OMG, Juney IS wearing some wooden shoes! *falls over dead from the cute*
(just don't make her wear this get-up in her teens
i was there visiting my sister (just graduated from hope college)-- can't believe i missed you!
Love love love the Dutch Bershon Girl! :D
My dad grew up in Holland, Michigan but he wasn't Dutch (and therefore apparently wasn't much!). My aunt still klomped around in the Tulip Time Parade, though!
I'm living in Amsterdam right now and my favorite outing is going to the clog factory. They are so practical! And cheap! But I have to say that Dutch food is terrible. Have you heard of Febo? It's basically everything on that plate you had, except it all comes out of a vending machine.
Tulipfest looks just as weird as I remember it being. I got the whole experience, including the Dutch grandparents who used to drag me to it--not in costume, thank God--every year until I was about fifteen.
my favorite blog yet
sorry I missed you guys!
Now really, what self-respecting Dutch person would ever pay $13.50 for lunch?!
I have to break out of my long-time lurkerdom to comment on how FABULOUS that post was.
seriously. funny.
I loved this post. As a sometime ironic/sometime not lover of Texas' german culture. I really got a kick out of this. We took our 13 month old to go listen to an Oompah band and eat sausage. And I did competitive German folk dancing in high school. Our shoes stayed on, we mainly had troubles with our suspenders. I love the way we still are able to preserve some bits of our immigrant past in the US.
Really, you MUST stick with the sweets! Have you had Hagelschlag, on toast with warm, melted butter? (Ok, so they're chocolate sprinkles, but they actually have FLAVOR unlike that crap people use to decorate cakes). One day of my Oma feeding me that when "sick" as a kid, and I was better in no time. I think my mom was on to me, but everyone deserves brote mit hagelschlag at their Oma and Opa's as a kid. Then there's spekulaas cookies, and a bunch more Dutch yumminess.
But yes, we otherwise have nicknames like "Horsespit" for something called (phonetically) Hut Sput, and Nasty Boring for the Dutch Indonesian specialty Nasi Goering.
liz z, excellent point. those were clearly tourist prices.
That must have been the most disgusting "home cooked" meal I've ever seen! The funny thing is that we call a sausage a "worst" in NL (not wurst, that's German), which should explain something
However, please come visit us sometime in Amsterdam to have a proper (Febo) kroket with mustard, a proper (Hema) saucijzenbroodje and a big plate of boerenkool with a gehaktbal (mom's recipe).
The day after we'll catch a train to Brno (Czech Rep.) to visit Tugendhat House (and digest all the calories): I always wanted to go there, I'm sure you'll love it too!
PS Juniper looks gorgeous! I don't think I've ever seen a Dutch-Dutch girl wearing something like this, although even my toddler cousins all wear clogs on their parents' farms. "Wear clogs, not crocs."
i grew up in holland (was not dutch, was not much) ... and am mildly bitter about the not-much-ness. but these photos made me smile in spite of myself.
emma, Wood and I have a secret dream to open a "sexy dutch" restaurant a la suppenkuche in san francisco's hayes valley, call it "jenever" and serve fancy gin and amazing beer.
I do want to go to Amsterdam soon. Wood and I are thinking Amsterdam or Paris next fall for her 30th. I have no doubt Dutch food can be delicious. I like the sound of Nasi Goering. So long as it's not Hermann.
Excellent post. I must say that the food part got me thinking of my first time in Amsterdam, when our bus tour (yes, all the cliches applied) took us, not for Dutch food, but for Dutch Indonesian food. Sounds like it was a good choice!
SO CUTE!!! Looks like a good time.
tears. streaming. down. face. laughter. cannot. stop.
not to mention your kid is the coolest.
The Mennonites! Thankyou for the picture of the Mennonites. Now let me tell you that this little Mennonite has never worn a head covering in her life, and is a whole different brand of Mennonite than those pictured, but we have a common heritage, a mutual love of peace, justice and simple living. And, no we are not Amish, thankyou.
Juniper is just so so cute in her outfit!
Oh Lord, so beyond cute, with that white-blonde hair.
HEY! We're planning on a Paris/France trip next late summer time too! First real adventure out with the wee child, we've missed the abroadness in the last 4 years! I'm feeling itchy for an overseas flight with free booze and lots of train riding, and staying in frumpy hotels and schlepping around a backpack AND a toddler!
Seriously, everywhere CAN have good food, but going to a foreign country to sample it is not even close to the real thing, mostly not even worth it! Unless cooked by an immigrant grandma, of course.
maybe that wasn't clear. Foreign country meaning NOT the country where it originates. I didn't mean going to THAT foreign country, where it comes from. Symantics.
I am so jealous. And I am totally Dutch! Seriously. My maiden name is Hollandbeck, and my mom's maiden name is VanArsdale. My grandfather used to carve us wooden shoes, no lie. With pointy pointy toes and our names painted on them.
I'm totally hauling the family up to Holland for this shindig next year. For the costumery alone.
Thanks for the plug!
I love Juniper's outfit - the cuteness! The colors remind me of that little jumpsuit-thingy she used to wear all the time, with the rainbow leggings.
Juney is the epitome of Dutch cuteness!
We were just in Amsterdam in September. And huh. I must have missed Hermann Goering while I was at the Anne Frank House.
Dutch, you crack me up.
Also: that first photo of J. has me swooning. The colors! If I were you, I'd blow that photo up sky high.
Too funny! And Juniper looks so adorable.
That kid is so cute, I think I just produced an extra ovum.
Bert's family is Dutch (our name is even one of those VanNames), but alas we are not fundamentalist, eating weird food or wearing wooden shoes. Sniff.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm still laughing....
You wouldn't believe how much I look foward to your stories. They totally make my day (says a lot for my life, huh?) Anyways, Juniper (as always)is awesome in that getup, but I'd rather eat the ass end of a wooden hobby horse than that stuff on your plate!!
The thought of some old lady getting klompen'ed in the eye is now the highlight of my week, too.
Oh, that was so great. You made me laugh, especially thanks to the dance move. Thanks, I needed that.
didnt read a word. the pictures got my tongue. insane.
Hele grappig! Leuk post, Dutch.
fan. freakin. tastic.
all of it.
that's all.
awesome. awesome, awesome.
p.s. amsterdam was the most pleasant surprise we've ever had. I went on business (with very low expectations) and we adored it. then we took the train from there to Paris for four more days when my work stuff was finished - even the train trip was extremely pleasant. we'd have lots of great suggestions if you decide to do one, or both.
Juney looks adorably Dutch amongst the tulips and I'm glad you included a shot of her wooden shoes. Guess this beats the windmill in Golden Gate Park...
Hooray Mennonites!
Hey! Hooray people from Goshen College.
So funny. Great post.
Dear Wood, Dear Dutch,
Please let me know at which address I can send you some yummy Dutch foodstuff(hagelslag, speculaas, Dutch sweets and most of all... stroopwafels!). As a Dutch reader from your blog, living in the Netherlands, I feel personally responsable for correcting the image of Dutch food you got at the festival. It's actually cheese and sweets what we're good at!
P.s. I don't walk around in clogs and a costume. It's the biking (particularly in Amsterdam), which makes me feel Dutch.
And please let me know when you'll be in Amsterdam!
So funny! I echo what somebody said about it being similar to celebrations of German culture in South Texas. My grandma's town is home to the oldest standing polka band in the world outside of Germany, so every year we'd go to the different festivals. Most people don't go in costume, but I've always thought it was cool to be able to identify with the culture of my ancestors. I guess it helps that they make good beer.
My husband is half Irish, half Dutch. Luckily he doesn't wear klompen. Otherwise he might have a really hard time in Holland.
I'll have to bring over the Impling so our two little meisjes can clomp around in their klompjes together.
What a great time! No poffertjes though?
What were they thinking?
photo deja vu- i've got b&w photos of me in a similar costume in front of the tulips, etc. tulip time often meant my holland cousins would visit us in GR, just to escape the crowds. juney does the costume more justice than it deserves. have you forgotten wilhelmina peppermints? the best!
My very good friend is from Holland, and her mother still lives there.
Anytime she doesn't like something a professor has to say in our graduate psych classes(at a Christian institution) she says, "It's because he/she is Dutch Reformed."
It's halfway a joke for her.
Great post, great pictures.
"...a steady diet of fundamentalist Calvinism and saucizenbroodjes"....quite possibly the most exquisite sentence EVER.
I grew up just north of Muskegon and lived in Grand Haven for a few years. I miss tulip time. Thanks for sharing.
I sprayed the monitor with coffee when I read "the Mennonites come to Tulip Time just so they can look at all the Dutch people and say, "Jeez, check out all the weirdos!"" I really did.
Juniper is incredibly cute in that outfit.
I suspect all Hollanders (of the MI variety) are either in the parades or locked in their homes cursing Tulip Time for wreaking havoc on their local parking. Good thing for the tour busses, or there would be no noggins to get knocked by dancing wooden shoes.
Also? I think my father-in-law is in the backround of one of these photos.
Ha! I just graduated from Hope, but this was my very first Tulip Time, and man, it was a shitshow. Which is not to say that it wasn't entirely entertaining-- because honestly, what's not to love about carnie rides and fried food carts and sullen teenagers in wooden shoes surreptitiously smoking their moms' virginia slims? damn! But what a surreal week. One day, I came out of my house only to find nine buses of marching band kids pouring onto my front lawn. Just when I thought it couldn't get surreal, fifteen marines rode down the sidewalk on horseback. Anyway, I read your blog every day and I wish we could've had coffee or something. Hope you had fun!
What I found ironic is that I found this blog via Design Sponge. All these NewYorkers checking out tulip time in my old neck of the woods!
Honestly, I'm Dutch Calvinist and smiling I've got a pair of wooden shoes made at the Holland mill with kitschy windmills burned into them next to my front door here in VT.
The real fun about tulip time was getting out of school early for a week! Those were the days.
too torn over whether to comment on the cuteness or the funniness. Massive overload of each. Tremendous post, dood.
When we lived in Michigan - our first stop after moving from Europa - we always were so amused about how much Holland, MI, is the anti-thesis of Holland, Europe. Hilarious! But we always enjoyed the place, despite or because of that.
Now I live in Texas where we have places that are "authentic" German. For me, originally from that country, it is torture to see how much this is so totally not Germany. I went there once and refuse to ever go again.
But in about two weeks, I will have the opportunity to take my two-year-old American-born granddaughter to a place in Germany where they have the real Wild West, with real cowboys shooting up the place, and all that other "real American" stuff. Can't wait! (To leave!)
Stereotypes suck!!!!
Did they have that crazy salty licorice? Please say they had crazy salty licorice. My abiding memory of living in Wassenaar when I was four was the crazy salty licorice. Our milkman used to come by every day and give it to me.
Uh, now that I type that out, I realize how weird it sounds. Did my mother know, for instance, that my milkman was coming by every day to give me licorice? Probably not.
OH MAH LAWD! That is the cutest little thing I have ever seen! (and I have one of my own). Really, too beautiful for words.
That was frigg'n hilarious. Just as I start to wipe tears from the breakfast shot, the "Avril" dutch teen scowls at me and makes me giggle harder, then the hair guy and the dancing.... I'll be giggeling for weeks! And your daughter couldn't be any cuter, great photos.
My husband's grandmother, uncles, aunts, and cousins live in Holland. We've been saying we should go to Tulip Time for years but never have. These pictures are quite inspirational! Maybe next year we can meet you at...what's the name of that diner they love in Holland?? Yeah, that place.
Juney! Can she get any cuter? I think not.
Ultrablond dutch dancer, or ultrablond Civil War sadistic fence dancer?
http://www.thumbsnap.com/v/3EyHqcrm.jpg
Okay, I might be the only movie dork even following this skewed line of logic.
ACK! Juniper looks so sweet in her outfit and wooden shoes that I got a toothache from all the sweetness
Love your stories!
Oh man. My head just exploded from the cuteness. The surly "grown up Juney" make me snarf coffee.
Juney is precious in that outfit and decidedly unsurly!
I nearly snorted when I read this bit: "Only if I spend the next fifteen years feeding you a steady diet of fundamentalist Calvinism and saucizenbroodjes" So funny!
These pictures are hilarious and adorable. God what I would have given to see that shoe hit the old lady.
I'm sooo Dutch. As in 100%, coming at me from both sides. Which is rare in my generation I think. I'm also from the Grand Rapids area, home of the cheap-ass Dutch itself, so I'm very familiar with Tulip Time and wooden shoes and all that. Though, I didn't recognize any of that Dutch cuisine. I wonder if my family is from a different part of The Netherlands. Or something.
You must have done some serious bribing to get your 2-year-old to wear that outfit... my 2-year-old won't even wear a skirt unless it's a (shiver) "skort". Well documented. And I would have paid CASH MONEY to see a wooden shoe fling and ding. Good stuff.
Juney looks beyond cute. How is it possible that kids look ovary-twinging adorable in things that make grown people look liike idiots? How'd she do with the wooden shoes? Maggie's already showng signs of her parent's klutziness and would have probably broken a bone if we put her in those.
One of my best friends went to Hope, so I have been to Holland at right around Tulip Time. It's kind of a blur, really...
Oh yeah, we Scandinavians get all goofy and dressed up today: 17th of May. My kids wear their bunads with pride and I have one too. Although my husband the arm wrestler looks like beast from Beauty and the Beast in his.
My god. My parents made me do that shit as a kid.
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