Woodenshoe Tulip 2025

 

Woodenshoe Tulip Farm is the famous tulip farm in Oregon.  It is located by Woodburn, just less than an hour South of Portland.  The farm plants many different breeds of tulips in variety of colours.  Woodenshoe Tulip Farm hosts tulip festival every year and attracts thousands of people to attend.

We got to Woodenshoe Tulip Farm by 6AM in the morning since we bought the early bird admission ticket.  There was not a lot of cars there since the weather was cloudy, but the rain has completely stopped.  We stepped out to the farm around 6:30AM as the sky was getting brighter.  The ground at the farm was quite muddy due to the rain in the past few days, and luckily we were wearing boots today.

The tulip at the farm was not fully blossom yet.  There were rows of tulip that had its flower bulbs that were still closed.  It was likely due to the rainy weather that Oregon had this year and thus the tulip blossom was starting later this year.

We also felt that the amount of tulip at the farm was becoming less and less each year.  We recalled that the first time we came, the tulip farm was 1.5 times larger and had a lot more rows of tulip.  It was unfortunate to see the tulips farm shrinking.

We did enjoy the visit this year although the weather condition was not the best and there were not many people at the farm.  We are hoping that the tulip farm gets back to the size it was before when we visit next year.

Stonehenge Memorial

 

Stonehenge Memorial is located near Goldendale, Washington State, along the North side of Columbia River.  It is the exact replica of the Stonehenge in Salisbury, UK.  Unlike the Stonehenge in UK, the Stonehenge in Washington State is open 24 hours everyday and tourists are allowed to go into the Stonehenge circle.  The main difference is that this Stonehenge replica is made out of concrete instead of real stones.

February 28, 2025 was when the 7 planetary alignment happens.  Thus we decided to venture out East to Stonehenge Memorial to have a clear viewing sky and see the planets.  Stonehenge Memorial is about 2.5 hours East of Portland and we were able to get there by 5PM.

There was not a lot of cars at Stonehenge Memorial and we were able to explore around the area.  We have been to the Stonehenge in UK but we were only able to look at the Stonehenge from outside.  This time we were able to enter the Stonehenge and see the interior design of this magnificent structure.

By 5:30PM, we started setting up the telescope for looking at the planets.  The view from the Stonehenge Memorial was astonishing as we were able to see the beauty of Columbia Gorge with the sun setting down below the horizon.  It was quiet and we could only hear the cars running along the highway.

By 6PM, the sun has set below the horizon and we started to see stars in the sky.  The first and the brightest one we saw was Venus.  It was extremely bright.  Then after 20 minutes we were able to see Jupiter right above us.  Then Mars also showed up as a small red dot on the East side.  We couldn't really see the other planets with our naked eyes, but we were able to capture Mercury on the photo and Saturn was too close to the horizon to spot it.

There were also 2 other people with telescope and having a blast at viewing the stars.  They had a more fancy telescope than ours and showing us the stars in the sky.  They mentioned that the Goldendale Observatory used to be rent out the observatory for just $12 a night.  It is unfortunate that the rental is no longer available.

Although we were not able to see all the planets, we had a blast at Stonehenge Memorial.  The area was wide open on a hill and the sky was as clear as it could be.  We would definitely come back here again during the summer to see the Milkyway.