Grand Rapids (7/16/2015)

Marilyn and Collins took the day off today, so Dave, Mazie, Joe and I headed into Grand Rapids to see a couple of things there.  It was quite chilly this morning, 57 degrees.  It started out sunny but clouded over in the afternoon.  Rain was predicted but we just got a few sprinkles about dark, but I think more is on the way tonight.

Our first stop today was the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum.  This was a nice presidential library, covered lots of years, from early childhood, through college, military service in the Navy during World War II, his time in Congress, his presidency during the very unsettled times of the 70s, Betty Ford's contribution to his career, and the launch of the USS Gerald R. Ford.

There is a beautiful flower garden in the front, as well as a very nice reflective pool and fountain.

Joe liked the reflection of the trees and flowers in the glass here, so he took several pictures.  You can see Joe's reflection as well.

We didn't take many pictures inside, but here are the oval office as decorated during his residency in the White House, as well as the Cabinet Room.

There was an exhibit on loan here entitled "Taking the Seas, Rise of the American Aircraft Carrier" about the development of the USS Gerald R. Ford.

There was also a piece of the Berlin Wall here, which was a rare sighting for us, not something we would be in a position to view in Arizona so it was nice to get to see this here.

This tour took longer than we expected, about 2 1/2 hours, so when we left here we grabbed a Wendy's for lunch, then went to our second stop, a fish ladder.

We could see some large carp in part of this fish ladder, but that was the only breed we saw.  They appeared to be attempting to swim back up the ladder, like the salmon in Canada and Alaska do.

We left here and drove out to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, where Mazie and I ran in to get information.  But we decided it was too late in the day to do justice to this, although what we drove through the part to get to the entrance, it was very pretty with all the flowers and the few pieces of sculpture we saw.  There was a tram ride through the park that stopped at the Japanese Gardens.  I'm sure we would have all enjoyed that if there had been more time left in the day, but we headed back to camp instead.

As we drove through town, we found a sign for Joe -- a little late, but the sentiment is always appreciated.

I have been collecting little pieces of driftwood from these Michigan beaches, so I got out my collection from yesterday and added it to my previous stash.  By the time I get home, or back to Florida, I hope to have enough to do something with.

We had a couple hours to rest before Jan and D.C. came out to join us for dinner and bring Marilyn's new credit card, so we got together for a meeting between the 6 of us to review the travel agenda for the rest of Michigan and see if we could eliminate some of the choices Collins had put together, since we seem to be moving at a very slow pace.  And we worked on campground reservations for the weekend, which is very difficult.

 When Jan and D.C. got here, we went down the road to a restaurant called "Bunker Hill," sounded like home to us!  Then we came back to the RV and visited for a while.  Jan got to talking about her dad, and some of the stories she had heard from her cousin Bob Grigsby, so I got out some of the pictures of Lucille's family (siblings and parents) I had gathered at Lucille's, then I brought up the Butler Family Tree on the computer and updated some information on Jan's family, and added some anecdotes on her dad.  She is going to send me additional information and I'm trying to talk her in to taking over the task of being the official caretaker of the Family Tree.  We will see how that goes, but at the first pass, she didn't step forward and volunteer to take it over.

Tomorrow we move on up the road, early 8:00 start is planned, so I better get to bed.