I was really looking forward to getting out and shooting some photos with my new Leica Summilux 1.4/35 ASPH FLE lens on the end of my Leica M9.

Towards the end of April every year there is The Tulip Festival north of Seattle in the area of LaConner and Mount Vernon. It's been about four years since I've been to The Tulip Festival and it is always a visual treat and a great place to snap a few photos.

Many thanks to Karen for doing a truly great job of organizing a bus trip up to The Tulip Festival every year, and this year I tagged along to shoot some photos in the cozy comfort of a bus.

Our first stop was Hillcrest Park Lodge where the Kiwanis Club puts on a great salmon barbecue to raise money to help kids in a lot of meaningful ways.

Here's the ladies out cooking the smoked salmon. Kudos to you for your loving kindness shown to the kids and community, ladies!

If you get a chance to swing by you'll get served a great meal of wild salmon barbecued over alder, with baked potato, slaw, garlic bread, and ice cream, by these terrific folks.

Great food all around made for some fine fun.

Everyone had a great time eating some tasty food for a good cause.

After a nice lunch we got on our way and stopped at Tulip Town to explore the tulip gardens.

Lot's of beauty all around!

A little closer ...

The kite fliers were out having a ball in the breezy weather ...

Lots of romantics were out taking photos of their sweethearts in the fields of tulips.

The fields of tulips are truly spectacular!

So much beauty.

Fields and fields of tulips.

So fantastic!

As far as the eye can see there's tulips ...

There were some really tasteful displays of tulips from around the world.

There were also some beautiful indoor displays as well, like this fountain with a dove hovering over a yellow tulip ... or the Rococo display.

Flamingo Parrot ...

Lady Rose ...

Judith Leyster ...

Negrita ...

Grand Style ...

Tulip town is lots of fun with flowers and kites and all kinds of displays ... but now its time to move on ...

... for a visit to the village of LaConner!

Street-side in LaConner ...

One of my favorite places to have breakfast in all the world is the Calico Cupboard in Old Town LaConner! If you get to LaConner you've got to have breakfast at the Calico Cupboard. Lunch is wonderful too if you're running a little later like we were during the Tulip Festival tour.

LaConner is sweet.

Cattails and Dragonflies ...

I stayed in the LaConner Lodge four years ago when I went to The Tulip Festival. I recommend you get a water-side room on the ground floor, they're really nice with a patio outside the room to relax on. There was also live jazz piano in the evenings while I was there.

Next up was the Mount Vernon Tulip Festival Street Fair.

The sound of live music is unmistakable ... I followed my ears to this spot.

I didn't catch her name, but this musician had major talent!

Street fair scenes ...

These guys were fantastic musicians. I didn't catch the name of their group either - anyone know who they are? I made sure to stuff some dollars in their tip box.

When the rain started pouring down I ducked into a nice little coffee house / wine bar for an espresso, to be followed by a glass of Pinot Noir and a nice club sandwich lunch.

I braved my way back through the rain as it got time to go back to the tour bus to settle in for the ride back home.

The Leica Summilux 1.4/35 ASPH FLE on the Leica M9 camera is a really sweet lens. I haven't really adjusted from the shift to a 35mm lens from my 50mm yet, and the pictures show it, but I thought it was really promising, and I'm really looking forward to getting some more time in on it.

This weekend me and Ron, Leo, George, Stephaen, and maybe Pido will be gathering for a little Duelund-fest listening session, and there might even be a few other surprises in the mix - stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!