Tip-Toeing Through The Tulips At Keukenhof

So, channeling Tiny Tim as best I could without a ukelele or falsetto vocal range, I accompanied Ms. Vicki to Keukenhof, the annual Dutch extra-super-duper-extravaganza of tulips and other things floral, something on our bucket list for a long, long time. This is the earliest we have ever been in the Netherlands, and we finally made it to Keukenhof! Nor were we in the least disappointed. It is spectacularl! I lack the tongue to adequately describe (or even identify) all the tulips, astilbes, kalanchoes, rhododendra, orchids, azaleas, amaryllis, roses, daffodils, etc., so the pix will have to speak mostly for themselves. I took 240 photos, and somehow will reduce them to two long posts. This is most painful, even after a week or more.

Keukenhof is mostly about about flowers from bulbs, or "bulibs," as the Dutch say. They spell tulip tulp. Someone please explain this to me.

Keukenhof is many hundreds of acres, and approximately 87 gazillion bulbs,
each meticulously hand-planted, every year; it is mostly English-garden style,
on a vast scale, but with long boulevards, as above

Many beds are mixes; it's all about culture and history and aesthetics; but originally
and still mostly about the growers' struttin' their stuff

The many floral stream and creeks are especially wonderful

And, should you tire of the flowery stuff, there's plenty of sculpture and landscape
to look at

But how could you tire of the flowery stuff?

Streams emptying into a pond

Among many iconic shots of the "Garden of Europe"

Walking the concrete lily pads

Us, there

Not too many roses, but nice ones

Rhodos and azaleas all around, big borders and screens, some in bloom, but
most not...giving us hope that we are not too late for the Rhodo riots of Kent
and the south of England

Up closer

In one of the many, many indoor pavilions

Fruit trees everywhere exploding in bloom

Still working on the selfies

Is this iconic, or what?

Fields, from the windmill

To be continued...

SFO To AMS

After teary farewells, Jeremy got us to SFO, Alaskan got us to SEAttle, and Delta got us to AMSterdam. The flight on Delta was one of the best trans-Atlantics ever, Vicki getting a row to herself, me getting unlimited single malts and movies of choice. After immigration and customs and collecting luggage, Rene met us in Le Duc, everything ship-shape and Bristol-fashion, and, after the usual payment and paperwork, we settled in at Amsterdamse Bos campground in Amstelveen, where the usually gruff owner remembered us as if we were old friends. We stayed up as late as we could, unpacking, re-acquainting ourselves with Le Duc, and then crashed.

Vicki has gotten very good and very consistent at the 50 lb 
limit; each one of our checked bags weighed 50.4 lbs

So, yeah, Alaskan (right) got us to Seattle (middle left) and Delta
(left) got us to Amsterdam

Mt. Rainier detail

The route took us over coastal ranges 

Thus, closer

And a confluence of great rivers...and then the Rockies, and
then over cloudy central Canada, Hudson Bay, Greenland,
and then the North Sea...Vicki sleeping, me watching TBL
for the 111th time (always some new gem) then The Big Short,
then bits of Concussion

And then, on final, the tulip fields and warehouses south of
Haarlem

Thus

Low country

As an old windmill greets us just before touchdown

Grand-Parental Quality Time in Middle California

We were in Menlo Park two and a half weeks, doing a bit more improvement work on Le Sport, re-organizing and re-packing for our next travels, and spending some quality-time with grand-daughter Penelope and her parents.

Tea party at an initial sleep-over in the new camper

At a photo-shoot at Gamble Garden in Palo Alto, Penelope
Roses

After costume change #1; Rebecca wanted to capture P's varied
interests in this fifth anniversaire collection

Posing for Stephanie, who did Rebecca and Jeremy's wedding
photos and sessions with P thereafter

With Mama

We took P camping a few days at Pinnacles NP, again; here she
is with Grandma on the Bear Gulch Cave trail

Examining a captured beetle; released, unharmed, shortly
thereafter; no beetles were injured in the making of this post

Creeking

Crossing another creek, another day

Among many varmints observed

Not least among which--click to enlarge--was this Coastal
Horned Lizard

Junior Ranger treat with Grandma

Back at the campground, eating watermelon and playing with
other kids

A few days later, at Gilroy Gardens, with Grandpa

Enjoying the rides

On a family outing at the Hiller Aviation Museum in San
Carlos

At the early Grandmere/Grandpere 5e anniversaire celebration

At length, we put Le Sport into storage, bid farewells and more
happy birthdays, and set forth again to Europe

Missoula To Menlo

We spent the next couple weeks in or near Missoula, tricking out the new rig, re-organizing our now-depleted storage unit, Vicki exercising her mastery over Craigslist and eBay. Finally, March 30, it was time to lock up and head out, driving our now familiar route west along I-90, then southwest through assorted lesser highways, picking up another interstate to continue west through Columbia Gorge, then south on I-5 at Portland, ending up on I-880 through Oakland and across the Dumbarton Bridge. 1,200 miles. Once we got down from the Columbia Plateau, it was spring-time in the Northwest and beautiful with all the new growth everywhere. Le Sport handled it all quite well, despite carrying more than the usual weight.

Ah, Missoula...St. Patrick's Day at Southgate Mall...wait a
second! Aren't those supposed to be Irish pipers?! Probably none
of the Irish pipers was still standing...

Perils of a college town...a classicist on the cul-de-sac!

Other perils of a college town..."you puke, you pay"

Our storage unit in Hellgate Canyon; least crowded it has been
since we moved in, in 2007

The new solar array on Le Sport, thanks to Sportland, in Lolo

Looking back up toward Columbia Gorge

Spending the night at Seven Feathers, enjoying the seafood
buffet

Driving by Mt. Shasta, beautiful spring weather...

Arriving Friday afternoon to see our ballerina
grand-daughter and her mom and dad