A Beautiful Day with Dad and Iris

If you are reading this and are also a blogger on Blogspot, you are aware that the cyber powers blocked access to your ability to blog unless you downloaded Google Chrome. Then once you did, you lost your access to e-mail as you knew it; all your blog settings; lost all your favorites; have a new program to figure out with new formatting; and no cyber-power human to swear at.

Well - with that off my chest, I can get to the fun part: a story of my beautiful day with Dad and Iris.

My sister and Iris's children have done an amazing job of making sure Dad and Iris have someone with them 24 hours a day. Sunday, I went up to spend the day and take them on an adventure.
Being Earth-day, the huge garden centers pulled out all stops to draw crowds. Ma Nature was at her showy best for the occasion.

After a long drive through the lush farming, countryside, we first went to a garden center celebrating their 75th anniversary.

I can't say dad was too excited about looking at new and unusual flowers but Iris and I were enthralled. He did, however, enjoy the homemade ice cream in a garden where all of the furniture and pergola doubled as planters.

We then took another long country drive to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival. Seems all of Portland and the Willamette Valley inhabitants also had the same idea.  The festival had simple fair rides, arts booths, "cow" and "dutch shoe" trains full of children being pulled by tractors around the fields, food vendors... 

Mt Hood watching over the brilliant fields

The festival was actually a county fair in a spectacular setting. Imagine the splendor of 40 acres of tulips all in bloom - breathtaking but marred by the crowds and lines everywhere. We waited in long lines to get our authentic Dutch lunch and a place to sit and eat. Iris and I then left dad at the shaded table while we walked to get a closer look at the fields. (There were even lines for that.) I took this picture and we quickly retreated to dad, finished our strawberry lemon-aid and head home.

A well deserved rest for dad after a very long day.

I too now need a nap or chocolate - AARG cyber powers.