Weekend in Grand Rapids | Art Prize 8

This past weekend we made our first trip back to Grand Rapids. We had been looking forward to this for weeks (since we moved really) and I refused to let the rain put a damper on our weekend, so while it didn't go exactly as planned we still had a great time in our favorite city.

I was able to leave work around 1:30pm on Friday, so we were able to get a head start on the drive and avoid rush hour traffic. We dropped our bags and Duke off at a friends house and headed to the brand-spanking new New Holland Brewing restaurant, The Knickerbocker, on Bridge Street. A handful of friends met us there and we spent over four hours hanging out. The restaurant was insanely busy, so we had a 2 hour wait, but thankfully there are multiple bars and lounge areas that we were able to pass the time with. While the atmosphere is excellent and the drinks are good, we wouldn't recommend the food. We found it to be overpriced and mediocre.

Saturday morning we slept in a little before talking the pups for a long walk around Eastown/Aquinas College. From there we headed downtown with our first stop being SpeakEZ Lounge for brunch. I had the West Hamwhich and it was alright, Thomas was a huge fan of it though. We spent the rest of the day wandering around downtown checking out some of the art that has taken over the city for Art Prize 8. I'm not a huge art admirer, but a lot of the pieces were impressive! We weren't fans of how crowded the city was and I'd definitely recommend visiting on a weekday if possible during Art Prize.   We took a little break from walking with a mid-day snack at Rockwells, my favorite sushi in GR! After checking out some more art we headed back to the house so that we could spend some time with Duke and relax. I even took a little nap, which isn't a frequent thing for me. Next up was dinner at Founders Brewing Company and my BLT was as delicious as always.

Sunday morning was very easy going. We picked up breakfast at GR Bagel, packed up the car, stopped by my favorite macaroon shop, and then hit the road. It was a great weekend, but a little bittersweet. It was different being back and it no longer being our "home", but it'll always be one of our favorite cities and I'm sure there will be many more weekend trips there in our future! As you tell we were all pretty tuckered out by the time we got home.