Tulip Fest - Fianlly got there!

Great sunny day and we are off to the Tulip Fest.

Wow Tulips as far as the eye can see. We have never seen this before. The pictures just don't do the field justice.

We walked up and down some of the rows and Rose picked some flowers to bring home.

Click for larger image...

 

Old Steam Tractors were on hand. They were all running. I was amazed at these old machines from the early 1900's. I found out that they are mainly used as 'Portable Engines' not necessarily to pull stuff around. Although the one on the right from 911 was used to pull the grader to build HWY 26 from Portland to Seaside.

There is a very large Fly Wheel on the right side of the engine and a belt would be run between it and whatever they needed to run, cotton gin, baler, saw mill, etc... They take 3 hours to build up enough steam to run, so when they were in use someone stayed up all night tending them, so they would be ready in the morning.

Very cool...

Hops for Beer!
Portland is a world renown beer city. One of the reasons the beer here is so good, is that it is one of only a few places in the country that crows hops. We passed many fields where you could see the land setup for growing hops. They have telephone pols with wires (I don't know what they are made of) running from the ground up. The plants grow up the wires. OK, I'm ready for a beer!

Movies and pictures are great, but always nice to see things in person.