Hi. It's Friday, August 11, 2000 and we just returned from Grand Rapids yesterday. Lots of family visiting going on, I met (and Marcia saw for the first time in many years) most of the aunts, uncles and cousins in the immediate clan, at least on Marcia's dad's side of the tree. In the 5 days we were there, we tooled about quite a bit, and saw some interesting things, and one of us got in a serious bout or two of professional shopping. I leave it to you to determine whom. There were about 114 snaps taken (Marcia: That's all???), here's a selection (only about 28, if you want more, then hunt about on Marcia's site, probably in the Meanderings session later this weekend or next week to find her trip report with more words and photos)...

The first shot on the left is from our 3.5 hour layover at LAX. The gate next to ours was roped off, and looking rather interesting, then the pace heated up, as Martin Sheen entered the area. They were taping a scene for the up-coming season.

The remaining four snaps above are from the "reunion" that took place on our arrival day, Saturday. We had been travelling for 15 hours and turned up to this on about 2-1/2 hours of sleep since the Friday morning, when we got up and went to work. I was incredibly coherent, I am quite sure. CRS takes it's toll, though. The guys on the left: Bill (brother-in-law, husband to Sue) Ron (brother-in-law, husband to Karen), Rich (Marcia's brother) and your's truly.

From the left, three shots from dinner the next day at Karen & Ron's house. In addition, thier two, Matt and Faye, plus the Spoelhof's (Bill, Sue, Joel, Natalie and Aaron) were all there. The first picture clearly demonstrates everyone's love of the camera. Third in, Matt really dislikes having his picture taken, even when Faye takes a hand in matters.

Pictures three and four are from our trip out to Holland, for shopping and lunch out at the state beach, on Monday. Bill and Sue in front of the light house.

One more snap - Marcia and I in front of the channel to the harbor, at Holland.

Pictures 2 through 5, left to right, are the first pictures of many from our trip to the Frederik Meijer Gardens at Grand Rapids. The gardens are both botanical and sculptural. These rightmost four are from the desert area (duh!), but I found them interesting, especially second from the right, which rather resembled the cactus equivalent of Meerkats.

Two more pictures of flowers, including a "Little Shop of Horrors" style bloom from a banana tree... The third shot is a model of a winged thing designed by da Vinci, whose Horse graces the following two snaps. In error, on the posts during the travel week, I though we were seeing something of Michelangelo's - color me stupid. That's Marcia and I under the hoof, and a nice head shot of the horse. Now that would have been something to wake up to, eh, Mr. Corleone?

The horse on the left is also cast in bronze, but the patina is such that you'd swear it was wood. My only confirming information is the sign, as I chose not to cross the rope and clank on it to be sure. Second in is a 4 story sculpture, rather Calder-esque, though stationary, called Aria. Then we have some brilliant berries on the vegetation, and a couple more sculptures.

This reports closes with two more pretty flowers, and a third, niece Faye, playing in her final soccer league game of the summer season (Fay's the dot in yellow). Thanks for coming along with us, and do check out Marcia's site on Saturday or later for more, including the shopping expedition reports I left out entirely!.

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