Tulilp Time

On Saturday, we made our way down to the town of Pella, IA for the 70th Annual Tulip Time Festival. Doug, Dallas, and I met Aunt Katie there around 10 in the morning. If you remember in my previous post, I was hoping for a dry day...well, it rained through the night, but the sun was out and shining brightly when we arrived. The only downfall was the wind, but we do live in Iowa and we shouldn't have been surprised/bothered by it. By noon, we each had shed a layer and found some great food!

I never knew there were so many variety of tulips! They are each so lovely and different. In the downtown square there are some 25,000 tulips. In front of the houses leading up to main street, there are tulips planted in neat rows. We are unsure if the city maintains those flower beds or if the residents do, but either way, they are perfect. Katie and I took lots of pictures (on her camera because my battery was dead!). Here they are...I hope you enjoy them!

There is a group of 16 girls from the high school that sing and dance to old Holland folk songs.

This sun dial was a gift to the city as well as the tower in the background. You can also see some of the flags representing the different Providences in Holland.

Various tulip beds around town.

The Dutch are famous for wooden shoes...here's Dallas trying on his first pair!

In the downtown area there are two different windmills. The first one pictured is the top of the information booth, and the second one is a working grain mill that was a gift from Holland.

Many of the houses and buildings are of a Dutch style: tall, narrow, and very deep.

Off the downtown square is a beautiful "canal walk" and garden area. Along one of the entrances into the area are these tiled paintings depicting different scenes from Holland communities.

A family picture...yes, Dallas is sleeping!

The Red Rock Threshers Club had an antique tractor display. The JD pictured first is a 1010, which I had never seen before, and Doug says is somewhat rare. The second picture is the group of Olivers that were present.

Dallas...still sleeping

Aunt Katie and her famous self-portraits.

Dallas...waiting for the parade to start

Dallas trying to shade himself from the sun.

One of the entries in the parade was of all the babies in town. We couldn't believe how many participants there were! Some parents carried their babies, while others used old strollers (that they themselves had been pushed in through the parade).

Dallas ... sleeping through the firetruck siren.

Many of the entries were ones that have been participating for many years. This was a new one this year...a train of wooden shoes. A local man had carved each of those shoes from a solid piece of wood and then painted them.

We saw this car driving through town when we first arrived to Pella. We (Doug) didn't know what it was, but when it came through the parade, we found out it is a Lincoln Continental. I forget what year it was...sorry.

This is the Sunken Garden, which was new this year. It is hard to tell in the picture, but the pond is in the shape of a wooden shoe.

Aunt Katie and Dallas on the trolley ride around town to see some of the historic landmarks.

A nice wind-blown look!

The mansion in town was built by Mr. Scholte for his wife when they moved from Holland. He apparently promised his wife he would build her a home exactly like the one they had in Holland within the first year of moving to what is now Pella. Behind the house, is a beautiful tulip garden containing over 20,000 tulips! This statue was placed in the garden at the 150th celebration. We thought it would be fun to put Dallas in the basket of tulips!

This is in the garden behind the Scholte house.

In the flower beds they are very careful to keep the tulips in a row and keep the same variety in the bed. This single yellow one slipped in somehow!