Days 24-25: Tulip Time

We drove from Traverse City to Holland MI on Tuesday. We decided to take a more scenic route but due to some issues with our sense of directions and the GPS we missed some of the scenic part. We stopped for lunch in Grand Haven MI at a Roadfood rec called Ralph's Drive Inn-it wasn't one of our favorite places from the book but the burgers were okay and did have some local color.
When we got to Holland we just drove through and went first to the town of Saugatuck. What a cute town! It is a totally charming little place on the water with some lovely homes, big boats in the harbor and nice shops and restaurants lining the streets. We spent some time just wandering around before we drove back to Holland.
It was somewhat difficult finding a place to stay in Holland because this is during the annual Tulip Festival which is a very popular event. Also there weren't many local places that would accept a dog. We had a reservation for a room at the Microtel. We have never stayed in a Microtel and were very skeptical about what we'd find. I always check the reviews on Trip Advisor before I book a hotel and this one did not get bad reviews but most mentioned that the rooms are very small. When we got there we decided to upgrade to a "suite" because we were worried all our things plus the dog crate would not fit in a regular room. Our "suite" is actually just fine...no frills...but fine. There's a sitting area with a sofa and a table with 2 chairs. There's a counter dividing that from the sleeping area. One odd thing is that there are no lamps in the room at all. Every bit of the lighting is overhead. But there's plenty of light! The bathroom amenities are quite minimal and consist of a bar of soap. We have our own shampoo anyway so that's not a problem.
There are all sorts of events in conjunction with the Tulip Festival and we bought tickets to 3 different events. Two of them were musical shows. Last night we attended one called "Tulip Time Salute" and it featured musical groups from area high schools. It was actually enjoyable. Some of the young people were quite talented. But the "show choirs" were nowhere near the one on "Glee". Tonight we saw a show called "Puttin' On the Hitz" and I'll just be kind and say I appreciated their efforts.
The other event we reserved was today's Volksparade. The parade itself is a fairly standard small townish parade: lots of marching bands, some floats, a few local dignitaries in cars etc. But the cool part is what happens before the parade actually starts. Because the Dutch are considered such clean people they have a tradition of local people coming along the parade route and washing and sweeping the street. Evidently this has become a big deal for the locals and it seems practically everyone in town participates. Oh...and they are all dressed in Dutch costumes complete with wooden shoes! There were lots of young kids involved and some of them were adorable. Dwyne took lots of pictures which I hope to post in a few days. The festival attractions lots and lots of tour bus groups of mostly senior citizens. In the bleachers with us today were groups from all over the country. We were sitting next to a group from Maine. We felt downright young around these folks. After the parade, Dwyne stood at the bottom of the bleachers helping all the old folks get down. He's such a gentleman!! A couple of the old ladies wanted to kidnap him.
This morning we took a trolley tour of Holland. We went past places where many tulips were blooming and hopefully got some good pictures. Holland has a population similar in size to San Luis Obispo but seems to have more industry and therefore more corporate money to help support the city. They have a very vibrant downtown and I was green with envy when I saw their Arts Council building and even greener when I found out the council owns the building!
We went back to Saugatuck for dinner tonight and since the weather was nice we were able to sit outside right by the water.
While we were at the parade and touring Holland we put Mr Ripley in a local dog day care called Canine Antics. He seemed to have a great time playing all day. The people there commented on how well behaved he was. This leads me to believe that Holland must have some very poorly behaved dogs!
Tomorrow we are taking a high speed car ferry from Michigan to Wisconsin and will spend tomorrow night in Madison.