Tulip Time - La Conner WA

We had to make a quick run down to Portland, Oregon to get a cargo box installed on the van prior to our upcoming departure this weekend. It's a great unit (https://www.stowaway2.com/ ) that installs on the rear of the vehicle instead of the roof and has a unique, swing away frame. It will allow us to easily carry our Bromptons (folding bicycles) and a couple of camp chairs with us on the road trip. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a unit like it Canada, so, we had to drive down to the USA to get one.

Portland is only a six hour drive from Vancouver and it would have all gone very smoothly except for a two hour border crossing delay into the USA. We brought it on ourselves when we truthfully declared we had two bananas aboard. Well, that did it, we were sent to secondary inspection and had to endure a vehicle search and a personal interview along with close passport scrutiny. The bananas passed muster because they had a sticker showing their source was Ecuador and they let them and us into the USA. Only one banana had a sticker though, but, they graciously let us keep the other one, as, they made sure to tell us, they assumed it had come from the same bunch.

Upon arrival at the box factory, the unit was installed for us in just a few minutes and we were back on our way north. To ensure we could bring the cargo box into Canada tax and duty-free we needed to stay over the border for forty-eight hours. This wasn't a hardship as we knew we'd be passing through the scenic Skagit Valley on our way back. We'd take a side trip to see the area around La Conner and Anacortes and also visit the Skagit Tulip Festival. We knew we were about two weeks too late (seems to be a familiar refrain for us recently) to see the best display of tulips in the fields, but, we hoped they hadn't cut all the heads off yet. They do this to create strong growth in the bulb and the bulb is mainly what they sell, the flower display is just a side show really. We got there to find that, unfortunately, all the tulips had been decapitated just a few days earlier. As a consolation, there are two permanent display gardens in the area. We visited one and were delighted with the still beautiful displays and the lack of crowds (over a million people come to view the tulips annually). So, the detour wasn't wasted. La Conner itself also turned out to be a scenic delight and we enjoyed a late lunch on a warm, sunny, outdoor patio overlooking the waterfront. We spent the night in a campground directly on the shores of Puget Sound. Very nice. Here are a few pictures of the wonderful tulip display we enjoyed at the Roozengaarde Tulip Farm http://www.tulips.com/