Holland of the Great Lakes

As we're gearing up for another geocaching camping adventure, I finally uploaded my pictures from the last one (darn power outage!). TaGeez and I spent an enjoyable weekend in Holland, MI.

*Note: this post doesn't contain an GC codes - no spoilers. If you REALLY want to know which caches we are at, I'm sure you can figure it out.

Coleman tent with Dark Tent Technology

Friday night we arrived just in time for a glorious sunset on Lake Michigan at Holland State Park. We viewed it from Lake-level, but we had family view it from the top of the nearby sand dunes.

Holland is very well known for Big Red.

Ah, the next morning the rest of TaGeez's family decided to do their own thing, so we headed into downtown Holland. Along the road were some fabulous statues made from old automotive and marine equipment (traffic too crazy to snap pictures). The Centennial Park contained the new Wizard of Oz exhibit plus the first stops of the Sculptured Wherigo.

Holland, Michigan is quite famous for it's annual Tulip Festival, which occurs around the beginning of May each year. Being Holland, it naturally has a functioning windmill and Dutch Village. We found this great view of the windmill across the river while doing the Sculptured wherigo. 

The Sculptured wherigo takes you to nine sculptures around downtown Holland. It was a great way to explore the areas including Hope College, Centennial Park plus the shops & restaurants around downtown. Along the way we crossed paths with the New Holland Brewing, which was fabulous! Great atmosphere, good food, and the large front windows overlooked the busy sidewalks outside.

Another sunset on Lake Michigan. Michigan is blessed with amazing views along its amazing coastline.

After packing up our campsite, we said our goodbyes and headed to Grand Rapids. With time on our hands, we decided to spend they day enjoying the new Virtuals and the Grand Rapids Adventure & Exploration Lab caches. 

I'm a little conflicted between my loyalty of the Wherigo and the new Adventure Labs. Wherigos are tougher to create and often have glitches (sometimes causing half your party unable to participate). So you'd think I'd prefer Adventure Labs (which has their own iPhone app). However, it seems like the Wherigos can be more creative and mysterious -- Although I've completed 116 Adventure Labs, I've yet to see one that made me go WOW.  So far they've just taken me to some (kinda) interesting places.

Grand Rapids Public Museum

President Gerald R Ford final resting place

Gerald R Ford Presidential Library

  

May House - Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School House

Sundays were the right time to do these. Not too much muggle traffic (except for the MSU Marching Band and Sparty at the Atwood Brewery grand opening), and we were able to find parking at each stop. We LOVEd Grand Rapids!

Final stop before heading home was Donkey Taqueria off Wealthy Street in Grand Rapids. Recommended by ThreeInATree, it features Mexican street food in a converted gas station. The food was DELICIOUS!

Just east of DowntownOpens a New Window. Grand Rapids is a neighborhood encompassing four thriving business districts: East Fulton, East Hills, Eastown and Wealthy Street. This is the city's hippest destination, where an eclectic mix of specialty shops and galleries, restaurants, coffee houses and entertainment venues reflect the area's friendly, funky, fabulous character. It's an easy walk or quick drive between the four business districts, on streets lined by historic homes and leafy trees. [Experience Grand Rapids]

Wealthy Street was a haven for fascinating restaurants and shops. Stepping out of Donkey's and seeing all the choices - you wanted to spend all day eating up and down the street. Next time we go we're definitely trying out Jonny B'z next door. If you do the Virtual and/or Adventure Labs, you will be lost in food choices on this street. Highly recommended!

We had such a fabulous adventure right in our backyard!

Memorial Weekend: Smitten with the Mitten

Sunday arrived and ShelleyJean was in the mood for an adventure. TaGeez and I understood - we had the same itch the day before. Well, what do you want to do? She was in the mood to be Smitten with the Mitten!

This series was just published this weekend - find 14 geocaches to gather clues for #15 the Final. The series included Traditionals Multis, a Letterbox, and the Puzzle Final. This was an excellent excuse to geocache Grand Rapids - both ShelleyJean and TaGeez needed it for their maps.

Simply an amazing day with wildflowers, sunshine and white-tailed deer. There were also brambles, poison ivy, mosquitoes and possibly ticks. 

SwtM - Ishpenning G7346Q

Midway through we did make a slight detour - you can't pass up a Virtual and a webcam. School Spirit is one of three remaining webcams in Michigan. Go Green!

Scrapcat, TaGeez and ShelleyJean
School Spirit GCK2M9

After lunch at Smokey Bones (yum! Loaded potatoes with pulled pork!), we returned to a progressively tougher terrain.

We apparently took the long way....

Can you see the road we walked in on? It's that one... the dot... in the far, far distance!

According to ShelleyJean, we walked over 20,000 steps and climbed the equivalent of 58 flights of stairs! OUCH! I almost fell over in Tai Chi class two days later.

SwtM - South Haven GC7346W

But we did it! WE ARE MITTEN MASTERS!

We looked hot and exhausted and VICTORIOUS!
TaGeez, Scrapcat, and ShelleyJean

Tired, sweaty, and satisfied, we turned the car East but not without grabbing two more special geocaches.

The JASMER Challenge (Michigan Edition)
GC2EGP9

Both meant a great deal to us, and the TB Hotel deservedly earned it's 140+ Favorite Points. We even met one of the cache owners on our way out - she has a trackable code inscribed in her dental work!

Garden View TB Hotel GC3NEX3

And here it is! We received our path tags today from Brettina! Another trail with a successful conclusion!

Michigan Geomarbling

WOW! If you thought geocaching was getting a little bit boring lately (suffering the winter blahs, grids are filled and no new challenges), a 'public art project' in Grand Rapids, Michigan has added a fun twist to geolocation gaming!

The Michigan Geomarbling project combines the love of the geo-hunt and glassblowing! From their page: 

Michigan GeoMarbling is a project started by Grand Rapids glass artist Nigel Morford (MPXGlass) who was inspired by Esferas Perdidas -- or "Lost Spheres" -- and GeoMarbling out of Oklahoma.

Our group was formed in the image of Esferas Perdidas, for local glass workers to introduce people to their works by hiding select pieces in and around Grand Rapids, and then posting clues with photos, so that group members might seek them out. Their group has become so popular that they play hide and seek with their art. So, basically, it's an interactive scavenger hunt for decorative glass objects .. mostly marbles but some cool surprises, too!

You can download the rules from the Facebook page, but, in short, hand-blown glass marbles will be hidden around the Grand Rapids area. Then, a post entitled LOST will appear on the Facebook page. Participants will need to decipher clues to find the marbles. How fun is this?

Nigel announced the first release will happen today. 

We love "bright and shines" - All 1" or bigger

I'm following the Facebook group and can't wait to see the fun. I hope the "finders" post their pictures! I've shared this page with several of the local geocaching groups. Who knows where this could lead? Maybe it'll inspire other groups to do something similar.