The Great Birthday Adventure: Day 1

On April 22nd Michael celebrated his 32nd birthday, and today I'm celebrating number 31. Our birthday present was a trip to see the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands - it's the largest tulip garden in the world. This past weekend was also the day of the famous flower parade that winds through the towns in tulip country. We spent Saturday at the parade and Sunday at the gardens. Both days were beautiful and sunny, we couldn't have had a better weekend. Here are the pictures!

Our rental car was a mini in British racing green -- too cool!


At the flower parade, even the police were in a festive mood.

This year, the theme of the flower parade was "Vakantie": Each float represented a type of vacation that you can take.

This is the vacation in a car.

Or, if you're tired of car vacations, you can go to India instead!


Daffodils made out of... daffodils.


The musical entertainment in the parade.


This is the float advertising for a London vacation.


Dragons are also big this year, because of the Beijing Olympics.


Flower kites.


Shaggy-maned lions representing the safari vacation (these are my favorites).


More musical entertainment from the giant music box (you can also buy a CD of the music for only 10 euros).


Yes, the parade really was this exciting! (to see any of these pictures blown up, just click on them!)

By the end of day 1, we were tired but excited to see the gardens on day 2!!