I’ll tell you what’s going on, someone’s enjoying Pekadills in Whitehall, MI. YUM! I absolutely love this place. First of all, the food is great; second of all they have a garden area out back that is totally relaxing to enjoy that great meal in; and lastly, Whitehall is a nice little lakeshore town with one of the best boat launches around. Here’s a link to Pekadills website. And another link to Whitehall.
I love going to Pentwater because in about 80 – 90 minutes (from Grand Rapids), I can escape to a place that feels like I’m way up north in a little seaside village with lots of cute little shops. Today, I’m even going to help you go shopping and explore the town. Here’s some of of my favorite places in Pentwater, they are all located downtown on Hancock Street:
Air Fun Kites: Lots and lots of unique kites and flying things for the air!
House of the Setting Sun Art Gallery: A wonderfully relaxing little gallery of fun by Renee Berggren Connoy.
Gardener’s Folly: Interesting, fun and unique things for your home and garden.
Blue Mermaid Gems: Really cool, reasonably priced jewelry supplies.
Bitchin Kitchen: If you love cooking, you’ll love all the gadgets and stuff here.
Oldewick Post: Coffee’s and gifts.
Then after a fun day in Pentwater, take a scenic drive back to Grand Rapids on B-15 and go through Hart. Of course, that means dinner at the Mexican restaurant locals flock to from miles around, La Fiesta (located at State and Main in Hart.)
Okay, so there you have it a fun day trip from Grand Rapids. Here’s a google map link to Pentwater… maybe I’ll see you there!
See the VanAndel Institute logo? The blue cylinder building? And the building in the foreground with the curved roof? These are all beacons of hope for our health care future in west Michigan and just a taste of Grand Rapids Medical Mile. The medical mile is about a mile in length and is composed of medical related businesses and organizations located in the Hillside District. It has also been referred to as “Health Hill” and “Pill Hill”.
Highlights of the Medical Mile include the new Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (scheduled to open in 2011), the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion, the Meijer Heart Center and Butterworth Hospital–all of which are part of the Spectrum Health campus; the Van Andel Institute; the GVSU Cook DeVos Center for Health Sciences and the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine’s Secchia Center.
Tucked away in Sherwood Forest at the Rothbury Music Festival is the Speak EZ stage. It’s a bit of a secret and things don’t really start to get going there until later in the evening. I wandered upon this performance when it was being set up and was glad I stayed. When it got really, really dark, a woman wearing all white danced to techno funk music behind constantly changing graphics and imagery. The effect was stunning and interesting. If anyone knows who the artist is, could you please post this in the comments section? Thanks, Ann
Click here for a link to another amazing performer who was at Rothbury this year on the Speak EZ stage as well as during The String Cheese Incident performance, you won’t believe what she can do with a hula hoop.
Check out the motorcycle sculpture in Rothbury’s Sherwood Forest. It was made from recycled materials and just one of many sculptures on exhibit. Whoever thinks of this stuff is very creative.
Lots of my friends have been asking for more, more, more details about The Rothbury Music Festival this year. So I will give them to you! The best way I can describe Rothbury is “unexpected.” By this I mean, there’s just nothing to compare it to. The whole experience is over the top, maybe that’s why more than 50,000 people attended this year, that’s up about 20,00 from last year.
One example is at the Speak EZ Stage and bar. It’s hidden in Sherwood Forest, in fact, I didn’t even know about it until my son Ryan told me about the stage. The Speak EZ is tucked back in the woods and has a burlesque look and feel to it. Artists perform at this stage with everything from burlesque to experimental art. I took this photo as an impromptu show was being set up for a performing, experimental artist… more on that later, I took photos.
I took this photo of Bob Weir, just as the first set of The Dead began at Rothbury, around 8:30 PM.
It’s hard to capture the atmosphere at the Rothbury Music Festival, but this photos comes close. Spontaneous, whimsical, and unexpected. In the category sidebar, be sure to check out the Rothbury link for more pics.
Here’s a pic of The Dead in concert at Rothbury in 2009. Tens of thousands of fans showed up for the show and they definitely got what they came for. The atmosphere here was basically like the biggest party you could ever imagine, with the ultimate band performing live. All in a hang loose, everyone’s your friend atmosphere.
On another note, the folks running Rothbury have been great to deal with, they treated us like VIP’s and were super organized.
Where were you last night? I was at Rothbury experiencing The Dead concert, they played 2 sets and were amazing.
You must be logged in to post a comment.