Tulip tourists swarmed La Conner last week

Saturday was the most crowded day of a tourist-filled week in La Conner. By midday there was not a parking spot to be had on First Street and the public lot below Maple Hall was filled. Curbs on Morris and side streets were filled. Every day last week large tour buses turned up North Third Street to park at the La Conner Marina.

But it wasn’t just retirees and seniors who came to town. Lots of bikers, both of the pedal variety in a wide array of neon colors, mostly helmeted, and gas-powered motorcyclists rolled through the roundabout. Riders on the 2022 Tulip Pedal Bike Ride’s three routes – 20-, 40- or 60-miles – all turned up Sixth Street toward the school campus, registration numbers flapping on cyclists’ backs.

There were kids in strollers and babies in backpacks. Younger and older and couples of all ages held hands. Elders leaned on their canes while making their way to the next shop. Customers came out of ice cream stores holding two-scoop cones. Others carried the ubiquitous coffee cups.

The weather was surprisingly cooperative. In a week of forecasts that called for rain, there were clouds every day but the sun came out until at least midday most days. Friday there was blue sky into the evening and at happy hour the boardwalk tables at the Pub, Seafood Prime Rib, Sips, Nell Thorn and Hellman’s Vineyard were filled by appreciative customers.

At 11 a.m. Saturday’s first street fair of the season, sponsored by La Conner United, had a steady, if slow, stream of residents in the Crescent Moon Yoga parking lot next to the library and a multi-generational trickle of people walked up Morris Street from downtown. Locals and tourists alike stopped at the coffee shops, Beaver Tales and Stompin Grounds.

The sun shone through a mostly blue sky until haze, and then clouds, covered the sun after 5:30 p.m.

That was Saturday, La Conner’s best sales day. While it was more exhausting to merchants than the rest of the week, all days last week were boon days. Visitors kept merchants busy and filled seats at restaurants from midweek on.

And, getting to the tulip fields and venturing into La Conner from Mount Vernon was its usual headache of long lines with interminable waits to get over the Division Street bridge. At the wrong time of day, McLean Road was traffic laden in both directions. Coming into Mount Vernon at the Division Street light could also be slow going. Then, who knows how long for the return trip? Traffic coming north from Conway was not checked for volumes.

The flocks of tourists last weekend were typical for April’s embrace of all things tulip in the Skagit Valley this year.