This past weekend, we made it to the mitten part of Michigan for the first time! Our friends, Erin and Adam, had a beautiful wedding over this Labor Day weekend, so that was the reason we made our way out. Of course, we were able to find some time outside of the wedding festivities for exploring the western part of the mitten.
Grand Rapids
We flew into Grand Rapids on Friday night, so we decided to spend some time here first. Grand Rapids is home to over 80 breweries, so this place is known as Beer City! Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it to all of them, but we did check out three. Our first stop was Founders Brewing Company, a renovated firehouse with indoor and outdoor seating. This is a large establishment with great beer such as the Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout, the All Day IPA, Breakfast Stout, and many more. Really you cannot make a bad choice. They also had some tasty food options such as beer cheese dip and hefty sandwiches like “The Glutton,” a pulled pork sandwich on steroids. Our next stop was a brewery in an old chapel, Brewery Vivant. This place is smaller than Founders but has a cool vibe because much of the original chapel, including the stained-glass windows, has been preserved well. Our favorite beer at this brewery was the Big Red Coq, a Red IPA. Our last stop in Grand Rapids was The Mitten Brewing Co. The vibe of this brewery wasn’t much to write home about, but they did have some good beers such as the Coconut Stout and Milk Stout.
Founders Brewing Company
Brewery Vivant
A brewery in a prior chapel!
Founders Brewing Company
Brewery Vivant
A brewery in a prior chapel!
Holland
About a half an hour drive west from Grand Rapids, you’ll find the cute town of Holland, known for its Dutch heritage. We drove here to find New Holland Brewing for our last stop on Friday night. From 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. on Friday nights, New Holland’s Pub on 8th has live music with no cover. We enjoyed this music while having one of our favorite beers, Dragon’s Milk. Megan had it her preferred style, chilled with some carbonation, and Adam had it his preferred style, on cask. Feel free to try out either of the styles though- you cannot go wrong.
New Holland Brewing Pub on 8th
Live music with no cover at New Holland on Friday nights!
New Holland Brewing Pub on 8th
Live music with no cover at New Holland on Friday nights!
The next morning, we had some time to explore Holland before heading to the wedding. Our first stop was downtown Holland to stand in line for the best breakfast spot, Windmill Restaurant. This place is so popular that there is constantly a line out the door, but it was worth the wait for the tasty brunch food! A couple of our favorites were the bird’s nest and pancake roll ups. They make homemade wheat bread too and the serving sizes are huge! After we were all stuffed, we walked around the cute downtown strip for a little bit. They have several shops and just off the downtown strip is Hope College, where Adam’s mom and a few of our friends went to undergrad. After seeing the town of Holland, we decided it was time to head to the fresh coast!
Downtown Holland, MI
Windmill Restaurant
Waiting in line was worth it for the tasty bring at Windmill Restaurant!
The Bird’s Nest with their delicious homemade bread!
Downtown Holland, MI
Windmill Restaurant
Waiting in line was worth it for the tasty bring at Windmill Restaurant!
The Bird’s Nest with their delicious homemade bread!
We first checked out Holland State Park: home of the popular red lighthouse, a huge sandy beach, several beach volleyball courts, and the channel connecting Macatawa Lake to Lake Michigan. We weren’t able to swim while we were here due to the dangerous undercurrents that day, but it was a great beach to walk barefoot on while going a couple inches into the clear water of Lake Michigan. During our stroll along the shore, we encountered some serious sand castle creators! Our next stop was the Tunnel Park, about two miles north of Holland State Park, where you can walk through a tunnel through one of the big dunes to get to another beach! After some beach time, we checked out Windmill Island Gardens. It’s $10 to enter this touristy Dutch village where they have a windmill brought over from the Netherlands. We didn’t end up paying to enter this time because it was down-pouring, but it looked pretty authentic compared to our experience in the Netherlands last summer. We’ve heard an extra cool time to visit the Windmill Island Gardens is during the tulip festival in the spring.
Holland State Park
Plenty of beach volleyball courts on the perfect sand!
People making giant sand castles!
Holland State Park
Plenty of beach volleyball courts on the perfect sand!
People making giant sand castles!
The nice freshwater of Lake Michigan!
Tunnel Park
The nice freshwater of Lake Michigan!
Tunnel Park
The tunnel through a dune brings you to another beach!
Windmill Island Gardens
The tunnel through a dune brings you to another beach!
Windmill Island Gardens
It was now time to head to the wedding at the gorgeous Macatawa Legends Country Club. The bride recommended that we continue the party after the reception at a local dive bar in Holland, Parrots Lounge. This was definitely a dive bar, but they had an outdoor area with picnic tables that was the perfect spot for us to hang out and continue catching up with friends!
We definitely enjoyed our first visit to the west mitten portion of Michigan and want to go back! Hopefully this gave you a few ideas for things to explore if you ever make your way over. For our next visit to Michigan, we would like to check out Traverse City and the Sleeping Bear Dunes on the Lake Michigan coast, about three hours north of Holland.
Glad to see you got to Chapel! Took me back to my old college days, although there weren’t any breweries then! And the city of Holland spent the $$$ to put down heated sidewalks.
Yes, the Chapel was cool! And it was fun to check out where you went to school for a bit 🙂 What a cute town!
Love reading your blogs!
Thanks for reading 🙂
You both we soooo close but yet so far from me…..Hopefully next time we can meet in the middle.
Yes, it would be great to meet in person sometime! Maybe on our way out east!