We are about 2 months away from the arrival of our baby girl which means it’s time for take one last family photo shoot of our family of 3 and time maternity photos before she arrives. Tulip season runs the month of April in the Pacific Northwest and we have 2 amazing festivals within flying distance. The closer one is the Skagit Tulip Festival in Skagit, (KBVS) Washington and the second is the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, OR.
We tried to get information on how to access the Skagit fields early before the mass crowds arrive with no luck, but, we were able to purchase an early morning photographer pass to the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival in Woodburn with ease. Wooden Shoe also appeared more desirable from online photos on their website and Facebook because they have a large viewing platform and lots of benches and tractors throughout their fields.
The real deciding factor for this mission, like usual, is weather. We started checking the weather at the beginning of the week for our trip on Saturday. Plan A: is to fly down to KUAO the night before, stay the night so we can wake up early and access the fields. Plan B: is to wait until Sunday morning and get to the Skagit fields at 9am and try to be with the first people there.
As Saturday afternoon came rolling around the weather was marginal along our proposed route from S50-OLM-BTG-KUAO. We estimated the freezing lever to be 7000 feet by calculating the temps with the standard lapse rate. The minimum IFR altitude along our first route segment was 7000 as well, so we needed proceed with caution. With the sun soon setting and the freezing level low, with the calculated cloud bases at approximately 3,000′, our decision was to fly under the clouds until Chehalis, where is was foretasted to improved. Our planned take off time was about 6:30pm and sunset was at 8:10 pm. We would have no problem making it to our destination in the :50 required for the flight during daylight. Since there are a lot of mountains in the area we just prefer daylight.
Sarah, our great friend and amazing photographer met us at the airport. We loaded what little we had for this short overnight trip and Sarah wanted to grab her camera for some cool photos in flight; but we knew it wasn’t going to be the super clear weather we usually enjoy. Papa Pilot and Sarah Ann sat up front and Mama Pilot and The Little Dude were in the back. Shortly after takeoff it was clear staying low wasn’t an option and we would need an IFR clearance. We called up approach who then gave us to Seattle Center for our clearance. They vectored us and warned us of moderate precipitation on our way to OLM VOR and climbed us to 7000 feet. It was soup outside and The Little Dudes first time being in Solid IMC conditions. He was a little nervous and unsure of not being able to see outside and it was a bit bumpy but not bad. Papa pilot was piloting the plane and using his experience to keep us on course and get us to altitude. Mama pilot was keeping an eye on the wings and horizontal stabilizer for any signs of icing, but there was none. After a mostly quiet 30 minutes we started to breakout between layers and then under the clouds. We executed a visual approach to Runway 1-7 and landed without incident.
Once on the ground. We taxied to Aurora Aviation to pick up our rental car. The FBO closed at 5:30pm. When the flight was looking like a go on Friday, Mama pilot called and made arrangements for an after hours car pick up. The FBO was very accommodating getting us set up and instructing us where to find the keys and the paperwork for our car. After finding the keys and getting the car loaded up we booked a few hotel rooms on our phones. The FBO was also helpful in offering a hotel recommendation for the night. We booked the La Quinta Inn in Wilsonville just north of the airport. The Wooden Shoe fields are about 20 minutes south of the airport and the hotel was about 10 minutes north of the airport. Everything was in great proximity! We wanted to get a late snack as it was already 8:30. We found an McMenamins in Wilsonville that used to be an old church and it a perfect restaurant for our late night snack. McMenamins is popular in the PNW because they take old buildings like churches and schools and turn them into hotels and restaurants that are super unique! We checked into the hotel with no problems. It was clean and simple and just what we needed, although with our alarms set for 5:30 we would only be sleeping for 7 hours. Of course morning came in no time. It was cloudy when we awoke but the forecast showed sun around 7. The La Quinta Inn had a nice Continental breakfast waiting for us so we grabbed a quick bite and were off to the fields.
When we pulled up there were only about 10 cars in the parking lot and only a few people in the field, awesome!!! We wandered to the west field and started our family photo session, and as advertised it was very muddy. We planned on taking some nice family photos and the Maternity shots. The festival does have hot air balloons that use the field but decided not to go when we were there. They also have bounce houses and things for the kids to do plus food and retail vendors. The additional things weren’t open until just before we left at 9 am, their normal opening time. The West field had a pink and green tractor and the viewing platform and the north field has lots of little tractors for kids and benches for photos. Of course The Little Dude slipped in the mud and got his nice outfit dirty. We did plan to let him do a muddy shoot where he could just play in the mud too! He surprisingly wasn’t as into just playing in the mud as we thought he would be.
While enjoying our photo session we were also keeping an eye on the weather for the flight home. There were a few breaks in the clouds and the warm sun would shine though. It was looking VFR for the way home for sure, but there were still some clouds we would have to fly around. We headed back to the airport and returned the car to the FBO. We did tanker in gas so we were only responsible for for $15 overnight tie down fee. The Little Dude looked around for popcorn or cookies, but they did have any.
Our flight home was much less bumpy and we landed back home at Auburn by noon the next day. Mission accomplished!
