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.

Holland, Michigan (7/15/2015)

I'm having a hard time finding time to keep my blog going.  But in addition to staying in touch with friends and family this way, it's a journal for me to remember things in, so I keep plugging away.  It just takes a long time to get all the pictures to load (I know I post too many), so I usually spend at least an hour on each blog.  I ran out of hours on Wednesday, so I didn't get to work on the blog until this morning (Thursday). Wednesday was another busy, full day.  

Holland was our destination on Wednesday.  Mazie and Dave had some phone calls to make, based on their mail they picked up from Jan last night, so we didn't plan an early start.  I think we left the RV around 10:00, and Holland was only 23 miles away.  Our first stop was the Farmers Market, which happened to be open on Wed. (based on my research), and it was a true farmer's market, with lots of local produce and flowers (Michigan has lots and lots of flowers).  It was one long row, about a block long, with tables on both sides full of cherries, blueberries (both in season right now), strawberries (season for them is about over), green beans, cucumbers, onions, tomatoes (hot house), and on and on.  Also some jams, baked goods, breads, and a very few local crafts.  We each left with a couple bags, some to share, some for our own.


From there, we went to the Windmill Island Gardens, where resides a 251-year old Windmill, imported from Holland in the Netherlands and restored.  It is the only authentic working Dutch windmill in the U.S. The gardens here were beautiful, even though we missed their tulip time by a month or so.

The tour started with a brief film, then a demonstration from their player-organ, with a bona fide native , Piet, talking to us.  Piet had a strong accent but was fun to listen to.  We were allowed to walk around behind the organ and watch the keys move as the card flowed across the top.

 We walked across the drawbridge, on the way to the windmill.  Of course, this presented a photo op.

 Unfortunately, their miller was not there today so they didn't have it running, but we got to tour 5 floors with a costumed guide and enjoying the dancing after the tour.

Our tour guide was part of the dancing team, so while they were congregating, Marilyn and I took a swing in case they needed more dancers (no one asked us to continue).

They did seem to have a bit more of a route than we did, and better costumes.  After the dancing was over, they each explained their costume, the city it represented, and the type of person it represented (middle class fisherman or farmer, well-to-do farmer, etc.)

When this ended, Joe, Mazie and I walked around the perimeter of this 36-acre property, and came across some interesting flora.  Some kind of little berries, red and orange, and some kind of flowering tree that we had never seen before.

After a walk through the village shops, where we parted with a little more money (bought a little bitty pair of wooden shoes and a windmill magnet for my scrapbook), we were finished here.

We picked a lunch spot on the GPS, but between Holland's one-way streets and the road construction and a missed turn, it took us 20 minutes to go the two miles to it.  By then, Joe was a Little Testy!

Then we made a short drive to Holland State Park, right on the beaches of Lake Michigan. Weatherwise, it was an absolutely perfect day -- blue skies, 70s, low humidity.  After yesterday's rain, this was a welcome relief.   Mazie and I put our jackets on to walk down to the beach, but we could have probably done without them.  We drove through a campground across the street, then parked at the beach and spent an hour or so enjoying the atmosphere here.  They had beautiful kites flying, the water was sparkling blue, sailboats circling in the distance, and kids digging in the sand or swimming in the FREEZING water.

We lost track of Collins and Marilyn here, and they nor David walked down to the beach, but Mazie, Joe and I managed to put our feet in Lake Michigan!  (Joe seemed to take an interminably long time to get the picture of Mazie and me -- Mazie was sure her ankles had turned blue).

On the way over to the pier, Mazie tried to make friends with a duck, but she had nothing to feed it.

Joe took a seat while I took some pictures of the NOAA weather station here, then we headed out to the end of the pier.

We could see the opening through the breakwater here to go out to the big lake, and we could see those sailboats here too.

There were fishermen along the pier, then toward the end of the pier some girls were jumping into this freezing water.  They came up shivering, but kept jumping right back in.

We could see the sailboats a little better from the end of this pier. 

We finally headed back, but right at the end of the pier some people were looking in the rocks.  I asked what they had seen, and they had seen some critters, which they thought might be mink!  Well, never having seen mink in the wild before, of course we joined right in.

Joe and I did catch a glimpse of their little heads (couldn't tell if it was mink, but we figured the locals knew more about that than we did, so we will go with mink, and will now look for a mink for our traveling zoo on the dash). 

Headed back to the car with a stop at the restroom and snack bar for an ice cream cone.  Poor Dave probably felt like he had been abandoned, but he said he did get a little catnap in.  Then we headed back through Holland on down the road to Allegan, listed as the "coolest small town in America."  We stopped at a gas station, and I sent Mazie in to see what the town had that made it "cool."  The cashier answered with "absolutely nothing."  We found nothing to justify the "coolest town" either, but it did have a water feature with fountains, a pretty bridge with flowers, and maybe some interesting shops but they were all closed (it was after 6:00 p.m. by now).

We explored the town, still looking for something really cool, and the highway we wanted to take back to the RV, but we finally gave up, found the right highway and headed back.  It was about 7:30 by the time we got in, and I still had laundry to do.  So I grabbed Marilyn and her dirty laundry, and we headed out again, to the laundramat back down the highway (Hwy 131) to the next exit south.  By the time we finished up there and got back to the campers, it was 9:30.  A long day!

But a good day.  Holland was a nice place to visit, and the beach was awesome.  We talked to a fisherman, and he told us how he was rigged up for steelhead -- made us want to go get our fishing poles!  Hopefully, fishing is in our near future, probably when we get to Canada where Collins and Marilyn's relatives live, at least one of them has a boat!