Columbus day Weekend

Well it's definitely been a while since I've last posted. And I suppose a few things have happened. Sadly I didn't manage to catch any of it in picture form though... so sorry about that!


Over Columbus Day weekend I headed over to Grand Rapids with Rachel. After the long drive we still managed to get a night out on the town. It was really nice being able to meet up with Lindsey and Caleb, as they gave us a tour around GR during the artprize. I will shamelessly admit that I don't know my way around Grand Rapids, I suppose I was way too much of a suburbia kid for that. So it was great that Lindsey was willing to show us around, and we didn't get lost at all! Both Rachel and Tara, Rachel's friend, both really seemed to enjoy the tour around and all of the truly amazing art on display.


On Saturday before the wedding Rachel and I were able to head over and visit Busia, as she had just gotten out of the hospital earlier that week. I must say, after all the stories I had heard of her time in the hospital, she was looking surprisingly well. I don't know if that was because she truly was feeling better or if she was just doing a very good job of putting on a strong face for us. But either way, she is a truly strong woman. Kinda on the morbid side of things, she promised to be around till she was at least 90, but I told her that Great Grandma Westrate lasted till 100 and that I expected nothing less of her!


Later that day of course we went to the wedding. The wedding was for one of Rachel's coworkers and friends, Kevin. His bride, Danielle is of course from the Grand Rapids area. I believe they met at their college of Notre Dame. The wedding was quite nice, it was a Catholic Wedding, and as such was very beautiful. After the wedding we headed back to the hotel where they had some football games (notably the Notre Dame game) on (as well as a MSU and UofM game, but the less we talk about that the better). Afterwards we headed back over to the church where they held the reception in the Church's Gymnasium. It was a buffet style meal and notably had an open bar. There was lots of dancing, and of drinking, possibly one feeding the other. There was a live band, which I thought was quite good, but Rachel claims was only so so. Overall though it was an excellent night.

Sunday morning we headed over to the crackel barrel in Gville for breakfast, where I amused Rachel by trying to figure out what I was supposed to put the apple butter on (I tried sausage, eggs, and finally grits). After breakfast I took Lindsey's suggestion and headed over to Robinettes. Lindsey mentioned that Michigan apples were in season, and Rachel mentioned how she wanted to try some, and so we went there lol. What I found was actually quite a surprise though. This was a full functioning destination. Besides a little store area with lots of different types of apples, fudge, and cider, there was a corn maze (which we went through) hay rides (which we skipped) and even some wine tasting (which we did participate in). Overall I was rather impressed by what they had there, and would definitely recommend it to others to visit, especially if you take kids. After Robinettes we headed down to Grand Haven. This part I think is kinda funny... when I told Rachel we would be visiting the Lake, I'm not sure she realized this meant "beach". While I know I take it for granted that there is a nice sandy beach on Lake Michigan, I can understand why that might not be as obvious for people not growing up in Michigan. Even so we managed to take off our shoes and roll up our pants and walk along the water and up to the pier. It was an absolutly gorgous day that day which was wonderful. Then later that night we met up with Stephen and Shannon downtown at San Chez's. We all seemed to have fun ordering the different tapas, and Rachel and Shannon seemed to enjoy the fact that they didn't have to share any of the seafood dishes with Stephen and I. As a result though I'm pretty sure they ended up eating more than Stephen and I though lol. Sadly though Lindsey wasn't able to go out with us this night, as she ended up heading across state to pick up Caleb, she promises otherwise that she would have made sure we ordered the best meals. So next time I'll have to take her up on that!

So I realize I've rambled on a bit more than I planned. I was going to go over the past weekend as well, but I'll just have to cover that later this week in another post. Anyways, back to work I suppose for me!