Seattlest Pix 09Nov24
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Seattlest is way into the culture of life, so on Saturday we decided to experience some firsthand in Skagit Valley at the 22nd Annual Tulip Festival. After a brief detour to Krispy Kreme, we made our way over to Tulip Town, a self-described "magical place," though to us, it seemed kinda low on magic when compared to the acres and acres of tulips. Don't get me wrong; tulips are great flowers, and the colors are fantastic (personal favorite: deep purple, just like the band), but they are, after all, just tulips, devoid of supernatural attributes. Fields are slick, muddy, and puddle-full, so it's best to dress accordingly. We saw some frat-boy meathead wearing Birkenstocks slip in the mud and were sorely disappointed when he was able to recover his balance.
After spending enough quality time in the flower fields, we drove around for a bit. Seattlest had heard of a winery in Mount Vernon that was hosting a Spring Wine and Tulip Festival, but we hadn't thought to print out the details. As it turns out, it wasn't listed in the official Tulip Festival brochure, and somehow even the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce didn't know they had a winery in town. So we took matters into our own hands and stopped by La Conner's public library to make use of their free internet access. Directions in hand, we started our trek to Mount Vernon. However, not far from our goal, we got sidetracked. By alpacas. And not just any alpacas---The Alpacas of Misty Ridge. They have cute faces and bleat a lot.
Our jonesin' for petting zoos finally assuaged, we continued on to the Carpenter Creek winery, which offered quite the free spread: four red wines, four white wines (including one super-sweet ice wine), some dark chocolate, a couple breads, a few cheeses, and three types of Lopez Larry's mustard. Yum! The owners were very friendly and eager to share information on their winery as well as the wine varieties. Now beginning to have a nice wine buzz, we decided to hit the other winery in the area: Challenger Ridge. Compared to Carpenter Creek, this place was lousy, in no small part because they charged a buck for two samples of wine, samples which were served in tiny plastic shot glasses both inappropriate for aeration and reminiscent of communion. They had a pretty fair cabernet sauvignon reserve, but were no longer pouring pinot noir when we were there, even though they heavily tout its production. Overall, it was a big disappointment compared to the good people (and great wine!) at Carpenter Creek. Seattlest recommends you go there instead.
At this point, it had been a long day, and we were all tuckered out. We had to take a pass on the opportunities to explore such enticingly named attractions as Art in a Pickle Barn and Cow Town to make the drive back to Seattle. Upon returning from whence we came, we took a two-hour nap, during which time we dreamt about fields upon fields of tulips. Okay, not really.
The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival runs through April 30th.
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Did you play Spot the Mullet there? I had a good time playing that when I went to Spokane this weekend.