This was difficult for me because I usually know where I’m going, but trying to find the cheapest hotel that wasn’t in a red light district or putting our lives in jeopardy seemed a risky venture. That’s when being a library nerd became a great advantage, and knowing Google became a greater one. First I Googled all the hotels in and around Grand Rapids, put them in a Google Docs spreadsheet, and began Googling each hotel to get room prices. Once I highlighted the affordable ones on my Google spreadsheet, I looked them up on Google Maps to see how near they were to my desired destinations. Of the ones within a reasonable distance, I checked them out on Google Maps Street View, to see what neighborhoods they were in and what they looked like on the outside. From there I was able to narrow things down enough that my decision was clear. Super 8 was where we’d stay, on the southeast corner of town.
Usually, I won’t stay in a chain. It’s almost blasphemous when I travel to do anything or patronize any establishment that’s a cardboard cutout of the same establishments all over the place. I go for the local charm. I go for a new experience. I don’t go to have the same food, sleep in the same room and visit the same stuff I could see anywhere else in the country. However, there was a great deal on the room. Aside from the fact that they were the cheapest and seemed to be located in the heart of a clean and new-ish shopping area, they were set back from the main road, and they had a special: buy two nights, get the third night free. This allowed me to upgrade a bit and still our three nights would be under $120, including tax, with WI-FI, a workout room, and free breakfast. Done deal!
Google Maps said the drive would be 4 hours and 11 minutes. This is where Google failed me. Yes, we stopped a couple times for bathroom breaks and one half-hour lunch from a gas station, sitting in their parking lot, but it took us about 8 hours to get there. We don’t pee that much.
It’s been a long time since I’ve driven directly through downtown Chicago, and though I lived there throughout my childhood and some of my teen years, the NW side doesn’t afford one the grand views of the skyscrapers. I didn’t see that famous cityscape very often, so the closeness of these legendary buildings that I grew up so near to was still exciting to me.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
The problem with driving through Chicago is that eventually you come out of it and find yourself in…(dun, dun, dun)…Indiana.
I don’t blame Indiana for the stench. I realize it’s the refineries in Whiting and Gary, but it’s hard to appreciate a state that requires you to shut all the windows and circulate only inside air while you drive through it.
Indiana seemed twice as big as it had been the last time I drove this way. Getting up into Michigan took forever, but when we finally crossed the border, it was worthy of celebration.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
We stopped at the welcome center for a quick potty break.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
A beacon of light in the parking lot symbolized our great need to use the washroom.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
The store was closed, being a Sunday and a holiday, so I was robbed of my opportunity to do some gift shopping and collect travel pamphlets. The washroom was pretty gross and very crowded, so we quickly made our way north again. A few miles up the road was a TA, so we exited to fill up the gas tank and have a bite to eat.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Lunch: gas station food – yum – eaten in the car, sitting in the parking lot of a truck stop. Lovely. I couldn’t help but joke about the TA being “tits and ass”, particularly with a large adult bookstore across the street. I was made fun of for having a dirty mind, so I spent the rest of the day making dirty jokes. B.E. blamed the TA and adult bookstore for having a bad influence on me. As if I was behaving any differently than usual.
The drive to Grand Rapids felt long, but the coastal part was nice, with sand dunes everywhere.
Once we reached Grand Rapids, it was about 9:30 at night, EDT. By the time we checked into the Super 8 and dropped off our luggage at the room, it was approaching 10:30 and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. Applebee’s was open for a short half-hour and we sped across the parking lot to the restaurant, which was probably quicker to walk to rather than drive. I don’t usually like to go to chains while I’m on vacation. I can eat at Applebee’s at home. I want to experience the down-home businesses of any new place I visit, so this was not an ideal concession, but we were hungry, it was late, and the food was actually very good.
We crashed early and set the alarm for an early rise, to make use of the free continental breakfast offered at the hotel.
* * *
Monday, April 13: I rose early to fetch some food at hotel’s kitchen. I grabbed a bagel for myself and a muffin for B.E., who was still sound asleep. Perhaps because of the long drive the night before, or perhaps because it was decadent and tempting, I then fell back asleep, despite the bed being agonizingly hard. It was fabulous.
Once we both woke up around noon, we quickly dressed and headed to the Meijer Gardens for butterflies!
Aside from the huge, five-story greenhouse, there’s so much more to see at the Meijer Gardens, which we completely ignored as we made our way directly to the butterflies.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
On the way to the butterflies, we passed through a maze of arid gardens with cacti that were both intriguing and scary.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
As I’ve learned in the past, flowers look quite pretty from a distance, but the closer you get, the more frightening they become. So I got in close!
What amuses me is that the two of us walked through the same gardens, saw the same plants, and we both took many of the same shots, but we also took some very different shots. I’m highlighting a difference in the way we see things.
This shot B.E. took of a clump of cacti with long pricklies that looked almost hair-like.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
I took this shot of the same cactus, trying to get through the fuzzy spines to the heart of the cactus.
Some of the plants were more common, but no less pretty.
I think we just had fun taking pictures.
B.E. pointed out how many of these “exotic” plants are native near his house, and it drove home the fact that he lives way too far away.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
There were some areas where we felt watched. By many small eyes.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Once we made it inside the butterfly exhibit, the temperature rose, it felt stiflingly humid, and the enormity of the tropical conservatory hit home. Despite it being a Monday afternoon, and a cloudy one at that, there were tons of people. Staff were very welcoming, and when I expressed a specific interest in seeing a clearwing, they let me know that none had been spotted for a few days. *Sigh* But with my butterfly passport in hand, I was equipped to identify dozens of other butterflies, all beautiful and exotic to my eyes.
Something B.E. and I frequently do is rename things with our own pet names.
This is a Julia Longwing, which we referred to as an Orange Julius.
The Zebra Longwing was given an obvious enough name that we didn’t have to rename it.
A Red Helen, giving me a staredown.
By far, the most common butterfly we saw were Postmen. Whether it was a Small Postman or a Postman, they dominated the scenery.
Despite the abundance of butterflies, staff wandered around and informed people that the showing today was weak due to the lack of sunshine. When there isn’t as much sunlight, they cluster at the top of the greenhouse, trying to get as much light as possible. Well, spring in Michigan doesn’t grant all that many sunny days in April, so we enjoyed what we had.
B.E. made the best discovery of all, though. Among all the plants and butterflies there lived many birds. By far, the cutest of these were the Chinese Painted Quails, which B.E. dubbed PocketChicken, which you have to say quickly.
Why’d the PocketChicken cross the road?
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
To get to the other PocketChicken.
When we saw more than one PocketChicken together, we began telling one another of their presence by saying, “PocketChicken-PocketChicken-PocketChicken” if there were three, or repeating it as many times as there were PocketChickens, the faster the better. They made the coolest noises, and you could hear them calling out all the way across the greenhouse, over the dull roar of the people milling about. We loved them so much that we discussed how easily we could slip a PocketChicken into a pocket and take them home. Most people ignored them, but we just adored these little critters.
Fairly typical of me, I have a one-track mind, and when I was looking for butterflies, I couldn’t see the forest for the trees. Thankfully, B.E. noticed the photogenic plants in the conservatory. Also, he managed to capture some shots of the height of some of these plants, which struck me as the Rapunzels of the plant world.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Toward the end of the afternoon, we’d walked around for over two hours, feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by the whole experience, but we hadn’t seen a butterfly land on anyone. Then we came across a woman who had a butterfly on her finger.
Generous mother that she was, she gave the butterfly to her daughter.
And her daughter looked as thrilled with the experience as we were. How charming!
One of the other birds flying around was this fella, who we were told is a Carolina Parakeet, but in researching them, this guy doesn’t really look much like one. Still, for an extinct bird, it was looking quite vivacious.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
They closed at 5, and we were all but kicked out. It was a delightful experience, but I was just counting the hours until we could go back.
When we left, we made a wrong turn and ended up taking the scenic route back to the room. Though the gardens were only 6 miles from our hotel, somehow it took us over an hour, and we drove around the entire city. In rush hour. Not fun.
For coffee break, B.E. sent us on a mission to find the Grand River, which the town is named from, and we headed east. We got lost a second time, but we did find the river, where we sat and admired the murky, fast-moving water, well over its usual height. While sitting in the car working on a crossword puzzle and enjoying the view, a police officer drove by our car and parked behind us. We waited to be told that we weren’t allowed to park there, but the officer never got out of his car. His presence unnerved us, however, and we chose to leave. Once again, we got lost trying to find our way back to the hotel. However, we did find Amway’s headquarters, which was not as thrilling as it might sound. Not the first time we drove by it, or the second, or the third. Michigan maps are not accurate.
We finally got back to the room at an hour when our neighbors were winding down for the night, and we’d yet to have dinner. I suggested Jimmy John’s, not because I’d given up on mom & pop places, but it was nearby, open later, and we always knew we’d enjoy that meal. We were offered two free loaves of day-old Jimmy bread, which we gladly accepted in anticipation of having birds to feed if we ever found a park, and we took our sammiches back to the room to enjoy in our pajamas. We stayed up quite late, me doing crosswords and B.E. watching television, and we tried to figure out what we were going to do the next day. Sometimes it pays to plan your vacation with that flexibility.
* * *
Tuesday, April 14: Not only did we both oversleep, but we also missed our opportunity to have free breakfast from the hotel. Sometime after noon we managed to get moving.
I’d noticed that there was a Bob Evans restaurant across from the hotel, and I hoped to persuade B.E. to have breakfast there. I’d never even seen a Bob Evans restaurant before, and I had to assume they could do a fine breakfast.
They did not disappoint! I totally indulged and had some biscuits and gravy, while B.E. negotiated with the waitress for some eggs and French toast, which wasn’t together on the menu, being all focused on pushing their sausage as a side to everything instead of having two entrees together. Much fun was had with the waitress, which is typical. B.E. makes friends wherever we go.
It was a rainy, gloomy, dark and dreary day, and given what we’d been told about the butterflies only coming down to the level where people could enjoy them when it’s sunny outside, we decided to spend the day doing things around town and put off the butterflies for our last day, with the hopes that the weather would improve. The John Ball Zoo was also out of the question in the rain. Instead, I drove us all around Grand Rapids, with B.E. visiting the local thrift stores, which were trippy places according to him.
We always appreciate the hometown businesses when we visit a new place, and a Kindel smokestack seemed to keep B.E. entertained.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
We both had a great laugh at the Chicken Oop, which was actually the Chicken Coop, but the C was not visible. It sounds better as the Chicken Oop, we think.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Quite a few of the streets in Grand Rapids are made of brick, which took me way back to my childhood in Chicago, living on Paulina, where brick streets could still be found.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Steeples a-plenty!
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Eventually it was coffee break time again, so we stopped to get a drink and snacks before looking for a scenic place to enjoy them.
A small sign drew my attention and we had to stop at a local cheeecake store, where we purchased two slices of cherry cheesecake, grinning ear to ear about the special treat we had come upon. The kind lady in the store also gave B.E. a free cup of coffee, and made a recommendation for a nearby park where we could enjoy our coffee break. Unfortunately, we were unable to find her park and ended up driving up and down the Grand River on the west side of town, when I was the victim of much teasing by B.E. about a woman’s inability to make an efficient U-turn. He would’ve had me stop in the middle of a street to turn around rather than easily finding a nearby parking lot or driveway to turn in. Somehow I’m supposed to believe that my gender is wrong for making these sensible decisions? I don’t think so.
We found a park on the river and were quite confused by the parking signs.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
After trying in vain to find the machine to pay for parking, we read the bottom of the sign and realized we had arrived after the enforcement hours, and parking was free.
Despite the rain, the river was impressive. We enjoyed our cheesecake and drinks, then fed some ducks our day-old Jimmy bread. B.E. decided to walk around and discovered that this park was a hub for fishermen because there was a dam just out of sight of our car, so we hung around in the cold, gray evening to watch some guys fish. It was a perfect day for B.E.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
On the way back to the hotel, we passed some more interesting local businesses. This building did not seem an appropriate structure for a bank, though its location on Wealthy Street seemed ideal.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Back at the room, there was much ado about dinner. B.E. got it into his head that he had to have a falafel, and the only place we could find to fit that need was a Lebanese restaurant. I’d never eaten Lebanese food before and was tentative (at best) about finding a meal I would eat on their menu. To add to the difficulty, once I was persuaded to go, we couldn’t find the restaurant we set out for, but somehow managed to find a second Lebanese restaurant, where the owner was thrilled to not only cook for us, but to brag about how delicious his food was. We brought it back to the room, and I found my gyro to be good, though I didn’t enjoy the rice or the hummus. B.E. ate the heck out of his falafel, the hummus and the rice, quite pleased that he finally got to go to a restaurant that was right up his alley.
Weather for the next day was predicted to be warm and sunny, so we decided to stay another night, instead of checking out on Wednesday. This is fairly typical of us. We always stay longer than we plan. And we always stay up too late and sleep too late, which was probably an accurate secondary theme to this trip.
* * *
Wednesday, April 15: With the sun shining bright, we got up around noon, had a quick breakfast at IHOP, and headed back to the Meijer Gardens for more butterflies.
We made our way through the cactus garden again before getting to the tropical greenhouse.
Pretty, poky plants.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
This time we found the carnivorous plant room, which was quite cool. Pitcher plants abounded.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
And Venus Flytraps!
And another scary, insect-eating plant that seemed to drool.
Again, here we are, looking at the same plants, and looking at them with totally different eyes. He took this one.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
I took this one.
And just like our first trip, my mind was only on butterflies, but he seemed to find interesting people as well.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Though we were in the same exhibit with only two days time since our last visit, this one was quite different. Newly hatched in a butterfly nursery was a gigantic atlas moth, which was impressive.
Zebra Longwings seemed to hang around and pose for photos, letting me get nice and close. So close, in fact, that I had to take two pictures to get his whole body.
This impressive butterfly is an Emerald Swallowtail, the only one I saw. B.E. said he saw a second one fly up on this one and they fluttered off together.
The sun sure did bring out the stars. Here I believe we have a Tiger Longwing. Either that, or a Hecale Longwing. I can’t tell which.
The most elusive butterfly of all was the Common Morpho, an absolutely spectacular blue butterfly on one side, and fascinating sample of eyespots on the other.
Our favorite butterfly of all was the Tree Nymph, which was like a tissue-paper fan in the air, soft and delicate, and we named them Flying Pillows.
B.E. found a Scarlet Mormon who’d clearly spent some time in the misty areas because he was covered in teeny water droplets.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
A Postman, tongue curled up, wings folded, ready for an afternoon nap.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
We found a sunny location in the garden and parked ourselves on a bench to watch the butterflies coming and going. While sitting there, B.E.’s hat was visited twice, by two different butterflies. I accused him of putting nectar on his hat’s bill, which he denied, but there was something about that hat that they seemed to like.
We also found the body of the Scarlet Mormon that had been wooed by the woman and her daughter at the end of our visit on Monday. It was quite sad. It seemed like the butterflies whose wings were the most tattered were at the end of their very short life cycles.
As the day drew to a close, we wandered out and through the gift shop, where B.E. bought me a package of butterfly stickers, which I intend to affix to things all over, to be reminded of our two days with the butterflies who made the world a prettier place.
We bid adieu to the Meijer Garderns and the butterflies. Maybe we’ll see your kin next year.
Being coffee break time again, we made our way back to the dam from the day before.
We crossed the historic bridge, which was painfully narrow and intimidating to cross.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Others seemed to be taking advantage of this beautiful day, as the park was full of visitors, including this group of women working out.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Down by the dam, there were many men fishing, on land and on boats.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
We walked down the pier, and while I socialized with the visiting dogs, B.E. socialized with the fishermen. It amazed us how many bridges there were spanning the banks of the Grand River. If you looked down the river, all you could see was bridges, which is when I said that it’s not turtles all the way down, but bridges.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
The guys in the boat caught their limit of fish, taking with them five half-dead steelheads.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
This odd gal climbed on the debris at the side of the dam, took off her shoes, and reclined on the log like it was the most comfy bed in the world. She stayed for quite some time, balanced on the log, looking like she could easily topple in and be washed over the dam. Yet, it was an interesting photo.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
After coffee break, we drove through downtown Grand Rapids, and enjoyed the mixture of buildings old and new.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
For our last night in Grand Rapids, we went to a local Mexican restaurant called Tres Lobos, which was such a delight! The owner’s daughter took our orders and told us all about the famous people whose pictures were on the wall. The food was good and we stuffed ourselves enough to get to bed a little earlier than usual, finally.
* * *
Thursday, April 16: We managed to get ourselves up, packed, and out of the hotel room before noon, which is quite a feat. We had breakfast at Bob Evans again, said goodbye to Grand Rapids, and headed west to Holland.
Fortunately, we were visiting ahead of the Tulip Festival, but you could see that the town was already gearing up for the event, with tulip sprouts popping up on newly treated soil all up and down the main streets. We didn’t find the town of Holland to be as quaint and impressive as we’d hoped. There was a nice park at Lake Macatawa, which would eventually drain into Lake Michigan, but we were far upstream. It was a little stinky and the water seemed stagnant, but all the pairs of nesting ducks made the visit a little sweeter. We fed many of them bread crumbs and then decided to try to find Lake Michigan shore.
Guess what. Holland doesn’t have Lake Michigan beachfront for free public use. If you follow Lake Macatawa down to the lake, you end up at the marina, still inland, and the road turns into a private road, servicing the pricey, lakeside houses, thus denying non-residents access to the lake. This marina was as close as Holland would allow us to get to the lake.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
As we started heading south, we stuck to roads that seemed to hug the lakeshore, and I commented that we were doing the Lake Michigan Semi-Circle Tour, which we were, unintentionally.
At some point, we came across a humongous ship docked in a small town, and we were a month too early to see the maritime museum it houses. Bummer.
We continued south, finding ourselves at Michigan State Parks, where we would’ve liked to visit the dunes, except that I’d forgotten that Michigan State Parks charge for each visit, and we turned around and left without seeing anything.
Finally we made it to South Haven, a town we would come to really love. We took the first road west that looked like it might hit the lake, and we found a teeny-tiny parking lot with beach access.
We walked to a look-out pavilion and I snapped some shots of the shore, which looked like generic shore shots that could’ve been anywhere, but we really liked this spot and the accessibility of Lake Michigan.
A man and his dogs were walking on the beach, and B.E. tried to lure one of the dogs up to visit us. He came near, but wouldn’t leave his human, so we had to say our greetings from a distance.
Then the three dogs cuddled up with their human on the sand. Happy family.
In South Haven, we found ourselves quite happy. We grabbed lunch for me at Dairy Queen (bluck) and coffee for B.E. with some snacks, and made our way to the lighthouse.
We walked out on the pier, where I spotted a red-breasted merganser in the water and urged B.E. to take its picture. I’d never seen one before and wanted evidence!
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
The light at the end of the pier is unusual and quite delightful, with the rails overhead that brought supplies to the light once upon a time.
Though it was in the upper 60s, out on the pier, with the wind whipping off the lake, it was downright frigid. I managed to walk all the way to the light, then had to turn immediately around and go back to the car. It wasn’t just freezing, but it was scary to be on that pier with such strong gusts of wind. How brutal it had to be in the winter!
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
B.E. hung out at the light with the fishermen for a bit, and I warmed up in the car, doing a great deal of people-watching.
We really liked South Haven, but we had to leave. On our way back through town, we noticed that there were many black squirrels with bushy brown tails all over the place, and B.E. snapped a picture of a shy one who darted up a tree when I stopped my car.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Also, we found a house in town with a small version of the lighthouse set up on their lawn. What an interesting tribute.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
From South Haven, we continued south on a side road, enjoying the lakeside view. At some point we passed the Whirlpool headquarters, which seemed an unlikely location, so far off the beaten path.
Once we reached the Benton Harbor/St. Joseph area, we found the bigger town a bit more off-putting than the quaintness of South Haven. We stopped at the beach near the lighthouse briefly, but the chill in the air was picking up. The lighthouse was not nearly as interesting as South Haven’s, and also not nearly as accessible.
A really fascinating thing I noticed about the homes near the beach was that their yards, sidewalks, and streets seemed to be overtaken by sand.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
It had been cleared from the streets, but there were no visible sidewalks or curbs, and the trees looked like they grew right out of the sand.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Wind? Waves? Whatever was responsible for bringing so much sand to their front doors had clearly won the battle, for there were a few homes that had sand dunes half-way up their fences, with no signs of anyone ever trying to clear the way.
Taken by Boyfriend Extraordinaire
Once out of St. Joseph, we were back to the highway and on the fast-track home. We drove through stinky Indiana again and tried to race to reach Chicago as the sun was setting. We would’ve liked to catch the skyscrapers lit up with the setting sun as the rest of the buildings were plunged into darkness, but instead we arrived at night, with The Loop a big dark blanket freckled with lights on in all the buildings. It is beautiful at night, too.
One of the sensations of going on vacation anywhere other than Munising is the relief I feel once we get home. This trip provided the same liberation when we finally arrived at my front door. It was a fun adventure, but I was thrilled to be home, and I missed the comfort of my bed. And my dog.
More photos of the butterflies we saw can be found on my Tabblo account here.
