Grand Rapids, Michigan September 2010

I have a new client and this took me to Grand Rapids Michigan. I've never been to Michigan before and I was kind of excited. The weather was beautiful! It was what you would expect when you think of 'Fall'. The sun was shining and it was nice and cool. Unfortunately, all I brought were shorts and t-shirts for my off days.
The view from my hotel window. The area is kind of 'small town-ish'. A lot of older houses.
And, there doesn't seem to be any zoning. I was driving through a neighborhood on a residential street and there was a bank in between two houses. Bizarre.

On one of my off days (off - meaning, I didn't have to go to the client office), I got it in my head that I must see Lake Michigan. I got in the car and headed out. It was only about 30 miles from my hotel.
I followed the road and this is the body of water that I came to. This is NOT Lake Michigan. This is Macatawa Bay. There was a marina with all these boats.
Check out this house.
This house was right on the water. I would have LOVED to look around inside. Meanwhile, I still haven't found lake Michigan. I'm thinking "it's a huge body of water! How can I not find it!" So, I got my trusty iPhone (have I mentioned how i LOVE this thing?) and used the map function to find out where I was in relation to Lake Michigan. I followed the map.
I had to go on this tiny road where there were hardly any people. There were a few scattered houses along the way.
Then a small side road that dead-ended into this big sand dune. I had to climb up the sand dune to see the water. There were stairs that went up.
At the top of the stairs, the sand overtook the stairs. When I tried to climb up, my foot sank into the sand ankle deep. I'm embarrassed to say that I couldn't get up that last little bit. It was a shame, too because I bet the view would have been beautiful.
The path out to Lake Michigan.
I had to settle for this view-which is pretty nice. I wanted to go down to the beach but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to climb back up.
Me & Lake Michigan. I forgot my sunglasses....
This was another little lake that was on the way back to the interstate. I like that you can see a little fall foliage there.
The drive back to Grand Rapids. I didn't realize that Michigan had a lot of farm land. But there were several scenes like this. Lot's of fields of what looked like corn.
Downtown Grand Rapids. There wasn't any place for me to pull over and get a good photo.
So I know this sounds crazy but I kept driving by this place called Taco Boy. I just thought the name was funny. Then I saw a write up on this thing they had called a 'Wet Burrito', which really doesn't sound appetizing. But, the article said it was a 'Michigan' thing. Well, that sounded like a challenge so I went. I got the mini wet burrito with beans & green meat (spicy pork).
It was really good. But they should seriously come up with a more appetizing name.
My client is in downtown Grand Rapids in the Blodgett Building. It's a really old building that's been renovated. Across the street is tannery row.
It was built in 1889.

I love these old buildings. I'm glad that other people do as well. It's part of our history. This section of downtown is all older buildings (or newer buildings built to look like older buildings). It reminds me a bit of downtown Fort Worth but it's not quite as big.

After my meeting, it was time to head back home. One last look at Lake Michigan from the sky.
I'll be back next week...