My plan for today (Friday) was to spend time visiting University of Michigan locations and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library in the delightful city of Ann Arbor and then to drive to Grand Rapids for the night. Tomorrow would be spent doing the sights of Grand Rapids and then taking the Lake Michigan ferry to Milwaukee at 4:45PM. All of that changed when I discovered that ferry crossing was fully booked and, apart from one crossing tomorrow morning, the only other weekend crossings available were at 11 PM, getting in at 1:30 AM. I quickly booked the early crossing and squeezed both Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids into today.
Gerald Ford is the only president to have his library and museum in two separate locations – the library is in Ann Arbor where he went to university, the museum is in his native city of Grand Rapids and I visited both. The library is quite small with only a few exhibits but the museum is huge and that is a problem. Since he was in office for a relatively short period, and the biggest decision he faced seemed to be whether to pardon Nixon, the interest level was lower than the other Presidential museums I have visited (Clinton, Bush Jr,, Lincoln and Carter).
The highlight of the day was the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. The carefully designed surroundings provided each of the large, outdoor sculptures with a harmonious environment and wonderful sight lines that kept me fascinated for a couple of hours despite the heat and humidity. In addition to the large sculpture park there are several impressive outdoor gardens of different styles as well as huge greenhouses containing many tropical, desert and carnivorous plants. I wish I had stayed longer here and spent less time at the Ford museum.
Today’s map and video can be found here.
The Oval Office at the Ford Museum
These are the stairs from the US embassy in Saigon that were used to get people to the roof for evacuation.
Three of the Meijer Gardens sculptures that give an idea of the format.
and a view of the greenhouses.
That’s the Badger right (the ferry crossing Lake Michigan)? Who’s the dude in the green house? They growing some stuff in there?
I could not see the name of the vessel. It’s a new high speed catamaran design that was introduced in 2006 and replaced an older ship.
They didn’t offer me anything unusual from their greenhouse!
Hey Stevo,
Remember when we drove to Ann Arbor. That’s when I learned what those balloons are for on the electrical poles. Hope the trip is going well. Not sure about the roller coasters…..
Keeping track of you!!!!
Certainly do. I was thinking of you as that was the only time I’d been there before and I still use the UM mug I got then for my morning tea
Thanks for following along.
All looks lovely,
Will be checking daily to see what you are upto, stay safe xx
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