If you love a mix of beautiful flowers, music, food, arts, crafts and history, you will love to visit this popular annual event.
Tulip Time Festival

Are you a tulip lover?

I've exhibited my pottery at the Tulip Festival many times, but not recently. I always loved seeing the massive plantings of tulips around the wonderful, huge, authentic Dutch windmill, "The Swan" on Windmill Island, and the rows of blooming tulips along the residential streets of the own.

Welcome Claybird. What type of pottery do you make?

Holland is a nice town. My husband and I can't make the tulip festival this year but plan on visiting some lighthouses in that area soon.

Michigan is Lighthouse Central! Did you know that there are more lighthouses along the Michigan coastlines than in any other state in the US? I have visited many but not all by any means. Which ones are on your list? The double one at St. Joseph is the closest one to me and I was there a week ago and took some (more) photos of it.

My mother was a second grade teacher and also loved lighthouses. We went on a weekend tour (Mom, Dad and I) so that she could personally take pictures of various lighthouses for a project for her students. We left home on Friday night and camped out Fri and Sat. Had a great time!

Also, I was married toward the end of January, and my husband and I traveled to Holland for the Tulip festival a few months later. Almost like a second honeymoon. I still have the pictures we took. It is a great place to see the beautiful and colorful flowers.

Thanks for the memories!

Well, we know we definitely want to see "Big Red." We plan on making our way up from Holland to Muskegon and seeing some on the way. It won't be a long trip, just a few days, but we are looking forward to doing some lighthouse hopping again.

The last ones we went to were in St. Joseph and South Haven. We hope to see them all, but that will take a while.

Around the Great Lakes it is surprising what one can see in just a couple of days. There is so much available that by the time we get back from just a 2-3 day trip we feel like we've been gone much longer. So many photos and memories to carry us for a while. Do you find that to be so?

Trish, what a great article! I love Tulip festivals. When I live in Mount Vernon, WA, I always toured all the tulip gardens during the festivals. It was so lovely. Your article brings back very happy memories. Thank you!

Edie - Yes I am grateful that we can pack so much into a short trip or just be lazy if we want.

Phyllis - Thank you. There's something about tulips. They are like heralds of spring whenever you see them.

Tulips have such an array of colors that seeing them in a large quantity such as at the Tulip Festival just takes my breath away. They also have a stately appearance as they seem to stand tall. Quite a wonderful flower and definitely "heralds of spring" - I like your phrase.

Gah!!!!! For Shame!!!! I saw the neighbor's kid outside with a weed whacker thinking that he was going to cut the weeds. Silly me. The next thing I knew when I turned around was that he had cut down all the wild tulips growing in their yard. If only I had known. I would have begged a few off of him.

Those weed whackers can be bad news in the hands of non-gardeners. I once let a friend do me a favor and go at the weeds in my yard and the next thing I knew he had cut down my new raspberry bed!