Portland Michigan

Earlier this month, our family and fellow letterboxer, MI Girl, made a day trip to Portland Michigan.  We explored some of the community parks and the downtown area.  If you look carefully in the picture below, you’ll see MI Girl and Mysteryas exploring one area in Portland.

MI Girl and Mysteryas

MI Girl and Mysteryas

It was a beautiful day (and much warmer than is typical for February in Michigan).  Below is a picture of the river near downtown and a city park.

Downtown Portland

Downtown Portland

We were downtown for lunch so we went to Chocolate Moose Ice Cream located at 116 East Bridge Street.  We split a ham sandwich and some homemade ice cream.  For ice cream flavors we chose chocolate chip cookie dough and butter pecan.  Both flavors were VERY delicious!  I will definitely stop by when I am in the area again.

After lunch we explored some other areas of Portland.  Below is a picture of MI Girl, MichKathy, Mysteryas and Mysterina walking along the path.  Shortly after this hike, we met up with SpartanFans to explore some bridges.

walking path in Portland

walking path in Portland

We hope to go back to explore more of the parks when the weather is a bit warmer and less slushy.

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Putt N Glow (Ann Arbor)

Last month we took the kids and their friends to Putt N Glow on Jackson Road in Ann Arbor.  We went after school on a Thursday.  (Note that they are only open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during the winter.)

The inside is lit almost entirely with black lights so certain colors like white become reflective.  After the kids got over the excitement of the glowing clothes we hit the course.  There are 18 holes inside.  Did I mention that this is an indoor activity?  This is a great thing now that Michigan’s winter is here!

There were only a few other people there so we mostly had the place to ourselves. The kids enjoyed golfing.  I don’t think there were too many holes-in-one but one of the kids did get a hole-in-one on the last hole so she was rewarded with a free pizza across the street at Mama Rosa’s as well as a coupon for a return visit of Putt Putt golf.  The kids want to return so we will be going back in the next month or so.

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Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Back in October, when we were in the Grand Rapids area, we stopped at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park on a Sunday afternoon.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon and the kids were looking forward to seeing the gardens.

The entrance was lined with HUGE pumpkins.  These were also throughout the park (indoors and outdoors).

One thing I forgot to bring was my membership card for a different botanical garden.  This would have saved me $12 on my entrance since only my husband’s name is on his membership card so only one he could be admitted for free.

There were many, many sculptures to see, we only saw a fraction of them.  One of the sculptures (of a tortoise), which we were hoping to see, was in storage.

Because the park has a photography policy, we aren’t able to post pictures of our visit; the best we can do is describe some of what we saw.  You may be able to find some of them by viewing the photos linked from here.

One of the most popular sculptures (and largest?) is The American Horse.  This is HUGE.  Standing near it or beneath it, you feel tiny.  There is a lot of detail in this sculpture.  This is one of the few sculptures you can touch (although much of it is out of reach due to its height).

Another sculpture I like is the red garden trowel named Plantoir.  Nearby is another favorite, a set of eggs.  I think the egg collection is entitled “Full Circle” and is made from ceramic materials.

It was a beautiful day so we didn’t spend much time indoors.  One of the few indoor sculptures that I recall was the chandelier called Guilded Champagne Gardens Chandelier.  It is made out of glass.

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Pigeon Creek Park in West Olive

Last month our family visited several parks in Ottawa County, Michigan.  One of these parks was Pigeon Creek on Stanton Road.  It was a little cool when we arrived at 10 a.m. but the sun was shining and we knew it would be a beautiful day.  I think it was 70 degrees or warmer in the afternoon.

We ate lunch in the Lodge, which Deb had reserved for us.  The potluck had lots of good choices.  The lodge had a small kitchen, bathrooms, and lots of tables and chairs.

We didn’t do much hiking before lunch.  After lunch we hit the trails south of the lodge.  The trails were wide and somewhat sandy.  You did have to watch where you stepped since some of the trails were for horses.  We did see some horses with riders on the trails but not very many people except near trail intersections.

The fall colors were gorgeous: greens, yellows, oranges and reds.

Pigeon Creek Park trail

Pigeon Creek Park trail

Late in the afternoon we crossed Stanton Road and visited the north side of the park.  We didn’t find many letterboxes there.  I was surprised to see an area that was apparently being cleared.  Perhaps the park will be smaller next year?

I hope we are able to return to the area next year since there is so much more of this park to explore.

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Pine Bend County Park

This past weekend our family visited several parks in Ottawa County (west of Grand Rapids, MI).  Our first visit was to Pine Bend County Park.  It was a crisp Saturday morning but we walked quickly.  The fall colors were great.

We eventually came upon some other letterboxers in the park.  Trail Troll was the first one on the trail that morning but we didn’t see her until much later.  At the first box, we came upon Milagro, The Best Nature Boy, Miss Behavin’, Wisconsin Hiker, and Martini Man.  The kids enjoyed letterboxing with other kids their age.  By the end of the hike we had hooked up with Trail Troll so there was quite a crowd at the last box.

Mysterina and Mysteryas exchanged stamps with Wisconsin Hiker and Martini Man.  (They had exchanged with the others before then.)  I think Wisconsin Hiker has a group photo.  Hopefully she’ll post it soon and I can link to it here.

The park was well maintained.  Although we didn’t have a trail map with us, there were maps along the trails so we didn’t get lost.  There was an outhouse and plenty of parking at the trail head.

[Additional Notes:  Wisconsin Hiker’s group photo didn’t turn out.  I did find a photo of part of the group hiking along the trails.  I think the pictured people are Mysterina, the Best Nature Boy, and Wisconsin Hiker.

Pine Bend Park Trail

Unfortunately it’s very dark (although it was taken around 9am).  Maybe it was just too cold that morning.  Milagro’s camera wouldn’t work at all.  Apparently our flash didn’t work that morning either.]

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