Tulip Festival

The 3rd week in May, Orange City has a huge (small-town huge) festival to celebrate its' dutch heritage. It's call tulip festival. People come from all over the nation for this 3-day event.

Conner kept covering his eyes to shield them from the sun, so we went and got him his own sunglasses. He thought he was stylin'. He would only leave them on when the sun was right in his face though.

Part of the festival is a very long parade (Probably about 2 1/2 hrs). We only lasted for the first hour and a half. This part is singers who rode their bikes in their costumes and wood shoes and stopped every now and then to sing dutch songs to people. They did this before the parade started.

This is part of the parade where they got in circles and did different dutch dances. I was amazed that their wooden shoes did not go flying off more then they did.

This one and the next two were my favorite part of the parade. It is a traditional dutch street cleaning. The street was lined with these big barrels full of water and the boys went by with buckets splashing water all over the streets. They were then followed by the girls with their brooms. It was very cute to see all the little kids in their wooden shoes.

After the parade we went to the car show. Their were a surprising number of old cars for such a little town. The funeral home even brought two old hearses that had either been restored or never been allowed to fall into disrepair in the first place. I think they might even still use them. I know I have seen one drving through town. Anyways, lots of cool cars. Our favorite is the last picture of the old truck.