My partner and I headed up to Roozengaarde to see the tulip festival there on Sunday. We were originally intending to do it on Saturday, but traffic was horrendous! It took us two hours to get only as far as Marysville!
More after the break…
Saturday
After rushing home from our Bainbridge Island Trip, we geared up and hopped on my new Kawasaki Ninja for its first real ride. I ran into a bit of an issue with the GPS mount my dad had set up: all of the screws were loose. Rather than wasting more time messing around with that, we headed up without a GPS to guide us.
Once on the bike, things went fairly smoothly until we reached South Everett, where we ran into the worst stop-and-go traffic I'd ever seen on the freeway. It lasted for miles, and after two hours we only got to Marysville! My partner wasn't feeling well at that point, so we stopped by the Fred Meyer for lunch and turned back home.
I thought the autoblipper would be really nice, but I could honestly take it or leave it after riding with it for a while. The upward quickshifter, however, is very convenient! #motorcycle
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) April 24, 2022
Once back home, I cinched down everything the best I could. The Phillips screws that sandwiched the two halves of the actual mount proved to be terrible, so I had to use a vice grip to tighten them enough.
Sunday
Outbound
Wiser after Saturday's fiasco, we started much earlier, which proved to be the right choice: there was very little traffic on the freeway. I was also able to use the GPS this time. Since I wanted to enjoy the ride more, we left the freeway at the Pioneer Highway exit and headed through Sylvana.
It was at the Sylvana stop where one of my partner's earrings disappeared. Since it was one of her non-lobe piercings, we needed to get a replacement so it wouldn't close up. Luckily, there was a piercing shop that would open later in Burlington.
And then we headed up to Stanwood. Since we both needed to use the restroom and were a little hungry, we checked out the Mustard Seed Baking Company in the meantime. The food was good, which explains why they survived despite opening during the pandemic.
I'm at Mustard Seed Baking Co in Stanwood, WA https://t.co/Gd4879NHu3
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) April 24, 2022
We then headed along the Pioneer Highway and frontage roads to Mount Vernon, where we first ran into stop-and-go traffic again, which remained the theme all of the way to Roozengaarde. I wondered what was up, and it turns out they were having people direct traffic at the entrance to allow pedestrians to cross and enter the property, which makes sense. After all that, I was treated to easy parking just for motorcycles near the entrance.
I'm at RoozenGaarde in Mount Vernon, WA https://t.co/w6VDdNkxaG
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) April 24, 2022
Roozengaarde
The tulips and other flowers at Roozengaarde were very pretty, though my partner wasn't too amused about people walking through the rows in the fields despite signs explicitly telling to not do that. This trip also gave me a chance to use my supertelephoto lens, which was surprisingly apt at macro photos from a distance.
While there, we also got food. I had a hot dog and ice cream, while my partner had a cheeseburger and chips. We also checked out the gift shop, but didn't buy anything.
Inbound
As we left, I noted that a Harley rider also showed up to see the tulips.
Using the GPS, we headed over to Burlington for Only Precision Piercing to replace my partner's lost earring. We didn't see the shop on our first pass, so we looped back onto a side street to check the map more closely before finally finding it on our second attempt.
After a very long wait, the staff was nice enough to give my partner an earring for free. What likely happened was that, since my partner's earring back had stayed in all this time, the staff likely gave her an earring that didn't have a matching back. After all, they couldn't sell an earring without a back.
I'm at Only Precision Piercing in Burlington, WA https://t.co/EoOpdzsuua
— 竹下憲二 (@takeshita_kenji) April 24, 2022
The freeway home was fine most of the way until Lynnwood, where one of the alert signs mentioned that there was a stalled vehicle. Rather than dealing with it, we left the freeway in Mountlake Terrace and took back streets to Aurora. After stopping at Sprouts to check it out and getting gas, we had a very smooth ride home. Why wasn't more of the traffic on I-5 using this detour?
Once home, after we stopped on the entrance ramp and while I was fumbling to get to the garage door opener, a car showed up behind me. (My partner had already gotten off.) She shouted "car", which got me very scared. While I made it down the ramp without trouble, I tripped dropped the bike at the bottom of the ramp. After picking it up, I walked it out of the way to try to start it. A couple of separate cars' drivers asked if I was okay as I passed in, and I told them I was. After dropping it a second time and flipping the kill switch off and on, I got it to start, then rode it down to its parking space.
I was initially mad at my partner about it, but came to my senses afterwards…after being very short with her for a little while. Even though I didn't blame it on her after the air cleared, I did ask her to do the sanding and painting work since I knew I wouldn't do a good job of it. She was kind enough to despite everything that happened, which is another instance showing how lucky I am to have her.
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