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.
One of the most popular National Park routes that Poy and I hadn’t tackled yet was the Utah ‘Mighty Five.’ We’d heard nothing but non-stop hype from friends, and after checking off several harder-to-reach destinations, we decided it was finally time to go for it! We initially tried to squeeze in Great Basin National Park in Nevada, but a car shortage at the Las Vegas airport left us with an electric vehicle. As it turns out, there are no non-Tesla charging stations near Great Basin (aside from one incredibly slow charger), so we pivoted. We ended up focusing solely on the five Utah gems, which actually made for a much more relaxing, less rushed experience.
There are not many national parks that are ideal to visit in winter, except for those in the desert. For this Christmas trip, we chose three desert national parks, namely, Petrified Forest, Saguaro, and Joshua Tree. In addition to these, we also stopped by some of the most iconic landmarks in Arizona’s desert landscape, including Horseshoe Bend and Monument Valley. It was a dry, sandy, and breathtaking Christmas. One that turned out to be truly memorable for both of us.
Despite the polar vortex that swept through Illinois, we decided to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, driving from our home in Champaign. Along the way, we got to meet some friends in Cincinnati and Akron. In fact, we didn’t stop only at Cuyahoga Valley; we also continued on to see a much bigger set of falls in upstate New York—Niagara Falls. Everything was freezing cold, but the fresh snow somehow gave the entire trip a magical atmosphere.
Foliage season feels so fleeting to me, so Poy and I never really planned to chase fall colors anywhere beyond our university campus. But there are a few national parks that are especially beautiful in autumn, and we wanted to try visiting them at their peak. We followed the fall–color predictions closely and booked our flights well in advance to keep costs down. On this trip, we were lucky enough to catch vibrant red and yellow leaves in Shenandoah, New River Gorge, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks. We also had the chance to explore the beautiful wetlands of Congaree National Park before flying back home!