Holland and Grand Rapids, Michigan

A small city in western Michigan, Holland is best known for its Tulip Time Festival, which is held annually in early May. This year the festival was from May 3rd to 10th. We caught the end of it.

1. Our campsite in Holland State Park. It's still early in the season, the campground was about 75% occupied. 80% of the campers were RV campers. Our tent again was the smallest tent in the whole campground. Sometimes I wish we had a bigger and taller tent so we don't have to crawl so much. Yet this tent has been to so many places with us. It will be hard to replace it.


2. Holland is also known for its rich Dutch history. Dutch dance is a big part of the Tulip Time Festival. Over 1,400 Klompen Dancers (all volunteers) dressed up in traditional Dutch dresses, lined up the street and danced in their wooden shoes.


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4. Holland Centennial Park. More than 500,000 tulips were planted in city parks, public areas, and along city streets.


5. "Big Red", Holland harbor lighthouse.


If you ever come to Tulip Time Festival, one place you have to visit is the Veldheer Tulip Farm, located 4 miles north of Holland on U.S. 31, where 5.5 million tulips were planted.

6. Inside Veldheer Tulip Farm.


7. "West Point" Lily Tulip.


8. "Bonanza" Peony Tulip.


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30 miles northeast of Holland is the city of Grand Rapids. I have heard the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids is really good, and have been wanting to see it for years. This time I finally did it. The indoor garden is a lot smaller than I expected. The outdoor garden and sculpture park is very nice. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very cooperative. It was cold, windy and rainy. So it was hard to take pictures. The upside is not many people visited the garden that day, so we had the garden almost to ourselves.

11. The 24 feet tall Leonardo da Vinci's horse by sculptor Nina Akamu.


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13. The square-ish thing in the pond could move. It's part of George Rickey Kinetic Sculptures that will be at the sculpture park through July. According to their website: "Kinetic sculpture, or sculpture that moves, is unique in that it’s constantly changing. Air currents, water and light all work to make kinetic sculpture form endless compositions." It's kinda cool.


14. New sculpture being installed.


15. Thanks to DC and jawa at wenxuecity, I found an authentic Chinese restaurant in Grand Rapids area. It is called "Oriental Forest Palace". It is located at 3540 River Town Point CT SW, Grandville, MI. If you are going east on 44th street, the restaurant is on your left hand side. They have buffet, but you can also order authentic Hunan dishes from their Chinese menu.