Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival

Yesterday our homeschool group had a field trip to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for their Tulip Fest.  Since I am fairly new to Oregon, I had never been there before, but several families told me they make it an annual tradition to go.  It was even better than I hoped.  They had wonderful activities for kids, with a long "cow train" ride, inventive play equipment, and an ingenious setup of rain gutters, water pumps, and rubber duckies to play with.  They had antique farm equipment that the kids were welcome to climb on. They even had above average festival food.  And the tulip fields were outrageous!  They told us that it is a family business, mostly selling to the cut flower trade.  They of course carefully plant different varieties so that they have a very long bloom season, but confided that the flowers really peaked the first week in April.  I found it a bit hard to believe that they were past their peak!  We went on a weekday, for which I was grateful, because it was still quite crowded.  However they do have even more activities on the weekends, so if you go on a weekend, you might want to get there when they open!   There are many tulip farms in Oregon, but this is the only one I have found which is open to the public.   Definitely worth a drive!  http://www.woodenshoe.com/