Ravenous invaders storm the town ... and we like it!

It may be more anecdotally than scientifically proven, but La Conner residents stand by the theory that sunny days and blooming tulips are the direct cause of swarming tourists.

Last weekend a swarm descended upon the town. And they were hungry.

Local restaurants were running out of things like onion rings.

But good for us, the visitors were happy, too. And for business owners, who had just slogged through a slow and dreary winter, the tourist dollars were back.

“It was a good weekend, and we’re looking forward to another one,” said Cynthia Hoskins, an owner of Earthenworks Gallery and Hotel Planter. “The hotel is full,” she said.

On Saturday the Kiwanis and US Bank parade attracted about a gazillion people to town.

Skagit County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jenny Sheahan-Lee, commander of the La Conner Sheriff’s station, said everyone was considerate and in high spirits. There were no calls and no complaints, she said.

There was minor grumbling in the school zone, where the parade lined up on the same day there was a sports tournament at the elementary school. Parents were having trouble getting their kids to the event, she said.

Besides being happy, the tourist swarm was also ravenous.

“It was probably a record weekend for us,” said Brenda Schmidt, manager of Calico Cupboard on First Street, with Sunday the busiest. “We ran out of some things, but not until the end of the day.” The restaurant had stocked up expecting a busy weekend, she said.

What was the Calico crowd consuming? Hamburgers, mimo-sas and bloody Mary’s on the deck overlooking the channel, Schmidt said.

At La Conner Pub & Eatery, “it was like unbelievable,” said Sherry Thostenson, who with her sisters owns the popular establishment. Every seat was taken, and people were walking out with orders to go so they could sit in the adjacent Dirty Biter Park.

The pub grub that went the fastest, like always, was fish and chips, she said. The Pub & Eatery had also stocked up for a busy weekend and ordered 10 cases of French fries, and “we blew through six of them,” Thostenson said. That equates to many thousands of French fries chomped down in hundreds of orders. By the end of the weekend, “we almost ran out of oysters,” she said. And there were no more onion rings.

“Every food establishment in town had lines,” said Sgt. Sheahan-Lee. But just like the restaurants were ready for the crowds, “people came prepared to wait and seemed to be in really good spirits.”

Outside town things weren’t so orderly. Sheriff’s deputies issued 171 parking tickets to vehicles parked in posted no parking zones along the tulip routes.

The Roozengaarde fields had parking lots, and one $5 fee was good for parking in all of them. People who pulled over on the side of the road to avoid paying the parking fee wound up with $20 tickets if their vehicle was completely off the road or a $30 one if any part of the car was on the road.

And those were the bargain priced citations. “If they were with the car, we should be writing them a $71 ticket,” Sheahan-Lee said.

Anyone who tried to get over to Mount Vernon during store business hours on Saturday or Sunday wound up in miles of traffic along McLean Road and Memorial Highway.

When the sun is shining and the tulips and tourists are out, don’t take the usual shortcuts. It’s best to save an hour or so and take the long way to town over Highway 20, which is built to handle lots of traffic.