Près de Seattle (une heure de route!), une des attractions du printemps est Tulip Town, une grande plantation de tulipes. C’est au nord de Seattle et Linda y est passée en partant au Canada. Elle a conseillé à Steve d’y aller de bonne heure, c’est très fréquenté pendant le week-end. Conseil précieux.
Nous partons de la maison à 8 h, Steve, Jens et moi, dans «notre» voiture. Nous prenons le petit-déjeuner au Breakfast Café (celui où les muffins sont faits maison) et prenons la route vers le nord. Le temps est très beau aujourd’hui. Pas mal de circulation sur l’autoroute, mais ça roule bien. Je conduis. La ville de Seattle est toute en longueur, orientée nord-sud. Cela prend du temps de sortir de la ville. Nous voyons plusieurs fois des immenses casinos. Ces casinos sont dans des réserves indiennes et seuls les Indiens ont le droit de les établir. Cela leur donne une importante rentrée d’argent. La vue est splendide sur les montagnes à l’est encore enneigées. Nous sortons de l’autoroute au niveau de Skagit Valley, une vallée très large et très plate. Nous allons vers l’ouest. La vallée devient un delta marécageux. Des canaux et des levées de terre régularise le niveau de l’eau. L’hiver c’est inondé. Le paysage ressemble à la Hollande, et apparemment les tulipes poussent très bien ici aussi.
Nous arrivons à Tulip Town. Plusieurs petits parkings sont déjà pleins mais les grands (et ils sont immenses) ne le sont pas encore. Une cohorte de jeunes gens dirigent la circulation et le stationnement. Comme nous avons une petite voiture nous pouvons la stationner entre deux caisses de tulipes au bout d’un parking. Il est 11h, donc assez tôt mais pour nous, Jens et moi, la foule parait assez importante. Ce n’est rien par rapport à ce que ce sera un peu plus tard. Beaucoup de familles avec des enfants et les appareils photos cliquent et cliquent de partout. Un système de tracteur tirant des grands chariots emmènent ceux qui ne peuvent ou ne veulent pas marcher. Et, encore mieux, on peut survoler les champs de tulipes en hélicoptère! Très belles couleurs des tulipes sur fond de montagnes enneigées. Le sol parait très argileux très compact mais les tulipes poussent bien.
Nous repartons et la campagne est vraiment belle.
Nous nous arrêtons et marchons le long d’une levée de terre séparant des champs et une large étendue d’eau salée très peu profonde. On voit des hérons et on entend des grenouilles. Il fait beau mais le vent est froid. La plupart des promeneurs ou cyclistes sont en t-shirts. Brrr.
Nous continuons et nous arrêtons dans un petit village, Bow Edison. Le village doit être mort en semaine et vit des week-ends: restaurants, cafés, très bonne boulangerie, très bonne charcuterie-fromagerie, galeries de peinture … Nous achetons du saucisson, du fromage et du bon pain et pique-niquons au bord de la petite rivière, dans le jardin de la charcuterie. Très agréable.
Puis retour vers Seattle. Dans l’autre sens, allant vers les tulipes, la circulation est complètement bloquée sur des dizaines de km. Pauvres gens. C’était vraiment une bonne idée d’y aller de bonne heure, merci Linda!
Nous allons rendre directement la voiture et rentrons à pied. Le vent est tombé et la température est bien montée. Temps splendide, premier beau jour de printemps. Tout le monde est dehors.
Steve nous mijote encore un excellent repas: pommes de terre entières au four, steacks et salade. Et évènement inimaginable il y quelques jours, nous dinons dehors! Il fait cuire la viande sur le grill dehors. Nous arrosons bien ce bon diner avec un bon vin argentin, pas de San Juan mais de Mendoza. Nous passons une excellente soirée, dommage que Linda ne soit pas là. Dernier diner ensemble, Steve part demain à Memphis. Quels bons amis, quand nous reverrons-nous la prochaine fois? Et où? Peut-être en Norvège ?
Near Seattle (an hour away!), one of the attractions of spring is Tulip Town, a large area planted with tulips. It is north of Seattle and Linda went there when she was driving to Canada. She advised Steve to go early; it's very crowded during the weekend. Valuable advice.
We leave home at 8 am, Steve, Jens and me in "our" car. We take breakfast at the Breakfast Café (the one where the muffins are homemade) and take the road north. The weather is beautiful today. A lot of traffic on the highway, but it runs well. I drive. The city of Seattle is quite long, running north-south. It takes time to get out of town. We see several times the huge casinos. These casinos are on Indian reservations and only the Indians have the right to establish them. This gives them a significant flow of money. The view is beautiful on the mountains, they are still covered with snow. We leave the motorway at Skagit Valley, a broad and flat valley. We are moving toward the west. The valley becomes a swampy delta. Canals and levees regulate the water level. In winter it is flooded. The landscape looks like Holland, and apparently the tulips grow very well here too.
We arrive at Tulip Town. Several small parking lots are already full, but the big ones (and they are huge) are not. An army of young people direct the traffic and parking. Since we have a small car we can park it between two boxes of tulips at the end of a parking lot. It is 11am, early enough but for us, Jens and me, the crowd seems already quite important. This is nothing compared to what it will be a little later. Many families with children and the cameras click and click around. A system of tractor pulling large carts take those unable or unwilling to walk. And even better, you can fly over the fields of tulips in a helicopter! Very beautiful colors of tulips on a background of snowy mountains. The heavy clay soil seems very compact but the tulips are growing well.
We leave the tulips and the countryside is really beautiful.
We stop and walk along a dike between the fields and a large expanse of salt water, very shallow. We see herons and hear frogs. It's nice weather but the wind is cold. Most walkers and cyclists are in t-shirts. Brrr.
We continue and we stop in a small village, Bow Edison. The village must be quite dead on weekdays but survive on weekends with restaurants, cafes, a good bakery, a good shop selling cheese and wines , art galleries ... We buy sausage, cheese and good bread and eat our our picnic at the edge of the little river in the garden of the deli. Very nice.
Then back to Seattle. In the other direction, going to the tulips, the traffic is completely blocked over tens of kilometers. Poor people. It was really a good idea to go early, thank you Linda!
We go directly to deliver the car back and walk home. The wind is gone now and the temperature is rising. Beautiful weather, the first spring day. Everyone is outside.
Steve makes us a great meal: baked potatoes, steaks and salads. And an unimaginable event a few days ago, we dine outside! He cooks the meat on the grill outside. With this nice dinner we drink a good Argentine wine, but not from San Juan, from Mendoza. We have a very nice evening, pity that Linda is not here. Last dinner together, Steve leaves tomorrow to Memphis. What good friends they are! When we’ll we meet again next time? And where? Maybe in Norway?
We leave home at 8 am, Steve, Jens and me in "our" car. We take breakfast at the Breakfast Café (the one where the muffins are homemade) and take the road north. The weather is beautiful today. A lot of traffic on the highway, but it runs well. I drive. The city of Seattle is quite long, running north-south. It takes time to get out of town. We see several times the huge casinos. These casinos are on Indian reservations and only the Indians have the right to establish them. This gives them a significant flow of money. The view is beautiful on the mountains, they are still covered with snow. We leave the motorway at Skagit Valley, a broad and flat valley. We are moving toward the west. The valley becomes a swampy delta. Canals and levees regulate the water level. In winter it is flooded. The landscape looks like Holland, and apparently the tulips grow very well here too.
We arrive at Tulip Town. Several small parking lots are already full, but the big ones (and they are huge) are not. An army of young people direct the traffic and parking. Since we have a small car we can park it between two boxes of tulips at the end of a parking lot. It is 11am, early enough but for us, Jens and me, the crowd seems already quite important. This is nothing compared to what it will be a little later. Many families with children and the cameras click and click around. A system of tractor pulling large carts take those unable or unwilling to walk. And even better, you can fly over the fields of tulips in a helicopter! Very beautiful colors of tulips on a background of snowy mountains. The heavy clay soil seems very compact but the tulips are growing well.
We leave the tulips and the countryside is really beautiful.
We stop and walk along a dike between the fields and a large expanse of salt water, very shallow. We see herons and hear frogs. It's nice weather but the wind is cold. Most walkers and cyclists are in t-shirts. Brrr.
We continue and we stop in a small village, Bow Edison. The village must be quite dead on weekdays but survive on weekends with restaurants, cafes, a good bakery, a good shop selling cheese and wines , art galleries ... We buy sausage, cheese and good bread and eat our our picnic at the edge of the little river in the garden of the deli. Very nice.
Then back to Seattle. In the other direction, going to the tulips, the traffic is completely blocked over tens of kilometers. Poor people. It was really a good idea to go early, thank you Linda!
We go directly to deliver the car back and walk home. The wind is gone now and the temperature is rising. Beautiful weather, the first spring day. Everyone is outside.
Steve makes us a great meal: baked potatoes, steaks and salads. And an unimaginable event a few days ago, we dine outside! He cooks the meat on the grill outside. With this nice dinner we drink a good Argentine wine, but not from San Juan, from Mendoza. We have a very nice evening, pity that Linda is not here. Last dinner together, Steve leaves tomorrow to Memphis. What good friends they are! When we’ll we meet again next time? And where? Maybe in Norway?
Tulip Town
Tulipes
Tulipes
Terre très argileuse
Clay soil
Le "bus"
L'hélicoptère
Jens, Steve sur la levée de terre
Jens and Steve on the dike
Un héron bleu
A blue heron
Notre pique-nique
Our picnic
La petite rivière, Bow Edison
The little river, Bow Edison
Un magnolia, Seattle
Dernier diner
Last dinner
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