Our Trip to Grand Rapids

When I found out we'd have the opportunity to visit Grand Rapids, Michigan, I didn't realize we would be in for such a treat. It is the perfect destination for a family vacation! We live about an hour outside of Chicago, and traffic going was awful going through Chicago, but it was smooth sailing from there and very much worth it.

We ran into some really friendly people during our visit to Grand Rapids and that was definitely a plus in making my family feel welcome.

The first night we just kinda hung around in our hotel room after getting food, because the prolonged ride there would have left us just a little time to really enjoy the sights.

While there, we visited the Sculpture Park, the John Ball Zoo (I remember the name easily because our 4 year old was so excited about visiting that he just kept repeating the name) and also the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

The Sculpture Park, to me, was such a peaceful place to be able to walk through. It's just so natural, surrounded by beautiful floral arrangements with some very interesting sculptures by some very talented people. When we were getting our tickets, our youngest son fell and was obviously shaken out. I was a little freaked out by the amount of attention he got as a result. One woman took our name and phone number and security came along and did the same. Once we got past that, though, the beauty and serenity of the sculpture park left me feeling a lot more peaceful. The rain that started caused us to have to rush through the last little bit, but this was an experience I won't soon forget.

The next day, which would be the day we would leave, we squeezed in a visit to the John Ball Zoo and also to the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

I really appreciate how neat things are kept in the city of Grand Rapids. You can tell that the citizens care about it. And it seems there's always something to do. Something else that I was really pleased with. I wanted to be able to visit some of the Farmer's Markets and get fresh fruits and vegetables. If we had visited a month later, I think we would have hit the perfect season, but from the little research that i'd done, I don't think there was a lot in season.

There was even more that I would have loved to do, such as visit the Gerald Ford Museum and the Art Museum, or even find out why Grand Rapids is for foodies, but unfortunately time limited us. If given the opportunity to visit again, i'd definitely take it!

*I won a prize pack from Chefdruck.com sometime ago which included one hotel night's stay and attraction passes. We were responsible for all other associated costs. The views expressed are my own and I was not compensated or even asked to post this.