I may be a writer by trade, making my living hooking up words. But there are times that I can’t help myself, falling back on the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. So I’m going to play that card today and share with you some snaps from the Easter drive my husband and I took to the Skagit Valley. I sat there over our delightful, simple brunch made from that morning’s farmers market haul–frittata with sorrel and Samish Bay Ladysmith cheese–and was talking myself out of the drive. It sounded like a good idea a week earlier, “hey, let’s go check out the tulip fields!” But that morning I could only think about the workload looming. It sounded so frivolous to run off for a few hours when I could instead be clearing up my desk, catching up on emails, prepping myself for what I knew was going to be a particularly crazy work week.

In my wishy-washy state, I asked my husband, “what do you think, should we go?”

“Yeah, I do.” So we did. And I’m so glad for it. At least I was after we got out of the sluggish I-5 traffic.

Fresh air. Bright breezes. Stunningly beautiful colors. From a short distance, looking across the field you see only the melding of the tulip heads, looking every bit like a solid carpet of color. Breathtaking. We walked around the full perimeter of the RoozenGaarde field we were at (they have a few locations in the area); most visitors were taking the shorter first loop available. Their loss! Strolling. Taking pictures. Holding on to our hats. Talking and breathing and forgetting the cares sitting back in my office. It’s just what I needed on a blustery Easter day.