Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Sil and I took a drive to Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival. It was a grand day, with nice weather and small crowds (we went on a Friday and later chuckled to hear on Saturday how crowded the highway exits were up there). This was my first trip to see the tulips and I was mightily impressed. We walked around a few gorgeous fields of tulips in various colors, then stopped at the nicely laid-out Roozengaarde which has a charming windmill to complete the Dutch theme. Later we drove to La Conner to look in the antique shops, had a nice Thai dinner, and Sil bought me a 750 ml bottle of Duvel. What a perfect day!

Visit to Jimi Hendrix Memorial

Silvie and I finally made the short trip to the Jimi Hendrix gravesite and memorial in Renton highlands. We've been a few blocks away from Greenwood Memorial Park many times, but never visited before today. We were lucky that on a Saturday with better-than-awful weather we had the memorial all to ourselves for as long as we were there. The memorial is quite nice: a granite dome supported by three pilars with 60's-rock poster-like etchings on each pillar with images of Jimi as well as panels with lyrics from a few of his songs. Jimi's original headstone is at the center of the accessible monument, and small headstones for the Hendrix family ring the monument in a grass circle which includes flowers and a sundial.