How not to end a vacation

25 hours in airports and airplanes. That's a lot of hours. It is, in fact, 4 inches of a sock that both my feet fit in, ripping the sock back, trying again for 2 inches with the right size but horrible colour pooling, 2 entire Dwarrowdelf repeats, 3 Eddings books, and a 45 minute nap. I flew back via 4 cities and two airlines, and 3 countries, and now I'm very tired.

The vacation was lovely though. MM and W got married, and the wedding was beautiful and sweet and lots of fun. All the pre-parties were fun too, although exhausting, since I plunged straight into them after 1 night's sleep. Jet lag plus busy days keeps things interesting. I also attended my first professional baseball game (the very creative rehearsal dinner) and it turns out I think baseball is boring in person too.

The day after the wedding, rather than relaxing, R and I flew back to KS for a week of hanging out with the dogs. I got bumped to first class, and actually felt like I had enough room. That was excellent. Mom 1.0 and B came to visit for a couple days, and we sent a vanload of stuff back to Parents 1.o's house to store until we can ship it here. The puppies were super happy to see me!

We attended opening night of Macbeth, got my wedding ring sized up so I can wear it again, brushed Quasar until all the matted fur was gone, and shared lots of chocolate. It was a good trip, although a little short.

For my birthday, which was a national holiday (some jesus thing) F and I went to Keukenhof. It's about an hour by train and bus. This is the first touristic (apparently they felt a need to make tourist into an actual adjective here) thing I've done since I got here, and it was super fun. I plan to go every year, because the garden is amazing. Next year I'd love to rent a bike and cycle through the tulip fields, but it was much too cold this year.

From their website:
Facts and figures about the most beautiful spring garden in the world:
Has won prizes as Europe’s most valued attraction
It is one of the most popular attractions in the Netherlands and has clocked up more than 44 million visitors in the last 60 years
It is the largest bulb flower park in the world
It covers an area of 32 hectares 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties
It is the most photographed place in the world
There are 15 kilometers of footpaths
It is the largest sculpture park in the Netherlands
7 million flower bulbs planted by hand
More than 2,500 trees in 87 varieties


It was stunning. We only walked through about a third of the garden, because it was getting cold out, and the sheer quantity of flowers was mind-boggling. And they redesign the flower beds every year (although I'm guessing the tulip historical garden stays pretty much the same) to keep people coming back. We were also there at the right time for the Lily exhibit inside a pavilion. I have never seen lilies like these. Some of the blooms were as large as a dessert plate! The scent inside was lovely, but incredibly overwhelming. Going out to the mildly scented cherry tree walk was quite a relief!


Keukenhof is logically located right in the middle of the major tulip fields, near the town of Lisse. This means you can see some of the tulip fields from the garden. Because the Netherlands is very very flat, you can see miles of tulips. It was a little late in the season, so a lot of them were dropping their petals already, but they were still gorgeous. As someone who grew up in the American midwest, entire fields devoted to attractive plants (corn is delicious, not pretty) are kind of alien.

I've added a link to the online photo album of pictures from Keukenhof in the sidebar. There are also some photos in the 365 album. I took the slideshow down because blogger and picasa weren't playing nicely together, and I'm tired of fixing it.