It has been one year exactly since my sisters, my mom and I met in the tulip fields of Skagit Valley for our annual smack of color. This year we pulled it together at the last minute, goaded by the forecast of sunny weather. It has been highly variable weather-wise for the last week...my sister Erin was caught by a blizzard coming over the mountains on Easter....so the promise of sunshine was too good to pass up. We weren't the only ones to leap into action. The crowds were larger than I have ever seen on a weekday for tulip gazing, but they weren't thick enough to spoil the intense beauty of fields of light-filled flower goblets. It never gets old. Last year was chilly, but it was in the sixties today, making March 31 the perfect choice for our outing.