We left St Clair RV Resort at 10:30 on Thursday, September 23 with Acey’s mileage at 77,337.5 and Thor had 92,637 miles. This was one of the few times we had to pack up and move on a rainy day. We stopped for fuel and made lunch – and arrived at Steamboat Park Campground in Jenison, MI just after 3pm. We will be here for a week. After we got settled in, we found there was a brewery not too far from the park; Osgood Brewing – so we had a pint or two. So many choices on tap!
There are LOTS of breweries in this area; Grand Rapids is loaded with them! We surely will not be able to visit all of them during our stay, but will give it a go!
On Saturday, the rain was finally out of the forecast! After lunch we went on a bike ride on the Fred Meijer Millennium Park Trail in Walker, MI.
We rode over this trestle across the Grand River.
It was breezy and the trail was a bit hilly – we rode a total of 10.4 miles.
After a stop back at Acey for showers, we visited a couple of breweries; we were not too impressed with Greyline Brewing, but enjoyed some tasty brews at Mitten Brewing. The brewery is in a building that used to be a firehouse!
They had a really nice menu of artesian pizzas – and we may have to try pizza if we come back! The atmosphere was lively; they were playing music from the 70’s and the wait staff occassionally got together and sang/danced along for a few bars… fun!
Sunday, as usual, we watched the Stephen’s Valley Church worship service – from last week, since the current service is not uploaded until later on Sunday – and then we Zoomed with our Sunday School class. After lunch, we went for a 2-hour cruise on the Grand River on the Grand Lady Riverboat.
It was a beautiful afternoon; a bit on the cool side and clear. We sat on the upper deck, by the paddlewheel. There are twin paddlewheels – the 2 engines powering them allow them to reverse the wheels independently to help maneuver the boat.
We saw several turtles sunning on logs along the river, a blue heron flew overhead and we saw a few cranes and this egret
You can read more about the Grand Lady here!
On the way back, we spotted Acey in the campground!
On Monday, we rode on the Kent Trail – there are a LOT of bike trails in this area.
This rail-to-trail route was well maintained and not too busy today.
We rode 12.8 miles today. Later, we went to Founders Brewing – one of the largest craft breweries, and a “must stop” when in Grand Rapids. We sampled several brews only available at the brewery – and enjoyed our visit!
On Tuesday, we visited Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. The 158 acre park includes botanical gardens, art museum and outdoor sculpture park. Our first stop was The Earl and Donnalee Holton Arid Garden which had lots of cacti and other plants that thrive in dry environments. Here’s a little peek at the huge Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory
Beautiful orchids
We spent the rest of our time outside. The American Horse was quite large!
Read here to find out how Leonardo da Vinci’s dream to create this giant bronze horse took 500 years to become a reality! The horse is 24 feet tall at the highest point and weighs 15 tons!
There is a large Japanese Garden in and around the Lena Meijer Pond
Leaving the Japanese Garden, this sculpture was in the pond. The squares are chrome, but look blue – the brilliant blue sky and still water reflected on the chrome!
The next section was Michigan’s Farm Garden. This little girl is watering the flowers. There were mums EVERYWHERE!
Notice the cat getting a squirt in its mouth!
Nubian goats
We found ourselves on the Frey Boardwalk – into the wetlands – greeted by these guys
We thought the egrets may be statues – but sure enough, they were alive and moving about!
And turtles!
We found dragons in the Children’s Garden
This looks like its straight out of the Jungle Book but no mention of Mowgli or Baloo…
After lunch, we headed over to the Sculpture Park
This is an extremely large neuron! Neurons are nerve cells that send and that receive electrical signals in the body…
Across this pond, we could see the autumn colors starting to show!
This beautiful waterfall flowed into a pond with several large koi swimming about.
This was another very large sculpture!
This one made us think about Linda’s brother Rob and his macaw, Marlin
Here’s Marlin – he also screams color – and “sits on Rob’s heart”!
These people are formed with letters – interesting!
You can learn more about the park here. After visiting the gardens, we stopped off at Brewery Vivant – a brewery set in a former funeral home – that’s different!
We enjoyed sampling several of their tasty brews and headed back to Acey for dinner.
Wednesday we rode on the Musketawa Trail – a paved rail-to-trail.
Though the trail is paved, it could use some maintenance – lots of cracks, potholes, ruts and uneven surfaces, but quite manageable. The trail must be open all year as the sign indicated some winter activity.
It was another great day to be out getting some exercise!
We packed our lunch – so we rode out till we found a picnic table and rode back – 21.7 miles today! Afterwards we ran a few errands and stopped at Perrin Brewing. We enjoyed their offerings.
As we were preparing to leave on Thursday morning, the Grand Lady was passing by – not a sight you see every day!
We are heading back to Buchanan today.
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Please be sure to comment – at least every now and then – to let us know you are reading the blog and keeping up with our adventures. Thanks for stopping by!
That was some horse! Enjoyed the photos so much. Like that you found so many sculptures outdoors.
Yes – the horse was so BIG!! The park was also quite large – we enjoyed walking around and seeing so much of it – but I guess we missed several displays indoors.
I spent a lot of time in Grand rapids for work but only got to see conference rooms and restaurants and hotels. Looks like you found some real highlights of the city. I got to see that DaVinci horse someday!
That horse is QUITE impressive – 24′ tall! We were glad we had such a beautiful day to wander around Meijer Gardens!
Great photos of the Gardens and Sculpture Park. The engineering it took to get that horse sculpture to balance on 2 legs instead of 4 was remarkable. But that animal sculptures in a natural habitat were delightful.
I agree! That horse was so BIG! I loved the story of how it was designed by DaVinci and finally was made so many years later.