Michigan Seems Like a Dream to Me Now

I interrupt the California road trip report already in progress to recount my Labor Day weekend jaunt to Michigan. It started out as an overnighter to see the Oddball Comedy and Curiosity Festival in Clarkston but soon turned into a full-fledged girls road trip (you know the girls: my mom, my niece, me). I will discuss the festival in a separate post.

Day 1: We drove up the middle of Indiana to Michigan (listening to a lot of Jim Gaffigan along the way, which would explain our obsession with talking about bacon the whole weekend), making our first stop in Saugatuck. My niece and I were looking forward to an adventure with Saugatuck Dune Rides, and we were not disappointed.

We jumped in the back seat of Schooner 8 and were soon sliding around in our seats as the schooner glided over the sand. And some of the sand glided over us. We giggled at the ridiculous road signs along the route. We doubted about 75 percent of what the guide told us. We groaned at the corny jokes. We were in awe of the view from the highest dune. It was a blast, and something I would highly recommend. It wasn’t a heart-stopping thrill ride, but it was a little jerky and bouncy. Let’s just say there were a few old people on the schooner with us (my mom was not one of them), and they seemed OK at the end.

Distant view of Lake Michigan from the top of the highest dune.

Someone was holding on tightly. Don’t let go!

While we were being jerked around on the dunes, my mom scheduled a dinner cruise on the Holland Princess. This was a little pricey in my opinion, but it was a nice, family run business, so I guess we didn’t mind forking over $50 per person. OK, I minded a little bit, but it was fun. The boat is a Victorian-style paddle wheeler. It was pretty small. It was supposed to paddle around Lake Macatawa and Lake Michigan and cruise past the Big Red lighthouse, but a storm brewed up while we were out, so we couldn’t go to Lake Michigan. Bummer. The food was good: a buffet with barbecued chicken and fried shrimp with various sides and dessert thawed from a box.  I probably wouldn’t do it again, but we enjoyed it.

Cute little Princess

During the storm, I played with the settings on my camera.

It cleared up near the end of the cruise, and we got to see this!

We weren’t ready to call it a night yet, so we headed to…Holland State Park? Holland Beach? The beach with the Big Red lighthouse we should have passed on the cruise. We were rewarded with a stunning sky.

Ahh-mazing

Of course, we stayed at a Hampton Inn in Holland. It was really nice. Actually, we all thought it was one of the nicest Hamptons we’ve stayed in. That’s saying a lot for us, the Hampton Groupies.

Day 2: We slept in and didn’t leave our favorite Hampton until about 11:00. We had talked about going back to Saugatuck to do the chain ferry and sweat our way to the top of Mt. Baldhead. First, though, we wanted to check out Holland.

Our first stop was to turn around in the driveway of the Windmill Park or whatever it was called. We didn’t really want to pay a fee to go in. My mom said that she had been to Holland many years ago and that we could see a windmill from somewhere and not have to pay. We found a park called Window on the Water or something like that, and sure enough, you could see a windmill off in the distance. Cool. A very nice lady chatted with us under a gazebo, and it turns out she lived right next door to the park. She let us take pictures from her side yard, where she had a beautiful view of a marsh, and of course, a windmill. She told us how she and her husband met in Holland, had lived in several different places over the years, and decided to retire to Holland since it was so special to them. Very sweet.

The nice lady who let us take a photo from her yard told us we should check out the Farmers’ Market, so we headed there. We didn’t buy any produce (I wanted to, but it didn’t make sense to cart it around in the car for a few more days), but we did nab some kettle corn and a lawn stake. Not bad.

Since we were in shopping mode, we spent a lot of time in the shops of Holland, so the chain ferry and Mt. Baldy will have to wait for another trip! We ate at the Windmill Restaurant (we ordered just soup or salad…and pie) and then headed for our next destination: Grand Rapids.

Of course we had to visit the grave and museum for Michigan’s only president, the, ahem, great Gerald Ford. The museum was really well done and did give a feel for the daunting task Ford had of cleaning up after Watergate. I loved seeing all of the 70s memorabilia, too. I do wish the museum would have shown a blooper reel of Ford tripping and falling, but I guess we can’t hope for everything.

The park next to the museum was teeming with homeless people, and there was this random union-labor themed fountain that had the hugest puddle of puke I had ever seen next to it. I shudder to think about it. Also, we saw a couple of groups that may have been celebrating Quinceañeras, or something like that. Such a variety of sights, sounds, and (ugh) smells.

My mom refused to believe that the Fords were actually buried here. Maybe they are in a standing position?

Next we drove to Auburn Hills, where we stayed in a Hilton Suites hotel. I know, right? But, the deal was too good to pass up, and we had a really roomy suite. Sorry Hampton!

Maybe the hotel was so cheap because it was next to the depressing, deserted Silverdome.

We went to see The Butler and finally made it to bed about 1:00 a.m.

Day 3: Another late start today. I ran over to Tim Horton’s (why don’t we have these in Cincinnati????) to get some donuts, and we hit the road around 10:30 for Frankenmuth. Our main activity was eating. Hahahahaha. We had pretty delicious chicken and fish at Zehnder’s. We also shopped at the largest Christmas store IN THE WORLD. It was pretty big. We found a stand selling Michigan cherries and bought a pint. And that was pretty much it for Frankenmuth. It was a very cute town, but I’m not sure I would make a special trip to see it.

I love that chicken topiary. Also, I loved eating the famous Frankenmuth chicken dinner.

Nothing says Christmas like BACON!

Day 4: Not too much on the agenda today but the drive home. We made one stop at the Warren G. Harding memorial in Marion, OH. We also sat on the front porch of Harding’s home. It was closed for Labor Day, but we did look longingly inside and decided we could still mark it off the list of presidential sites to visit.

My mom had no trouble believing Mr. and Mrs. Harding’s remains were here.