Au Gres, Michigan

Our last few days in Michigan were spent in Au Gres. This town is primarily a vacation spot for spending time on Lake Huron. My grandma lives there and my parents rented a lake house for a few nights. Being right on the lake was amazing and the house was well-equipped. It had a fire pit that we enjoyed two of the nights.

The memorial service was held on Sunday, September 18. I was not very close to my grandfather, so I was not sure how I would feel at the service. But it was a very emotional few hours. He served in WWII and they had a presentation of the flag to my grandmother. I started bawling (my version) during this part.

After the service, we went to my Aunt Maria's house and took a few photos. (The cousins picture is missing my cousins from my Dad's two older sisters.) It was good to spend time with family. We never lived in Michigan when I was growing up and we did not have the chance to spend a lot of time with them throughout my childhood.

Dearborn, Michigan

For the next day of our Michigan trip we were in the Detroit/Dearborn area. My cousin's wedding was that evening. My parents suggested we visit Greenfield Village and/or the Henry Ford Museum. We ended up just having time for Greenfield Village. The place is HUGE! It's filled with tons of historic buildings like Edison's lab, Robert Frost's house, the Wright Brother's bicycle shop and so much more. This was my favorite part of our Michigan trip. They also have an amazing military discount. Charles got in for free!

Enjoying a post-lunch treat--Buckeye!

We closed out the evening celebrating my cousin's marriage. I saw some of my cousins that I haven't seen in at least 15-20 years. Everyone is so grown up now.

Grand Rapids, Michigan

The next day of our Michigan sojourn was spent in Grand Rapids. The only thing I knew about the city before visiting was that my Mom went to college there. We ended up driving by the school at one point.

We started our day by walking around the extensive Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. I loved the juxtaposition of natural, plant life with man-made sculptures. There were so many amazing pieces throughout the gardens!

This sculpture is by Kiki Smith. The name immediately sounded familiar and it's because one of her pieces, Wolf Girl, was shown in a Gilmore Girls episode. I also featured Wolf Girl at my Gilmore Girls themed birthday party.

After the Gardens, we headed to Robinette's Apple Haus for lunch. Walking in, it smelled amazing from all the apple cider donuts and other goodies. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed sitting outside at one of their picnic tables and did some people-watching. Later my mom was telling us she would go here for lunch while in college.

Holland, Michigan

Recently Charles and I traveled to Michigan for a couple family events. The major reason was for my paternal grandfather's memorial service. He passed away in late August. We took the opportunity of going to Michigan and spent a couple days doing some sightseeing. Our first day was spent in Holland. Holland was settled by Dutch immigrants and they have kept their Dutch culture intact through various tourist spots and such. I remember visiting once as a teenager with my mom and sisters. I thought it would be fun to show Charles the area.

Our first stop in Holland was a late breakfast at deBoer Bakkerij. I had the Blue Raspberry Bliss Cakes and they were so yummy!

Then we went to Nelis' Dutch Village. Most of the park was closed since it was a weekday, but we walked around outside and went into the gift shop. Part of the gift shop is a candle carving area. The candles are amazing! We watched a video in the shop of how they create the candles and it was very interesting to see the whole process.

Then we headed over to the Windmill Island Gardens Park. This was our favorite part of our Holland visit. It's a beautiful park with a windmill that was shipped over from the Netherlands in the 50's. The windmill tour was fascinating and offered great views of the whole park. It would be neat to visit during tulip season.

After that we visited "Big Red" which is the Holland lighthouse. There is a state park beach there, as well. We enjoyed walking around and then sitting on a bench overlooking the water. Holland is really a lovely town!

Our last stop before heading back to the hotel was Bowerman's Blueberries Farm Market. You can pick your own blueberries there, but we just perused the market. We left with some blueberry lemonade, blueberry cinnamon bread and the best fudge I've ever had.

Michigan vs. Northwestern

I was raised a Michigan fan by a Michigan Alumni, my dad. Living in Ohio is a little like living among the enemy, but I survive. My Dad has season tickets to the Michigan football games and sent us tickets for this past weekend's game against Northwestern. Charles and I have only been to one game in the past and that was back in college when my Dad took us and my sister Courtney. Ann Arbor is only about 3 hours from here, so it was a short drive for us.

We ended up staying in Toledo for the weekend which was a little over half way there. It was a lot easier and cheaper to find a room there. And it gave us an excuse to check out Toledo.

The game was a good one. For a while, it seemed like Michigan wouldn't be able to do much to stop Northwestern. But in the final minutes, Michigan pulled out a tie. And in overtime they stopped Northwestern very well. It was very exciting to watch.

After the game, we checked out the Maumee Bay Brew Club in Toledo. We had a HUGE pretzel as an appetizer. It was a neat place with a variety of locally brewed beer.  I'm not a beer drinker, but Charles enjoys beer. He had the Irish Stout and said it was tasty.

Yesterday we spent the day exploring Toledo. We ate lunch at Tony Packo's, a Toledo staple. Very good chili and hot dogs! I guess they have a Hungarian influence, so they had some unexpected items on their menu. It was definitely worth a visit.

We ended our weekend with a visit to the Toledo Walleye arena to see them play the South Carolina Stingrays. Being from Charleston, we were cheering for the Stingrays. We were just a little outnumbered. South Carolina pulled out a 2 to 1 win against the home team. It was awesome!