West Michigan Stay-Cation ’11 – Downtown Grand Rapids

Last Friday Dave and I dropped the boys off at Grandma’s house and drove up to Grand Rapids for some grown-up time.

I love Grand Rapids. There’s so much to do in this modern, hip city. We headed downtown, and hit Schuler Books and Music first. Schuler, a long time Grand Rapids fixture, was selling books and serving coffee way before Barnes and Noble came to town.

Now you might think spending the morning browsing at a book store isn’t very exciting. Oh, but it is when you usually spend your time at the bookstore in the children’s section going, “No! Put that down! No, we’re not buying that! No! Be quiet! Stop climbing that shelf!”

We actually were able to look at books that didn’t have pictures in them. It was amazing. I forgot what a book that’s more than 15 pages long looks like.

There’s a lot of cool stuff for sale at Schuler besides books. Their merchandise buyer clearly has a sense of humor. I couldn’t resist taking pictures.

How about this display paying homage to bacon. Who doesn’t love bacon?

This file folder is right up my procrastinating alley.

And this satirical book about Rachael Ray. I didn’t get a very good picture. It’s titled Every Freaking Day with Rachael Ray. Yumo!

Did I mention I’m not a fan? Did you see? It says it has 10,081 recipes in it? *Snort!*

After the bookstore we went over the Grand Rapids Art Museum. Housed in a brand new ultra-chic building the GRAM has an excellent permanent collection, as well as incredible visiting exhibitions. What I really love about the GRAM is that it’s so quiet, so serene. So clean and clutter free. Nothing like my house with little boys. I don’t have any photos of the art museum. For the most part they frown on you taking pictures, so I kept my camera in my purse.

Here I am outside the GRAM in front of Rosa Parks Circle with the city of G.R. behind me. In the winter it’s an Ice rink. I mean that literally. People ice skate there, but it was a lovely, warm summer day last Friday.

We finished up the morning with lunch at Cinco de Mayo, one the many fantastic restaurants in downtown G.R.

We didn’t have time to do this, but I thought it was so cool.

I found this tag with a QR code on it at Schuler. Scan the code with your smart phone, and it will take you on a historical tour of Grand Rapids. Genius! I really want to go back another day, and try this.

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a — giant pig?

Yep. Meet Steam Pig. Cool, huh? It was one of the entries in Art Prize last year. Art Prize is a big art contest/festival held in Grand Rapids in the fall. I assume this is still there, because no one knows what to do with it. I heard it was for sale. I’d buy it, and put in my yard just to make the neighbors talk if I could. I kind of hope it stays put. I’ll miss it when it’s gone.

It was a fun morning in G.R., but we barely scratched the surface of all the things to do and see there.

We’re stay-cationing in West Michigan all summer long. It’s a great place to visit. When it’s not snowing. Come back and see where we go next week!

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