Spring Tulips

Now that the weather has finally turned warmer and it's spring in more than just name only, I went with my mum to the Holland Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. Of course, it was a gloomy day, with cloudy skies threatening rain, but I thought this was fine - I like the rain, it wasn't too hot, and I didn't get sunburnt. And it didn't actually end up raining, so it all worked out in the end.

Holland, as its name implies, was founded by Dutch Americans (in 1847) who emigrated from the Netherlands fleeing poor economic conditions and seeking religious freedom. Today, there's still a large population of people with Dutch ancestry and the town celebrates that heritage every year with the Tulip Festival and other Dutch-themed attractions that bring in loads of tourists.

It was rather appropriate that I was with my mum, as it was actually Mother's Day in the US the day we went. It was lovely to have the day to spend with her. Since we don't live in the same place, having that kind of mother/daughter time isn't possible as often as I would like.

Obviously the main thing I wanted to see was the tulips. The city has tulips planted all over, so you can see them any time when they're blooming. They line the streets and there's a park in the centre of town where there are loads of different colours and varieties planted all in the same place.

The flowers were lovely. I don't know a lot about them, so their names didn't mean anything to me, but it was nice seeing all of the different kinds. While we were eating lunch (traditional Dutch food, including croquettes, which I'd tried before in Japan, but had never known their origin), there was a speaker talking about how to properly care for the flowers. My mum has much more of a green thumb than I do (I tend to kill plants - except my lucky bamboo, which I've actually managed to keep alive so far), so it was more practical information for her, but still interesting to listen to. I never knew so much went in to caring for plants (probably why I am not good with them).

Tulips weren't the only part of the festival. There were stalls selling Dutch food and souvenirs, a windmill park, a Dutch village (for children), and a parade. People dressed up in traditional Dutch costume, including wooden shoes. There was even a band performing in the parade that marched in clogs.

Now I need to go to the Netherlands. My mum's been there with my dad, but I've not been yet. The Netherlands is actually my first stop on a trip with my boyfriend this autumn, but since the tulips are a spring flower we won't be able to see them in Europe, so it was nice that I still got to see them this year with my mum, a little bit closer to home.

Birthday Cake

Normally, my boyfriend makes me a cake from scratch for my birthday, but since this year we're both trying to eat healthier and in past years, we've ended up with so much leftover cake that we were eating it for weeks, we decided that this year we'd just do single slices.

We decided to visit the Cake Bake Shop in Broad Ripple, since it's won awards at the Cake & Bake Show in Earl's Court, London, been featured on the Food Network, and on Oprah's O List. Even though the cake slices are rather expensive, we thought we'd give it a try.

The shop itself was surprisingly thoroughly decorated. I've been in plenty of bakeries round the world and they're generally a counter and a glass case and maybe posters or paint to a theme, but nothing like this. There was stuff everywhere. Flowers, china, chandeliers, and it was all very, very pink. There were photos on the wall by the door of all of the celebrities who had eaten there, including Matt Damon and Josh Gad. It was rather posh and I felt a bit under-dressed in my jeans. Even the umbrellas in the outdoor seating area had pink flowers.

Of course, I had to try the chocolate cake that won at the Cake & Bake Show, which is now named Gwendolyn's Famous Earl's Court Chocolate Cake, after the venue. I'm not normally the biggest chocolate cake fan - I often find it to be a bit too rich - but I couldn't come all the way to the Cake Back Shop and not have the one that won. My boyfriend wanted to try the Oprah's 'O' List Mint Chocolate Chip Cake, but they were out, so he had the lemon cake instead. No fancy name for that one - it's just called Lemon Cake.

Personally, I preferred the lemon cake over the award-winning chocolate one, but I always prefer fruit-flavoured cake over chocolate. My requested birthday cake every year is strawberry with cream cheese icing. The chocolate cake I ordered was delicious to be sure, but I'm not the best judge of chocolate cake quality - it was very rich and even though I drank an entire glass of milk I still felt very thirsty afterwards, but the cake slice was so big that I was too full to really drink anything more, so it was a bit uncomfortable for a while. I ought to have eaten less and saved the rest for later.

If we go again, I'd like to try either the Raspberry Champagne Cake or the Carrot Cake - and hopefully my boyfriend would get to try the mint chocolate chip that he'd wanted.