Going Dutch

The last couple of weeks at the Ohio faction of the home has been filled with love, laughter, and...homework. The weather has finally turned, but both Nate and I (mostly Nate) were required to stay in, be good and study. As of last Friday, one of us is finished with classes for the summer. To celebrate Nate's feat of (mental) strength, I got off work a little early on Friday and we hopped in the car for Holland Michigan. Exotic, eh? Holland is on the west side of Michigan, so it was a little over a three hour drive. Three hours is a long time, especially with Nate's "techno mix", but it was definitely worth it. We stayed in a bed and breakfast called The Crimson Cottage Inn the Woods; we had a lovely host and hostess, a great breakfast (french toast and bananas foster) and a lovely view of the forest/pond combination.
Every May, Holland celebrates "Tulip Time" for a week when all of the tulips are in bloom; there is also a huge Dutch influence there (yes, hence the name), so we decided to check it out. Once we got settled at our B&B, we headed downtown in search of food, flowers and fireworks (on recommendation from our hostess). We ended up eating at a Irish pub, Curragh's; which was tasty and allowed me to eavesdrop on the table of "gentlemen" to my left who were trying to impress the waitress by telling her one of them had been to prison. Hot! We walked around and search for fireworks until we were informed by a girl that they had been canceled. We really appreciated the information, and we unfortunately rewarded her with telling her inaccurate information regarding the theme park (impermanent, scary rides + funnel cake and elephant ear stands); sorry, girl.
The next morning we headed to Nelis' Dutch Village. To celebrate spring I decided not to pack many warm clothing items for the trip-the morning we arrived at the village I was really sad about my choices. Although the sun was out, the wind was blowing, and I was encouraged to move around a lot to stay warm. The Dutch Village was awesome; we would recommend it to anyone (relatively in the area). Some of our highlights include:
-Wooden shoe race
-Dutch dancers
-Holding baby chicks
-Petting baby goats/letting them chew on hand (hooray for undeveloped teeth)
-Mini "Turn of the Century" type ride
-Missing the cheese making demo but arriving in time for the sample
-How to make wooden shoes demo
-Learning how carved candles are made (crazy)
After we finished with the village, we went back into town and got some lunch at a pizza place. Just before then, there was a costume change. We put on rain jackets (thanks to Nate for thinking of it) and I changed into Nate's warm up pants. High fashion. The pictures prove that I looked ridiculous, but somehow more Dutch than I did before, so I was unconcerned and stayed dry. We spent the next hour or two checking out the lanes of tulips lining the streets, very proud that we had reached a point in our lives that we were more proud of being warm and dry than young and (very) cool. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend: