Last week Monday: Playing hooky at the Tulip Fest

Apr 30, 2024 22:48

Life lately seems like a fever dream. Where did the month of April go? That's why it's hard to believe I actually took a day off of work and just got to do whatever.

Let's back up to Friday the 19th. I was in a bad enough way that I told my boss I couldn't work the whole day, and didn't, and ultimately went home and rested. About 5:30 the phone rings and it's my boss, offering me the opportunity to take Monday off. Okay, let me think about it. I got through Saturday okay, and thought about it, and on Sunday after I practiced I gave him a call and told him I'd be staying home. I would later hear that DW talked my boss into it. I'd been hesitant since Monday is our meeting day, but dang, I was in such a fragile state, and walking so much on Saturday was so helpful, that okay. Let me do this. I didn't have band so I didn't have anywhere specific I needed to be.

I slept in a bit Monday morning, which was especially nice. Typical Mondays, since we have a meeting and have to get to work an hour early, are more rushed than normal, and I definitely have to get up and function right away. Getting to stay in bed extra was really nice. I still showered and dressed for some semblance of normalcy, plus I'd had fancy hair on Saturday thanks to judging the contest and I wanted to wash all that junk out.

I had a number of bills to pay, and that was time for myself number one. I paid my bills, walked to the post office, and then walked around the neighborhood for a bit. As in, I walked the perimeter of my subdivision, went into the park, and then walked the perimeter of the next subdivision over. And in the park, I did something I haven't done in years, in part because mom refuses: I went into the preserve. The last couple times we've walked past the entrance, it looked blocked off, and mom's scared of whatever might be in there. But I was alone, and I was curious, and the path looked clear. It was. It was pretty quiet back there and aside from birds, I didn't encounter anything else. I'd also forgotten that there was a sort of bridge back there that continues the path, but it only goes, I don't know, 100-200 yards and then dead ends. I think it's there in part because this is partly marshland, but there was no discernable reason for it to have been there last Monday; the ground underneath was dry. Also, I wasn't entirely sure of the safety and security of the bridge, which is mainly metal, but I walked the whole thing--making myself do something potentially scary--and it was fine. I could hear traffic in the distance, and in places I could see houses in the adjacent subdivisions, but otherwise it was a world away from everything. Wild that this is so close to my house. I may have to return sometime.

While walking, the Tulip Fest popped into my head. I've wanted to check it out for a couple years now, since I found out it existed, plus it's at Kuipers, where mom and I used to work. I haven't been back there in over a decade and I always thought it must be pretty in the spring, what with all the flowering trees. I wondered if it was open. When I got back, I brought it up to mom, and she was game to go. Heck, anything to ride in my car.

It was about 1:30 by the time we got out there. In the intervening years, they've done some remodeling; the building where mom worked, where you'd buy tickets on the pumpkin side, is now blocked off from being directly reached from the parking lot; there's also tables and chairs out front for outdoor dining. I think there were picnic benches before. There are now several silos where you can buy tickets to get inside. Once in, some of the little vignettes were the same, though possibly moved. I remembered the chalk house, and the jumping pillow, and the gigantic slide which mom refused to go down. The bunny pen is now something else. There were lots of scarecrows around the grounds which had bucket heads with tulips inside.

The flowers themselves are toward the back and far side of all this, basically where I recall the corn maze being once upon a time. It's funny, because you get by the big slide and you look beyond it and you can see semicircles of flowers, and a windmill, and a few things interspersed like a purple tractor and a blue Beetle. But once you go up to look at the Beetle on a hill, you realize there's even more flowers in the valley beyond the car. So many colors--reds and yellows and pinks and purples and peaches. Really cool. They were at 70-80% at the time according to the flower meter on their website, so I'm curious what 90-100% would have looked like, but I'm super glad we were able to come on a weekday. It wasn't overrun with people, which was nice, and those who were there were polite and respectful of each other.

The drawbacks on that day, in terms of trying to get good pictures, was that it was pretty bright outside, so I couldn't really see the pictures I was taking, and it was *windy*. Holy cow, I forgot just how windy it is there. I had flashbacks to waiting for buses out front and the wind would blow and it would be 20-30 MPH solid because there wasn't anything to break it. The joys of being a tour guide. But otherwise it was fine. I even got a little sunburn since I hadn't thought about being outside under the sun.

It was so relaxing to walk among the flowers. I took pictures here and there, and mom sort of let me wander. I did manage to get her to climb on the purple tractor and got a picture of her on that. I also got some cool pictures of red tulips with the windmill in the background. An empty field was near there and you could see random clumps of flowers in there--probably some screwy squirrel dug them up from their original location and then hid them elsewhere. The family did plant 500,000 bulbs for this, wow.

Once we strolled the whole of the flowers, I wanted to check out the rest of the place. I'd spotted these big cow-painted objects and wanted to check them out, and they were close to the barns, so we checked out the animals. Mom made me laugh--she saw a sign suggesting one coop had both turkeys and peacocks inside, so she kept calling one bird a peacock. The one was very clearly a turkey, but that was a male; the other bird was a female turkey, which isn't that showy. It definitely was not a peacock. I know she's seen peacocks before. They're pretty specific-looking. We then found the goats and the bunnies and some baby goats in a barn, and I had to laugh because the babies had a pen-mate--a mouse running around in the corner. Oh, gosh, in case you weren't aware you were legit in a barn. We then exited through the store, and of course mom can't go anywhere without spending money, so she bought some apple butter and...something else--right, apple cider doughnuts. This was the weird part: The store was one building, and then you had to go outside and make a turn and that's when you got to the open building where you checked out. I felt bad for the lady there, because the wind was affecting how she rang people up. They also don't print receipts any longer; you could get it by email or text, though. Oh, it was pretty relaxing to be out in nature and in a rural area, but as soon as I got in my car and we drove away, the anxious feeling returned to my chest. Rats. Also, they've replaced a lot of trees in the orchard, so they're newer and skinnier than when I worked there, and there were hardly any blossoms, which was a bummer, but the wind will carry those petals away. Also also, we left right about when school let out, and our route took us past Kaneland High School (home of the unsafe running track!--like, the last time it was new was around when I was in high school), and we were stopped in traffic while buses and cars were let out by law enforcement.

Mom had previously mentioned wanting to go to Walmart, and I was game, so we stopped by on the way back. This was where I picked up my Water Pik. I did look for some other stuff but that's all I took home; mom bought a few things as well. Then it was home where dad was starting dinner, and that was my day. It was pretty nice, really. All that fresh air did me good.

flowers, walking, festivals

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