May 10 Windmill Island

Wednesday:  Terry, Ruthanne and I drove out to Holland to visit Windmill Island today! I took 250 pictures of SUCH beauty! Mmm. Surely--"the earth is FULL of the glory of God!" What an amazing Creator He is. 

We arrived somewhere around 10:30am and it's a good thing we got there as early as we did! Here it is, a Wednesday morning, and this place was super packed. We thankfully we able to find a parking place that did not demand a mile walk to get to the gardens--it wasn't a lengthy walk at all! 

This is the organ barn ...

This is the very cool organ housed inside the barn ...

Terry and Ruthanne getting a close look at it. They "play" it fifteen minutes before and after each hour. It's kind of a funky sound ... a little bit like a carnival sounding instrument (can you hear what I am talking about?). 

The walk out to the windmill is a pretty one with tulips EVERYWHERE. These deep red/purple ones are labeled "Merlot." Terry said this color was his favorite.

Below is what a "Merlot" looks like from underneath ...

And this is the INSIDE ...

This is a working windmill--which I was totally unaware of it being!

Dear Terry and Ruthanne, kind enough to pose for a picture ...

I would tell you ALL about this lovely windmill, the mechanics, the history, the production, etc. but ... I'm afraid I did not retain much of what was taught about it. There are signs along the way, describing it in detail; but I was too "taken" with the beauty around me to actually READ and RETAIN the information posted. Bummer. I wish I had done a better job with that.

You can climb four or five floors--about as far as they allow anyone to explore--but anyway, you CAN walk around up on the deck up there. This lady (below) was describing the process of grinding the grain and the process it goes through as it is made into flour of the highest quality around.

This is the view from the top ...

After we got back down to ground level, we walked around the tulip fields. I was smiling SO big my face hurt. It's just that everything was SO amazingly gorgeous.

On the right side (below) is Terry ... love him so much.

And look at this BEAUTY with the yellow and red combined!

Can you see the beautiful meadow lark in the circle below? She had laid about six eggs and was very stressed having people walk so closely to her offspring. Poor one!

I LOVE these pictures so much! I can't wait to make cards from them.

I can't read everything on this cool sign below, but some of it says: "3,720 miles to Anchorage, Alaska"; "New Zealand--8,432 miles"; "Wits End--Back the Way You Came"; "Lake Michigan, 8 Miles"; "Mackinac Bridge, 264 miles"; "Oma's House--over the river and through the woods". 

As you can tell, I took a lot of photos (250 total) ... this is just a sampling (after a bit of editing).

What a beautiful place! We left Windmill Island and drove a few miles to eat lunch at Boatwerks on Lake Macatawa. We were told we had an HOUR wait--but it ended up only being 30 minutes. Good food. I had a perch sandwich that was really delicious. What a nice way to spend a few hours with Terry and Ruthanne. I am blessed.