Grand Rapids: Another sculpture park brings us to Grand
Rapids, Michigan! The Frederik Meijer
Gardens & Sculpture Park is huge! The sculpture park is about 30 acres and
consists of a permanent collection of 300 works. There is also a Children’s Garden and
Japanese Garden as well as a Conservatory.
We took a tram to see many of the works.
Here are a few of our favorites:
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| "Aria" by Alexander Liberman |
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| "Listening to History" by Bill Woodrow |
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| "Mad Mom" by Tom Otterness |
Below are pictures of “The American Horse” created by
sculptor Nina Akamu. This work was
inspired by a work designed by Leonard da Vinci for the Duke of Milan. Da Vinci’s work was never completed. Frederik Meijer commissioned 2 casts of this
24-foot horse to be made, one for the Meijer Gardens and one for the city of
Milan.
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| Smaller casts were made by the artist as well |
Traverse City area: One of my colleagues often talked about
Traverse City, so I wanted to see it! We
had a wonderful Airbnb hostess who made several restaurant and sight-seeing
suggestions. One of her suggestions was
to visit the town of Charlevoix. Many of
the structures in this town are made of stones and boulders that lined the
shoreline of Lake Michigan. A Charlevoix
native, Earl Young, built these structures, many of which look like mushrooms.
In addition to seeing these houses, our hostess also
mentioned that we could see a stone fireplace made by Earl Young in a restaurant
that overlooked the river where there was a drawbridge. We found the Weathervane Restaurant and had
the best lunch there. During lunch, we
saw the drawbridge go up twice for several large yachts and very tall sailboats. What a wonderful treat!
Mackinac Island: This was one of my top bucket list
places! I have wanted to go to this
place for years. There are very few
places left in the U.S. where there are no automobiles or chain stores. We had to leave our car on the mainland and
take a ferry to Mackinac Island. To get
around, our only options were by foot, bicycle and horse & carriage. We took a horse & carriage “taxi” to the
Grand Hotel and sat in rocking chairs on the longest porch in the world. We listened to a lecture by a local historian
about the films made on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel. We also took a horse & carriage tour to
other parts of the Island which is primarily a state park. We learned a bit of Revolutionary history at
Fort Mackinac and ate lots and lots of fudge!
Mackinac Island exceeded all expectations.
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| Grand Hotel, Mackinc Island |
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| Arch Rock, Mackinac Island |
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| FUDGE! |
Frankenmuth: What?
Where? Why?
Frankenmuth is a small village not far from Mackinaw City
that allowed us to wash clothes and re-pack our luggage. This place was suggested to us by a friend
from our church because of the Lutheran church there and the strong Lutheran
heritage of the town. The church even
has one service a month in German! Many
of the town businesses have Bavarian architecture, making this a charming place
to visit. Additionally, Frankenmuth has Bronner’s Christmas
Wonderland, the largest Christmas store in the world!
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| St. Lorenz Lutheran Church |
Detroit: Again, why?
Motown and Henry Ford of course!
I’m told that Detroit is not often a vacation destination;
however, it is certainly worth the stop to take a tour of the Motown Museum
and the Henry Ford Museum.
The Motown Museum is connected to the home of Motown –
Hitsville, USA. The tour is worth the
trip to Detroit alone – what a treat to be in the actual studio where the Miracles,
Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes as well as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder got
their start! I was impressed to learn
how Berry Gordy was able to use what he learned when working at the Ford
factory to “roll-out” star after star.
Speaking of the Ford Motor Company, we toured the Ford Rouge
Factory where we were able to walk around the factory and see Ford 150 trucks
being assembled, piece by piece! No
pictures were allowed within the factory, so here’s one of my favorite cars
that was in the Henry Ford Museum.
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| 1956 Ford Thunderbird |
Next stop – OHIO!
