Tulip time festival, Holland, MI
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I have seen many people in the midwest area go see tulip fields every April and May. This year I decided to go to Holland, Michigan, which is known for their tulip festival. The trip was planned quite implusively as I was not sure if I would have time during the end of Spring 2024 semester. We are so happy that we went there. It was a nice little trip to finish off my third year of Ph.D.
To start off, we first went to “Tulip Immersion Garden”, which was 15 minutes away from the downtown. We booked a ticket without knowing that we could also see the tulips almost everywhere in the town. However, it was not a ripoff or anything. The place was gorgeous though not very large. Their tulips were the freshest and most well-maintained compared to other places in the town. We spent a good hour there and bought a cute porcelain cow back home as well.
The second tulip field that we went to was the permanent tulip farm called “Windmill Island”. It is located in the heart of the town and features a real Dutch windmill called “De Zwaan”. There are many kind of tulips that you can look around but some of them also got stepped by the careless crowd. We really like how they arranged the flowers along with many decorations. We then went to the downtown to see if there were anything interesting. Surprisingly, the town took the festival very seriously. They set many portable toilet all over the town and had food trucks at more than 4 spots in their small city. We got a jumbo corndog and a soda to refresh ourselves.
On the second day, we started off with one of the best breakfast we had in the US at “Windmill Restaurant”. We lined up for 15 minutes before we got called, but the service was actually very quick and their waitresses were very nice. We ordered a regular dish like hashbrown, bacon, and eggs and also a rolled up pancake. They were made perfectly! On the way back to Champaign, we also stopped by Indiana Dunes National Park. The park is not big but enjoyable. We strolled along the beach for a bit and were headed back to Champaign.
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