{ pella tulip time 2015 }

Tulips are hands down my favorite flower.  Amazing variety, brilliant color, and probably most significant of all, their appearance usually indicates the arrival of SPRING!  When a friend suggested that we join her family to check out the Pella Tulip Festival on Mother's Day weekend, it didn't take much to convince me that we needed to go!

Pella is a small town of about 10k people in central Iowa.
It is home to a couple of manufacturing businesses and a small liberal arts college.

And thousands and thousands of tulips.

 

Each Spring, they host a three day festival on the first weekend in May to honor their Dutch history.

There are parades, Dutch heritage demonstrations, food vendors, and lots of tulips!

(The tulips are meant to be in full bloom for the festival, but sadly they seemed a little past their prime for our visit)

 

As I was preparing for the trip, one local business that I kept hearing about
was the Jaarsma bakery, famous for their Dutch "Letters".

We went to check it out, but the line was hours long just to get in the door!!
Instead, we bought a Dutch letter from a street vendor and it was delicious -
flaky pastry filled with almond paste in the shape of an "S".

 

One of the major highlights of the weekend are the parades -
there is one afternoon parade each day, and also a lighted parade on Saturday evening.

To kick off the parade, locals dressed in traditional Dutch attire washed the streets in preparation.

The announcer said that if your feet were too close to the streets when they came through that you should expect to get wet.  He was right!

 

Most everything in the parade was in honor of the Dutch heritage of Pella.

The local marching band even wore wooden shoes!!!

To my fellow NHHS marching shamrocks….can you imagine marching up the hill in Washington wearing these????

 

I thought this parade entry was clever.

An old fashioned Dr's wagon. 

"If I can't cure it, you ain't got it!"

 

And this train of carved wooden shoes was adorable!

We got a closer look at the cars after the parade, and they really are carved from big blocks of wood!

 

A picturesque view down Franklin Street as the VFW float passed.

 

A unique landmark that we enjoyed was this Klokkenspel with animatronic figures

from Pella's history that came to the window at the top of every hour.

 

Although we saw lots and lots of bare tulip stems that had already bloomed out, 

we did get to see a few gardens that were still in peak bloom.

 

The Historical Society also has a very nice permanent visitors center where kids (and adults) can learn more about the Dutch artisan crafts and traditions.  We enjoyed learning from a wooden shoe carver, a mill operator, a painter, and many more volunteers.

 

Hi Hannah!  Wooden shoe like me to take your picture??

 

Four of the five kiddos were agreeable to a group photo before we left. :)
It was a long day!!  They were all real troopers.

 

Such a beautiful day in Pella!

I highly recommend the trip if you ever have a chance to visit.

It's a beautiful town with a lot of history, and the residents have much to be proud of.