Get-Away

Last week, Mom & Dad Loucks watched the kids for us while Dan and I took a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Monday and Tuesday of our trip, we spent on our own, checking out the city and the surrounding area. We drove out to Saugatuck near Lake Michigan on Monday afternoon. The weather was beautiful, so we sat outside to eat our lunch and then walked around afterward, checking out all the little artsy stores. Once we had our fill of that, we drove a few more miles to Saugatuck Dunes State Park.

After what seemed like at least two miles of hiking through sand and pine trees, we finally were in sight of Lake Michigan. The dunes were very impressive!

The sand was pristine, and although the water was extremely cold, we dipped our toes in before walking a ways on the beach.

On the road back to Grand Rapids, we passed Holland, Michigan and stopped there briefly to view the tulips in town for their annual Tulip Time.

Dan, who's part Dutch, felt right at home.

We didn't stay long, but the tulips we saw were beautiful!

On Tuesday, after spending some time shopping in the morning, we went to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The Bodies Revealed display was one exhibit we were really interested to see.

We explored another floor of the museum then walked a few blocks away to enjoy a fancy Italian dinner eaten outside. Then we headed back to the museum to see a few more things before they closed.

While we were eating dinner, we watched a sound crew setting up on a stage across the street from the restaurant we were at. Soon, there was a small crowd there, learning dance steps from an instructor.

When we came back an hour later, the crowd was much larger. We found out that the Grand Rapids Original Swing Society (G.R.O.S.S.) holds these swing dance times downtown at Rosa Parks Circle every Tuesday throughout the summer. We happened to be there for the first swing time of the year.

We people-watched for the next couple of hours until the swing dancing ending around 10pm. It was so much fun to watch!

Not all of the dances were swing, and it was really neat to see the "flash-mob" type dances as well!