Last Grand Rapids Day

Once we found out that Josh didn’t have his classes we decided that a good plan for the day would be to check out the Meijer Gardens. We headed over to Meijer (the food store) and got some delicious lunchy things (cheese, bread, meat). When we got there we sat outside at one of the picnic tables and enjoyed our feast (which we also supplemented with things we had left over at josh’s house).

Josh had two free tickets to the gardens which Caleb and Dan used and then Josh and I used our college ID’s to get the student discount. Yes, I still have my UMass ID and they don’t have an expiration date on there so it comes in handy sometimes. The gardens were awesome. Part botanical garden part sculpture garden. We checked out the plants first inside, then went into the children’s garden, then went to see the sculptures. All were pretty awesome.

We spent a few hours there and saw probably ½- 2/3 of it. There was a really awesome greenhouse which was a butterfly exhibit which we were catching the tail end of, so there weren’t a ton of butterflies but it was this very tall glassed-in area filled with a rainforest complete with waterfalls and a little creek.

At some point we decided that we should probably go onto the next place as we needed to be leaving that night and still had a lot to do. Josh took us over to the Calvin College campus where he showed us around the different buildings and places where he used to live and had classes. We also sat in the big cheese which was a must-do. Josh had to get his running shoes from someone who he had called a couple times but hadn’t been able to get in touch with. Luckily on the way back to the car we happened to bump into her, almost literally. She was coming out of a building as we were walking by it.

From the campus tour we went into Grand Rapids to check out a special that Josh had heard about. It was at a placed called the Hop Cat and it was burger and a beer for $6. I didn’t expect too much but it turned out to be a great meal. Big delicious hamburgers, really good and unique beers and “crack fries” (The fries so good that you’ll steal a VCR to get them). It was awesome and you could get any Wisconsin beer which gave you a lot to choose from. Then, after 6pm they had a beer special where they had 2 choices which were $3 each. The guys each got a special as well and I tried a bit of each. I was driving and the first beer seemed strong so I didn’t really want to have a second one that soon.

From Hop Cat we went back to Josh’s house to get our stuff packed. It didn’t take too long as we had tried to keep it all together. It was getting later, though.

Our last order of business in Grand Rapids was to see the wildlife reserve where Josh works. We got there with some daylight still left (which was good because it closes at dusk). Our walk included standing on a floating platform, standing on a deck with a cowbird baby under it and then going to a super-secret place where only authorized personnel is allowed. Dan and I were wearing flip flops while Josh and Caleb had sneakers on. Because of this Josh was hesitant to take us there but we decided we’d go for it and just turn back if it got too difficult. The way brought us over path of increasingly smaller logs half-submerged in a swamp. It was a lot of fun, I think we all like that kind of things and our destination was pretty awesome. We ended at a tower which seemed fairly sound with a rickety ladder which we really hoped would hold up to all of us going up and down it. We made it, though. Once we got up there we all sat on top of the platform and looked over the wetland. In a nearby tree there was a sleepy raccoon chattering at us. He was pretty cute but unfortunately hard to get a picture of in the dusk with the camera that I had with me. We also saw a muskrat swimming around to complete our animal experience.

When we got out again it was officially dark. We went with Josh over to the campus center to get a cup of coffee. Well, I got a cup, nobody else wanted one for whatever reason. But it was a free cup that Josh had a coupon for. And you couldn’t be a Calvin student so he wasn’t able to use it. After the coffee we said our goodbyes and Josh went to study and we started our epic drive. It was sad saying bye to Josh but hopefully we’ll see him soon (and in Australia!).