Tulips Everywhere!

We took our Preparation Day this week on Friday. Another missionary couple, Elder and Sister Smith from Mesa, AZ invited us to go with them to Pella, Iowa to a Tulip Festival. Pella is about 2 hrs from Nauvoo. It is a town of 10,000 people. They say that approx. 150,000 people attend the festival. The Tulip Festival is an annual four day event that includes programs, several parades and lots of food boths.

Pella was originally a Dutch settlement. The town has carried on with many Dutch traditions. We watched a program and the parade from a grandstand. We also tried some of the Dutch pastries. Our favorite was called Dutch Letters. It is a pastry shaped in the letter S and filled with Almond Paste. Yummy good!

The tall pillars are on the stage where a program was held. This is all in a park in the center of town. There were numerous beds of tulips in many colors in the park. It was beautiful!

Pella's visitors center is in the windmill.

Both homes and businesses have tulips planted along the streets and in the yards.

One of several city parks.

I really didn't have to ride in the tractor!

The tour of the city was very interesting and we saw tulips everywhere!

We watched people in Dutch costumes dance in the streets as we walked around the city center. They were having a good time.

There was a parade in the afternoon. We sat in a grandstand to watch it. The parade lasted about an hour. There were lots of school bands from surrounding communities, quite a few floats but most of all groups of people in native costume. It was fun to watch!

The people of Holland pride themselves in having clean streets in their towns. Before the parade began they washed the street in front of the grandstand! Men with buckets of water hanging from wooden yokes dumped water on the streets. The women and children would follow with long handled brushes and scrubbed the streets. The streets looked nice and clean when they were finished!

How do you like this style of baby stroller? There were several old fashioned strollers in the parade.

This was one of the entries in the parade - wooden shoe carts!

This morning after our church meetings, we walked through the Women's Garden at the Nauvoo Visitors Center. It was a beautiful sight! For those who aren't familiar with the Women's Garden, it is an area with statues honoring women. The statues depict different stages of women's lives. There is almost a feeling of reverence in the garden. There are benches where you can sit and ponder and soak in the feeling that is there.

Our weekend was very much filled with tulips!