Nice park in Manistee
Manistee's North Pier Light and Catwalk
I think it needs a bath!
The catwalk out to the light
The next stop was at Ludington's North Breakwater Light. There was another nice park with a playground, picnic areas and boat ramp. There are so many nice parks and water areas in Michigan and most of them are so clean.
Ludington's North Breakwater Light
I finally decided I just had to get in Lake Michigan!
It was really cold!! It was pretty far south from where
we had seen most people swimming.
We also made a stop at the Mason County Courthouse in Ludington. We saw a lot of neat courthouses this trip too.
Mason County Courthouse
Heading on south, we came to the Silver Lake Dunes. They aren't as big as some we've seen but are considered some of the bigger ones on Lake Michigan. People were allowed to drive on about one third of the dunes. One third is set aside for hiking and the other third is leased to a company who will take you for a ride on the dunes. I hate to see the dunes being destroyed by any kind of vehicle but, that's the way it is there.
Silver Lake Dunes
There were 3 lakes we drove by - Silver Lake, Pentwater Lake and White Lake. I'm not sure which one this is but the houses were so close to the water. There were lots of "interesting" houses too.
So close to the lake!
Interesting shutters on this one
Nice stained glass window
Then we made it to the White River Light Station. It was sort of in a residential area.
White River Light Light Station
Next up was Grand Rapids to the Gerald Ford Museum and a couple other stops. It was a good place to spend the night though. The Grand River that runs through Grand Rapids has a dam built on it but we're not sure why there is a dam there. But, the dam prevents migratory fish such as salmon and steelhead from moving up and down the river. So, they built a fish ladder on one side of the river. It is a series of stair-step concrete pools that has been constructed to allow these fish to bypass the dam on their journey upstream. We watched for a long time but never did see any fish. It was a little early in the season for them. There were some fishermen fishing in the river near the dam. What I thought was neat was that there was a picnic table chained to some rocks in the river that gave the guys a place to work on their tackle or whatever. Great idea!
Fish Ladder
Fishermen - see the white picnic table?
We got to the Gerald Ford Museum early the next morning. The grounds are beautiful! The museum was also very interesting. It was real well done and we both really enjoyed it. They also had a special exhibit of stories and photos from 9/11. Some of the photos I hadn't seen before.
Leading up to the burial site
Burial site for Gerald and Betty Ford
The bronze statue of Ford was well done.
There were beautiful flowers all over the grounds.
This section of the original Berlin Wall was a gift to the
American people. It was donated to the Ford Museum
on its 10th anniversary and dedicated by
President Ford on Sept 6, 1991.
A replica of Ford's Cabinet Room in the White House.
We watched some of the interactive videos in here.
We passed this place on our way out of town.
Sure am glad we didn't have to go up all those
steps!
Off again...this time to Holland, MI. We went to the Visitors Center first for information and then lunch at New Holland Brewing Pub. We had some really good food and it was almost too cool to be sitting on the patio! After lunch we walked around downtown for awhile. The buildings are sort of Dutch looking. The sidewalks and streets in the downtown area have heated coils under them to melt the snow in the winter.
These elephant ears were huge!
There are heated coils under the sidewalk.
This building was built as a grand hotel is now a
senior living residence.
One of Holland's oldest surviving buildings is
actually fireproof! It originally housed the fire
station on the first floor and City Hall on top.
I loved this! The statues are of 3 musicians and 2 children
singing. It is in a park-like setting with benches all
around. Music is piped all around the area.
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Some of the buildings downtown
An 1892 Clock Tower - formerly housed a bank
Love this fire-pit on the downtown streets!
Cozy!!
We visited Windmill Island Gardens. It was set up like a Dutch town and had a windmill from about 1760 that had been brought over from the Netherlands. Dutch law prohibits the sale of windmills, since they are now considered national monuments. But, the people of HOLLAND, MI convinced the Dutch that they needed a windmill in their town. The brick tower for the windmill was built and the rest of the windmill was shipped here. The purpose of this mill is to make flour and it is a working windmill. (When we were in the Netherlands in 2007, we toured a windmill that made peanut oil.) The De Zwaan was the last windmill to leave the Netherlands. The miller there is the only Dutch-certified miller in the United States. The windmills are really big. The blades are as high as a 12-story building. We got to tour the first 4 floors and walk out on the top where the blades are.
Our tour guide explaining how they move the
blades to another direction
I waited awhile for this guy to open his wings!
Lots of beautiful flowers
One of the buildings on the property
More of the buildings
Gift shop
Antique Dutch carousel
We stopped by DeKlomp Wooden Shoe and Delft Factory and we disappointed. We were hoping to see someone making the wooden shoes but he was out. We did see a woman painting some of the delftware (the blue and white Dutch pottery).
Some of the wooden shoes for sale
Our last stop here was at Holland State Park at the Big Red Lighthouse in Holland Harbor. You have to pay to park at all the state parks in Michigan but I just wanted a picture of the light house so I just drove up close, took the picture and left. Conrad wasn't real happy with me but I did it anyway!
Our last stop in Michigan was St Joseph. My friend, Veronica, had seen something about it on one of the morning shows and told me we should add it to our list of things to see. It was a beautiful town and a rainy morning. We found the lighthouse there but it was being repainted so had it's raincoat on. Even the trail to the lighthouse was closed so this is the only picture we could get.
St Joseph North Pier Lighthouse with its raincoat on
I found these 2 pictures online that show what it's supposed to look like. Wish we could have seen it.
A few more pictures from St Joseph. I sure wish the sun had been shining.
A few of the streets were brick.
St Joseph Harbor
Houses near the lighthouse
This was our last stop in Michigan. A little bit of trivia. In Holland, MI, left turns are illegal. If you wanted to go left at an intersection, you had to turn right and take the next "cut through" place and do a U-turn. It was really weird and hard on folks like us who didn't know where they were going anyway! Also, all intersections in the state have a mercury vapor light hanging over it. It made it really nice when driving at night (which we really didn't do).
Well, on to the next adventure!
No stops here. Just cut through the northwest corner.
Back in Illinois and on to Route 66!
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