our Dutch weekend

Sunday, April 29, 2007

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We took a quick trip out to Grand Rapids this weekend. Didn’t have many plans in mind when we left, but it quickly turned out to be the quintessential Dutch outing.



• we scored a great deal on a cheap hotel with priceline.com ! We paid $45 for a one night stay in a king bed suite at Springwood Suites by Marriott. This hotel was brand new…it still smelled like carpet and everything was in perfect condition.



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• we had dinner at the ever-authentic Russ’ restaurant. Among the items featured on the menu are the “Big Dutchman” hamburger. I had wanted to show Jon the back room Russ’, where you don’t have to pay a tip to the wait service because you phone in your order, but alas, that section was closed.



• we went to a free concert at the Calvin Fine Arts Center …we even scored free Calvin cookies and punch at the reception afterwards…can never have too many of those yummy cookies (much of the cause of the freshman 15).



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• on Sunday afternoon, after church , we went to Holland and ended up window shopping and tulip watching, because all stores in Holland are closed on Sunday.



• and we ended up at the Veldheer tulip farm in Holland, MI, where we toured the wooden shoe and Delftware factory, and saw the famous 5.5 billion tulips and bison (no idea how those are related).



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Here’s where the Dutch part of our trip ended…



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We paid $7 each for entrance into the tulip farm and were promptly handed a four page handout for us to pick out the types of tulip bulbs to purchase after touring all of the different types of bulbs in bloom. Sounded like a good idea to us…pick out some tulips and have them mailed to our house in October. We toured the tulip farm, saw the bison and then ordered 100 authentic Dutch tulips (Oxford red - seen above) for our garden next spring. To top off our splurge, we picked up some peony, astilbe, and dahlia plants in the garden center afterwards. They definitely made some money off of these unsuspecting tourists!



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