room, we decided to head to Veldheers Tulip Farm. The grounds were really huge with lots of picturesque rows of tulips. Their site says they have 5 million tulips! They also had some other beautiful flowers like daffodils, peonies and some gorgeous lilacs that Olivia and I couldn't get enough of. (That sniff face?! I can't!) Olivia had so much fun running between the rows of flowers, stopping often to smell them. Poodle alongside her all the way.

The next day we went to the Windmill Island Gardens which was probably our favorite spot on the trip. The tulips were really breathtaking and the huge windmill was really lovely. They also had some beautiful Dutch music playing near the entrance that was a really fun addition. Olivia tiptoed and twirled her way through the entire grounds. It was a blast.

The festival goes through the weekend, so there's still time to check it out if you can! Getting away with our trio is always my favorite time. I absolutely love seeing somewhere new and the uninterrupted time just the three of us is the best.

xoxo