All I wish is to be back in Michigan again. It’s not my biggest wish actually, but it seemed to be a great intro quote. I had hoped that you would like the rhyme scheme.
Would you believe it’s already Day Two? I mean, I’m exhausted by just typing this. I couldn’t imagine how you feel in reading this. So occasionally I’ll add even more silly jokes just to keep you on your toes.
We started this morning with a quick tour around downtown Grand Rapids. (Here’s your first silly joke.) We learned that Grand Rapids is named after the rapids located on Grand River. They were not so original with their naming. The town became pretty popular with furniture makers. When the loggers sent the logs down the river, they’d stop here and make the lovely furniture. Sometimes they’d run out and see who can carve a desk before the log floated away. Only kidding on the last part, but I did promise some silly jokes.
While touring around, we passed two old houses, which we were destined, to tour. At this point it was a bit of an emotional struggle, but not because the houses weren’t nice, they seemed rather inviting and cute. In fact, Margherita was in her glory, and had already mentally spent a good portion of the budget from all of the decorating ideas that she saw before we even pulled into the driveway. It’s just that we’ve seen a total of a few hundred houses in the past 12 months and every time we see one it seems to cost me more money. "Honey, wouldn’t that dining room set look nice in our house?"
The first house that we saw was the Meyer-May house, a Frank Lloyd Wright house done in the typical Frank Lloyd Wright fashion of complete horizontals. This was the type of home that we could move into. We loved it, but that’s pretty non-descriptive so I’ll say more. With it’s horizontal lines and windows it left us with a spacious feeling that felt homey as opposed to most old homes that we’ve visited which felt museum-y. Fortunately, it’s all one of a kind work and Frank Lloyd Wright is dead so we can’t spend the budget on this.
We also learned that Frank Lloyd Wright was rebelling against the Victorian feel of embellishment and saw the Voight Victorian Home. The guide said that the Victorians felt, "If there’s a way to embellish it, do it, and do it twice". He didn’t lie. To me, it was as if a large giant, something along the lines of the Jolly Green Giant inhaled everything in the house and then regurgitated it back. I decided that after I wrote a metaphor like that I didn’t like Victorian houses. Rob in the group said, "It’s all original" which was pretty interesting to note as most houses are old but, the materials inside are not original to the house. However, to me it felt like a haunted house, but hey, we all have different tastes.
It was time for lunch and we headed over to Sanchez. Sanchez is a Tapas restaurant. Tapas are little portions and you essentially fight with your table companions in hopes of getting a piece of food that was untouched by your dining companion’s hands. I bribed the waiter to start a few dishes on my end of the table first as I didn’t have the energy to fight for my untouched food. The style of food here has a Nuevo Latino feel and most of the dishes were large enough that the fights over food didn’t get too vast. Oh yeah, and the food was good too.
From lunch we had a bit of a walking tour downtown where we learned that the downtown area has an entire steam system to assist in melting the snow for a couple of blocks in any direction. The steam comes from the sewer system. I’m sure that the guide must have said other interesting things about Grand Rapids, but come on... they have fully melted snow in the winter, with steam made from left over sh... [Margherita’s note: I had to remove Dominick’s portion of the story here as it got a bit graphic involving sewage systems, melted snow and very detailed other metaphors. He went on for three pages about it] ...so anyway, that pretty much finishes my dissertation on melting snow with sewage, but I should get back to my story. I hope you enjoyed the joke about the tangerine, the sewage system, Grand Rapids winters and the Yiddish speaking dentist, unless Margherita removed it.
Further on in our walking tour we jumped into the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which was very proud of the fact that they were moving into a bigger building. The more that they asked about their current building, the more they told us how the newer building will be attached to the skating rink and was quite lovely. I said that you should never praise the newest child so lovingly or the older children will get jealous, but she kept beating the bastard child of the old building. I walked away and was distracted by local artist, Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, whose works of Michigan landscapes and clouds showed an incredible sense of depth and emotion. Considering I rarely mention people’s full names you can imagine how much of a distraction this was.
But what could top the Art Gallery? Parachuting? Wrestling Lions? Swimming in the rapids of Grand Rapids? Or, dare I say it?
No, you couldn’t handle it...
Oh, fine, I’ll say it, the courthouse!
Yes, the courthouse.
No, I wasn’t arrested for preventing Margherita from inflating the Grand Rapids economy, but instead we learned that you can get a free view of the city from the 12th story. Yes, a free view of downtown and the ability to hear the latest crime scandals in Grand Rapids, all for one free price. You can also see their large sculptures, like the Calder, which they are very proud of.
By this time it was getting late and it was fortunately time for the BOB. The BOB is the most exciting thing to hit Grand Rapids since the rapids. While the name BOB might not sound exciting and might bring up imageries of a guy in jeans and a white t-shirt, the BOB is an entirely different animal. It stands for Big Old Building, where guys in jeans and white t-shirts stand around. Okay, that metaphor was funny but wasn’t accurate, as the place is very hip.
In the basement is the "Monkey Bar", which regrettable doesn’t have any monkeys, but has a dark, bar-ish feel. It gives the impression that they think monkeys are dark and brooding creatures. That’s where we had appetizers. They also have Bobarino’s pizza, Crush for Asian food, Gill’s Fish House, and Dr. Grin’s Comedy Club.
We had the appetizers in the Monkey Bar, as I looked around for monkeys and afterwards, we went to Judson’s steak. The steak was good, but I’m not going to mention that. I guess I did just now, but that’s not the point. I had the home made ale, which had me singing show tunes after one beer, and Margherita had the Crème Brulee for dessert which she was happy to report was the first one in Grand Rapids that had actual vanilla beans in it. This made her quite happy. My beer made me happy. I was just sitting, sipping my locally brewed ale... and I don’t really remember the rest. But the meal was very good... I’m just saying is all.
After dinner we went up to Dr. Grinn’s comedy club for a grin. The comedians gave us a grin, and then we burnt off the steak and dessert with dancing at Crush. Overall, it’s a great, affordable date. You choose where you want to eat, pay five bucks to get into the clubs and you’re set. In Time Square I would have to pay 30 bucks and that’s just to park.
Margherita asked over dessert, "Where is the Great Lake that I’ve waited my whole life to see?"
Where is this lake anyway? They’ve distracted us with all of this other stuff. That is what we were here for, but we’ve not seen it yet. Fortunately, tomorrow we’re seeing the lake.
