being a tourist in my own hometown

Tulip Time. Ain't nothin like it. Although I did not grow up around dutch dancing in wooden shoes, seeing rows and rows of tulips in every shade and design, I have deeply grown to appreciate the festival marking the first week of May in downtown Holland every year. There is something about this 80 year old tradition and being part of it that gives me a sense of pride about living in West Michigan.

And lucky me, since my office is downtown in the hub of all of the chaos, I don't even think about navigating traffic to get out over the lunch hour. But the trade off is that I can look out my window and see elephant ears, funnel cakes, lemonade, cotton candy, and caramel apples the size of your head.

It was such a great day from start to finish with our last long Riverbank Run training run, hanging out with my cute prego sister-in-law & mom-in-law at the Right To Life walk that went right through my neighborhood this morning and then the icing on the cake...the tulips! .
pretty common signage around these parts: