Grand Rapids, MI

Sorry for the delay in getting the latest post up.  We are in Napperville, Illinois currently.  We are planning on seeing Josh's (and mine now too!) sister, Juliann on Friday.  But we spent this past weekend with our friend Ryan, who Josh roomed with at Messiah.  Ryan lives in Newaygo, Michigan.  He recently started working at Camp Henry, a summer camp for youth. As we drove through the center of Michigan, we were rather surprised at how much there isn't. We passed only a few things in the three-ish hours it took us to get from Ann Arbor, including, Taxidermists, Deer Jerky Specialists (I'm not sure the exact job title of one who makes jerky), Pet Grooming and that's about it. Once we hit Newaygo, not much changed. But it is still a cute little town and Ryan showed us the highlights of the town the first night we were there. He took us to the Jerky shop which had pretty much every flavor of jerky you could think of. It was pretty good.  The next day we met up and Ryan took us to the Frederik-Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids which are grounds of over 135 acres of gardens (indoor and outdoor) and sculptures.  We spent most of the time inside as the weekend was cold and rainy most of the time.  We did venture out a little though because the woman who sold us the tickets told us that no matter what, we had to go see "the horse" outside and "the ceiling" inside the cafe.  She was very cryptic which intrigued us.  So we did see that right before we left. More about that later though.  The inside of the building was home to Christmas trees from all over the world, each decorated in a fashion true to its country's traditions and mores.

From Japan's tree

Underneath Ukraine's tree

From Iceland's tree

Denmark's tree

It was awesome to see how each country decorates its tree! We spent some time looking around the gardens and greenhouses inside. There were some crazy looking plants, flowers, trees and cacti.

Weird worm-y cacti that look more like bacteria under a microscope than cacti  

These birds almost flew right into josh's head. Which had a humorous quality to it.

Fun Christmas decs in the trees for the birds :)

There were also a bunch of miniature buildings inside.  Each building was  made to be a replica of some famous buildings around the local area.  Many of the buildings also had some significance to the Frederik-Meijer's, who were the couple that donated and helped to create the gardens.  The best part about the miniatures is that they were created out of pieces of nature: eucalyptus, acorns, branches, maples leaves and more!

A replica of a local church.

If only I could figure out a leak-proof way to shingle our ceiling out of hand-painted eucalyptus

Materials for the miniature buildings

We went outside to the sculpture garden then to find the horse that the ticket lady told us about.  We followed the footpath and found a few fun sculptures along the way:

They made me pose in front of this statue.  Turns out this one was called Mad Mom...

It was only fair....

The Frederik-Meijer's

So we continued down the path towards the horse....and Josh spots it!

We got to at the end of the path and were a little confused at why she was so sure we had to see it. Because it looked rather ordinary to us. What do you think?

Yup, pretty ordinary.  And then we turned around....

Now it makes sense....

The famous ceiling.  Reminded us of the Corning Glass Museum.  So pretty!

We had to get a picture of the speed limit on the way out.  It was very specific.  

Ryan took us out to dinner at the HopCat.  It was delicious!

The building just outside the bar had gargoyles on top of it.  Their eyes even lit up red!

After dinner we drove back to Camp Henry and we looked at our plans for the rest of the trip.  Ryan tried to help us plan out our routes.

There was a brief moment where we entertained the idea of getting a puppy and coming home. There was a sign for Rottweiler puppies on the way to Grand Rapids and we really do want a puppy.  It's so cold and rainy and we're both feeling kinda travel-worn and so we really did entertain the idea of getting one of those puppies and coming home.  We thought we could finish the trip later when it's warmer with a dog! That could be fun too!

But sanity prevailed and we're not getting a puppy. Yet. We are however, going to drive home for Christmas and then after spending the holidays with family, we are going to clean out the trailer (take out some of the stuff we haven't even used yet...).  Then, we're heading south. To the sun and warmth which we miss. A lot.

We had a blast with Ryan and really enjoyed getting to discover Grand Rapids (and Newaygo) with a friend! Oh and p.s. one last picture is posted just for you, Mark Manbeck--Ryan reminded us about this: