What does Spring bring in Eastern Washington? Sunshine. Warmer Weather. Blooming Flowers.

When I was growing up in Virginia my parents used to take us to visit my paternal grandparents in Holland, Michigan – which is known for its Dutch heritage and an amazing Tulip Festival. The Tulip Time Festival in Holland, Michigan – one of the largest in the world – has been in existence since 1929 and features millions of tulips blooming, food to eat and a variety of cultural experiences.

While I don’t remember much about seeing Tulips – I do remember that you could get hand carved wooden shoes in Holland. When you are 4 years old – these were certainly something I really had to have!

These shoes looked cool – but as you can probably imagine they were not the most comfortable to wear. I can still remember the blisters I got on my feet.

These memories bring me to the present.

We were at dinner with friends and someone remarked over our meal about a local Tulip festival right in the Tri-Cities area. After a bit of sleuthing on Facebook I came across a description of Middleton’s Tulip Festival in Pasco which runs for the entire month of April.

We hopped in the trusty Subaru and headed out to check out the first Tulip Festival I had been to … in decades.

Thinking that it would be us and a few other folks at the festival – we were wrong. The large parking lot was packed with families who also thought coming out to the Middleton’s Tulip Festival would be a nice way to spend the afternoon.

We made our way to the ticket booth, bought our tickets for the day, and with my Eagle Scout sense of direction made our way to the … food tent. Noel and I enjoyed some homemade donuts and a huckleberry lemonade. We were now sufficiently energized to explore nearly 8 acres of tulips.

I must say – the tulips were simply magnificent – and were all different colors. There were benches and other props in place for some selfies and other family pictures – and we were grateful to some folks who volunteered to take our picture with the tulips behind us.

After a leisurely walk through the Tulip fields we made our way back to the entrance and spent a few minutes browsing in the Middleton’s Farms shop which had shelves full of Jams and asparagus products – as well as hats and t-shirts.

We loaded up with several items – including some fresh cut asparagus and headed back home.

Like buying local – it is nice to also tour local. We enjoyed our visit to the 2026 Middletons Tulip Festival and have already put this on our calendar as a must visit in 2027!

We also have the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival on the west side of Washington as part of a long list of places to visit in the future! As long as they don’t have hand carved wooden shoes – I should be fine – but it might be fun to have a picture from 1967 – and one from today with me proudly wearing my new shoes.