There were some big changes to the landscape this month! Our world went from gray to green, and I’m excited to be living in Michigan again after trying to keep my chin up all winter. Then we saw even more vibrant colors when we checked out Tulip Time!

We’ve had the bus in storage over the winter, but when the storage unit raised rates astronomically (Kyle called them to see why, and they basically said “Because we can!”) we pulled the bus out of storage and now we have three vehicles in the driveway. It’s…bad. BUT! We had a beautiful forecast early this April, so we went for a bus ride to take a hike in a nearby park. Due to a huge oversight, I completely forgot to take photos of the bus, so all I have to show for it is another photo of a lifeless forest!

Our second vaccine shots were scheduled for April, and we decided to make a day of it. We packed lunches and made our way to the coast post-shots.

We did a little hiking, but it was just so cold and windy. Kyle carried our lunches throughout the whole park, but we were so cold that we ended up back in the truck to eat. Oh well. At least we got outside!

Suddenly trees all over Grand Rapids broke out in bloom, I stopped and snagged a few pics of these trees on my way home from doing laundry!

Right at the end of the month I started seeing Instagram photos of tulips, as Holland prepared for their annual Tulip Time festival. We beat the crowd by going to Windmill Island before the festival officially starts (May 1 – 9).

Fields of tulips in full bloom, all different colors and styles. The variation is amazing (and gorgeous)!

We also went downtown to Centennial Park to check out the blooms there.

And then we headed over to Window on the Waterfront Park, where the crowd was huge despite being a weeknight, well ahead of the festival opening!

Because of the large crowd of people, I decided it wasn’t a good time to fly the drone. I prefer not to fly around people, as I personally don’t like being in other people’s drone shots, so I try to be as privacy-respecting as possible. That being said, it was supposed to rain for the rest of the week so I was truly disappointed. Until the next morning! I kept an eye on the sky and it actually looked pretty nice out. I made a second run out to Holland to see how the tulip gardens looked from the sky!

They definitely look better from lower altitudes, but I’m so happy I got a chance to get the drone out. First flight of 2021!

Okay, I know this has been way too many tulip photos, but we also saw a bunch of black tulips around town. What a crazy variety! So here’s what the black tulips looked like.

Now that we’re fully vaccinated, and case counts around the US are at fairly low levels, we’re dipping our toes back into travel. We’ve got a trip booked, stay tuned for next month’s post to see where we’re headed!