Holland & Grand Rapids, MI

TUE., AUG 15 thru MON., AUG 21, 2023

We traveled 100 miles south and arrived at Steamboat Park Campground in Jenison, MI on Tues., Aug 15th (2023). Love this campground… quiet, spacious sites, and beautiful views of the Grand River. There’s even a steamboat that passes right in front of the campground. How cool! We’re looking forward to cruising on her some time during our stay! C&J are away for a few days so I’m taking care of the cute, Miss Gigi. 

On Wednesday, Aug 16, (2023) Gary & I visited the town of Holland, Michigan. As the name implies, the town is exceedingly Dutch! Our first stop was Windmill Island Gardens featuring all things Dutch including a 250-year old windmill in addition to beautiful gardens. The former Head Gardner at Mackinac Island’s Grand Hotel planned the island’s gardens. 

In the Netherlands, windmills were named primarily for practical reasons. As there were many windmills, governments in the 17th century decided to name them to avoid confusion. Over time, windmills became iconic symbols of Dutch heritage and culture, further solidifying the practice of giving them names. The name of the 250-year old windmill at the gardens is called “DeZwann” (translation The Swan). It has the unique status of being the United States’ only authentic, working Dutch windmill, as well as the last windmill to leave the Netherlands. It was originally built in 1761 but had been damaged during WW II and had deteriorated. Dutch officials allowed its sale to the city of Holland but required that a Dutch millwright supervise its relocation and restoration. The dismantling and moving of DeZwann happened in 1964. Approximately 7,000 pieces were shipped. It took 6 months for the Dutch millwright to put it back together on a new brick base. The brick base was necessary to catch the winds off Lake Michigan. In the Netherlands, this was accomplished by siting the mill on a mound. 

The views were amazing from the deck on the 5th floor. All working parts have been restored inside the windmill, and now local grain can be milled into flour.

Besides DeZwann other notables in the gardens include:

• A drawbridge, which is a replica of one in Arnhem, Netherlands that dates back to 1358. Known as a “double drawbridge,” the bridgeman would have opened it by utilizing a system of counterbalances. Tills were collected from pedestrians crossing the bridge as well as boats passing thru.
• “The Four Columns” was a well-loved and famous organ played on the streets of Amsterdam. Built in 1928, it was given to the city of Holland, Michigan in gratitude for the role the U.S. played in liberating Netherlands during WW II.
• In the spring 100,000 tulips blanket the lawns. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the right time of year for us to witness that. 
• The Dutch carousel on display was almost 100 years old. It was formerly a carnival ride in the Netherlands.
• There was a replica of a “Posthouse” that stands in Anholt, Netherlands. The original structure dates back to the 14th century and served as a waystation/inn on a stagecoach route. This one had exhibits inside.

Afterwards we had a picnic lunch at Holland State Park on the shores of Lake Michigan and saw “Big Red.” It’s Michigan’s most photographed lighthouse and is affectionately known as “Big Red” although the official name is Holland Harbor Lighthouse. Built in 1872, it has a gabled roof that reflects the Dutch influence in the area.

Then we visited Tunnel Park where you enter the beach by walking thru a tunnel beneath a sand dune. Very cool! 

We plan on visiting the historic district of Holland later this week. This is all rather fitting since later this month Gary & I will be visiting the city of Amsterdam before setting sail on a British Isles Cruise. (The cruise was canceled twice before due to Covid! Hopefully third time is the charm.) We’re getting a little Dutch charm precursor. 

On Thursday, Aug. 17 (2023), we visited the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. Our 38th President was the only one to become U.S. president without winning an election for president or VP, and he lost his bid for re-election. A main reason for his loss was his pardoning of Nixon. Since that time many historians and politicians, including Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, think pardoning Nixon was the right thing to move the country forward. As noted by Tip O’Neill: “God has been good to America. Especially during difficult times. At the time of the Civil War, he gave us Abraham Lincoln. And at the time of Watergate, he gave us Gerald Ford – the right man at the right time who was able to put our nation back together again.” 

Ford did what he thought was best despite the consequences to his political career. Perhaps because of that unpopular pardon, Ford had two assassination attempts on his life while President.

As with all Presidential libraries, there was an Oval Office to view. Why is it oval? It dates back to President Washington building a semi-circular shaped room in his Philadelphia home as his office and to host guests. The distinctive shape became a symbolic means of dramatizing the importance of the office and created a space conducive to holding formal receptions.

Fun fact: Brezhnev and Ford hit it off at their meeting in Russia. When it was time for Ford to leave, he saw Brezhnev eyeing the wolf skin coat he was wearing, which a friend gave him for the trip. Ford gave Brezhnev the coat then wondered how he’d explain it to his friend in the US.

We’ve had the pleasure of visiting about 5 Presidential Museums/Libraries and while some have a Cabinet Room, none had the setup that they had here. The chairs all had labels of who sat where, and a monitor explained how cabinet meetings worked.

In his younger years, Ford was an Eagle Scout and spent a summer on Mackinaw Island volunteering at the Fort that we just visited a few weeks ago. He was born Leslie Lynch King Jr, his absentee father’s name, but adopted his beloved step dad’s name instead.

Ford was voted MVP for the University of Michigan football team and even could have signed professionally with the Green Bay Packers as a Center for $110 per game but opted for law school instead.

A month after Ford became President, Mrs. Ford was diagnosed with breast cancer during an impromptu, unscheduled medical exam. Her openness with her diagnosis to the American people is credited with encouraging thousands of women to get breast exams and saving countless lives. She also suffered with a pinched nerve for years and used pain killers. That mixed with social drinking caused her to have a serious chemical dependency. A year after leaving the White House, her family and doctors did an intervention. Four years later she founded The Betty Ford Clinic. Once again she’s credited with saving lives by going public with her struggle for sobriety.

To round out the day we visited an Apple Store where I had a new battery installed in my iPhone. And we had dinner at Brann’s Steakhouse & Grill in Jenison MI… all you can eat ribs on Thursday night. We brought home enough ribs for another meal. Yum.

On Friday, Aug. 18th (2023) we headed to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. It opened in 1995 after 13 years of planning and fundraising. It’s a whopping 158 acres.  

Fred Meijer is the son of the founder of Meijer grocery stores. Fred pioneered the first “supercenter,” selling groceries and a wide variety of other merch under one roof. He loved sculpture and his wife loved gardens. When approached by local individuals, he was happy to donate land and money to this project. Today 1,000 volunteers donate 85,000 hours of service every year to augment the 300 employees. It is considered “one of the finest Modern and Contemporary sculpture collections in the world.” It is huge and overwhelming! One of the best gardens/outdoor sculpture parks that we’ve visited! 

A few of our favorite works:

• A large stone arch with a keystone on top and held together with friction. No cement, no glue, no nothing. Amazing! We’ve been fortunate to witness this type of construction elsewhere in old forts.
• A bronze horse made to look like driftwood.
• A sculpture made completely from type fonts. It’s meant to encourage conversation. 
• Another sculpture about Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass during Nazism. 

The property also has an amphitheater for performances. Country star Maren Morris was slated to be performing the evening we visited. We heard her doing a sound check in the afternoon. Beautiful voice. People were lining up early. 2500 folks were expected.

On Saturday, Aug. 19th (2023), Gary & I did a 2-hour Riverboat cruise on the Grand River. We caught it at Steamboat Park where we’re camping in Jenison, MI. We saw lots of turtles, a Great Blue Heron, some very nice homes, a helicopter taking off nearby, and we even passed by our tiny homes on the way back to the dock. It was relaxing if not terribly exciting… but very convenient!

By Monday, Aug. 21st, (2023) Cheryl & Joe had returned to the campground and the pod visited historic downtown Holland. One of our favorite historic buildings was the Tower Clock. Originally it was the Holland City State Bank. Built in 1892 it’s made of locally quarried Waverly Stone in a “Victorian Romanesque design.” The building and clock were thoroughly renovated in the mid 1980s. 

Downtown is also home to the Wizard of Oz Sculpture Garden. In 1899 L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, vacationed in a cottage near downtown Holland. Since the book was published in 1900, it’s believed that parts of it were written while he summered in this area. There was a living mosaic on display depicting the cover of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It had a steel base covered with 6,000 living plants. During the winter, the “book” or living mosaic is stored in the City’s greenhouse and in the spring it’s put back on display. There were 7 life-sized bronze sculptures in front of the library that were sculpted from the original renderings created by W.W. Denslow, illustrator of the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” The bronze sculptures featured Dorothy & Toto, the Wicked Witch, the Tin Man, a Munchkin, the Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, and a Fighting Tree with a Flying Monkey perched on a branch. So cool! 

There were also lots of flowers blooming in historic downtown Holland, and there was Kollen Park. It reminded me of Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH. Kollen Park is an outdoor concert venue with views of Lake Macatawa instead of views of Portsmouth’s Piscataqua River. We also checked out the waterfront and the Heinz Waterfront Walkway… not-so-coincidentally The Heinz (pickle) plant is nearby. 

Afterwards we headed to Holland State Park and lunch at the beach along the shores of Lake Michigan. Joe and I got into the chilly water, which felt great once you got used to it. The soft sand felt wonderful between my toes. It was a great way to end our stay in this area!

A Great Lakes Fun Fact: The five Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario and their connecting channels) form the largest fresh surface water system on earth. Covering more than 94,000 square miles, these freshwater seas hold an estimated 6 quadrillion gallons of water. To put this into perspective, the Great Lakes cover more space than the combined areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. Spread evenly over the lower 48 states, the lakes’ water would be over 9 feet deep.

One last fun fact: Lake Michigan with its 1,638 miles of shoreline, is the only Great Lake to lie completely within the United States. The other Great Lakes are shared with Canada. 

Tomorrow we move on to New Hudson, Michigan… outside of Detroit.