sun and tulips

When the sun is shining in Portland anyone who isn't obligated for one reason or another to be indoors is outside.  It is like the law here.  Also it is the law for all men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five to be bare chested when the weather is this nice.  Little known fact.

All week the weather has been beautiful but sadly I've been one of those obligated to stay inside, chained to my desk, only to peer outside my office window and marvel at the blue skies.  Oh, you can bet all week I had on the saddest face you have ever seen.  But today I was released from my office prison.  We made the most of the sunshine because round these parts you never know how long it's going to last and lord knows we all need the vitamin D.

This morning was spent wandering through fields of flowers at the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival (and later wandering through throngs of tourists straight off of their tour buses, yuck).  I've always wanted to see the Dutch tulip fields but the only time I've ever been to the Netherlands it was in January so ne'er a tulip field did I see.  This is likely the closest I'll ever get to fulfilling that dream.

Can I just tell you that Clio could not have been less interested in the whole thing.  All she wanted to do was watch harnessed ponies, topped with wobbly kids, slowly walk around in circles.  While I was roaming between the rows of tulips taking photos I overheard two elderly women commenting on how Leif was following Clio around as she played in the dirt.  "At that age they get all the say," one of them said as they sat on a bench, drinking from a plastic water bottle.  Never a truer sentence was uttered.

The day turned around for Clio though.  It ended up with ice cream cones and a long afternoon playing in the park.  Life sure is sweet when you're an almost two year old.