Holland

One dark and early morning, we loaded a packed bus with 50 other people and drove 5 hours into Holland. Our first stop was the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens, which was unreal. I knew it was going to be a lot of flowers. But this...this was...a.lot.of.flowers. (32 hectares, 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties if we're getting technical.) Our good friends Nick & Jamie went, so it was obviously a blast. (Pretty sure we could have a blast in an empty, padded room with them, though...)

I couldn't help but think how much I would have absolutely dreaded something like this when I was little. It brought me back to late summer afternoons spent roaming muggy greenhouses with my Grandma Sharpe & Mommy. Or going to garden stores with them and spending what seemed like a decade to my little girl mind, up and down the aisles of meaningless (to me) things. So I found it amusing I was choosing, on my own free will, to spend an entire day in one of the world's biggest flower gardens.The beauty of it all made my eyes mist over a few times, especially thinking of my Grandma. She would have absolutely been in Heaven there, and I like to imagine that's what her Heaven is. 

 Pictures will do it far more justice than I ever can with words. 

After seeing more flowers than a human being could ever possibly need to, the tour bus drove us to Clara Maria Cheese Farm. It was a really adorable little farm, run by a Dutch man, his American wife, and their four children. We got to see how wooden clogs are made, and the cheese-making process. It was fascinating, but obviously my favorite part was the sampling of the different cheeses. They had so many to choose from, it was sort of like Christmas morning. (That's an exaggeration, but still, it was awesome.) Zack & I went a little crazy with the cheese we bought. Nut, "Farmers Flame" (a spicy blend), whiskey, aged cheddar, & a really heavy smoked cheese. 

We bought so much, and because we're moving so soon and knew we couldn't possibly eat it all, we threw a wine & cheese party a few weekends ago to help get rid of it. 

We still have far too much. 

But I guess there are worse problems to have.