Weekending | Back to Grand Rapids

Another great weekend is in the books! After working a half-day on Friday we hit the road to Grand Rapids. We decided to lay low Friday night and then almost burnt the house down due to a grease fire, enjoyed a Catholic Lent dinner of fried fish, and spent way too long playing Play Nine.

We hit up Wolfgang's for breakfast on Saturday before the girls headed to the bridal salon to try on a few more bridesmaid dresses and the boys flew the drone. We met up again for lunch at O'Tooles/Harmony Hall and spent a couple hours playing Codenames. Yes, we're those people now :)

Then it was time for the main event or the main reason we went to Grand Rapids... a roller skating birthday party for Zach! The boys rented out a local rollerskating rink and it was awesome! I felt like I was 10 again :)

By the time the party was over, we scarfed down some pizza, and got back home we watched our clocks turn from 1:59am to 3:00am and promptly passed out. We had to leave bright and early Sunday morning which was rough and why I'm still dragging today... I just can't hang like I used to ;)

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.

Friday Five | Grand Rapids Favorites

Since today is the day we move away from Grand Rapids I thought it was fitting to post my top 5 favorite things about this awesome city!

1 | Blue Bridge
My favorite spot in all of Grand Rapids. I can't really explain why, but it just is!

2 | Breweries

Grand Rapids isn't called Beer City for nothing! I mean they have a Brewsader Passport after all.. Our favorite breweries are Founders, Harmony, Elk, Perrin, and BOB's.

3 | Close Distance to Lake MI
GR is only a ~35 minute drive from Lake Michigan and therefore all of the beaches/adorable beach towns! Our favorites were Kirk Park and Grand Haven.

4 | Food
The food in Grand Rapids is out of this world. We have never lived somewhere with SO MUCH excellent food! I'm not exaggerating when I say we eat out 2-3x/week because it's just too good. Sandwiches at Founders, pizza at Harmony, Soup/Salad/Sandwiches at Electric Cheetah, and the list could go on and on!

5 | Friends
Of course I can't leave out the people who have made Grand Rapids so awesome. When we moved here two years ago we had a couple great friends, but we've made even more and those great ones are still around. You can replace all of the beer and food, but you can't replace the memories with friends :)

Linking up here

GR Beer City Ale Trail | B.O.B.'s Brewery

Next up on the Beer City Ale Trail is BOB's Brewery. Located in the basement of The B.O.B. (Big ole Building), BOB's Brewery is a great low key hangout. It's not as popular as some other GR breweries and therefore the hours reflect that. As of now, the brewery is only open Thursday-Saturday evenings. However, you can still get their beer on tap at any of the restaurants inside The B.O.B. Thomas' favorite beer here is the Peanut Butter Porter.

For those of you who are locals or visit frequently we'd highly recommend getting the mug club here! Thomas is a mug club member and not only does he receive at least $1 off every beer, they also have $4 growler fills and BOGO Dr. Grin's comedy tickets! You can't beat that when the membership only costs $25 for a lifetime!

Anniversary Pictures | Grand Rapids

One of the items on my GR Bucket List was to have professional photos taken around Downtown GR. I wanted to have our favorite spots captured on film and I am so glad we did, especially now that we're moving.

After some googling I contacted Katie at Katie B. Photography and booked a session right away. We had the photos taken on a Thursday evening and couldn't have asked for a better evening. On the day of our pictures I got my hair styled at Bang Blow-dry Bar (my first time!) and had my makeup done at Sephora (which was free with a $50 purchase). We started out at the Downtown Market, headed to Founders, and ended at my favorite place in all of Grand Rapids: the Blue Bridge!

Katie was awesome and made the session so much fun. The photos turned out beautifully and captured this time in our lives perfectly. I can't wait to frame a couple of them and to always have a little piece of Grand Rapids with us wherever we go. Katie posted the session on her blog as well in much better quality ;) We are really going to miss this city..

Founders Brewing Company Tour + Tasting

Once we decided that we were going to have a staycation in Grand Rapids to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary I knew that I wanted to do something new and something Thomas would really enjoy. So what's better than a tour + tasting at our favorite local brewery, Founders? I purchased the tickets, $30 each, and hoped that Thomas would be on board (we're there all the time after all..). Our tour was on Wednesday evening and blew every expectation out of the water.

The tour began in a "classroom" where we met the other 10 attendees and surprisingly only 3 of us were Michiganders, which I think is awesome and shows how big Founders is! After introductions we watched a quick promo video and then headed off to the production facility. One of the most fascinating things about Founders is that they produce every single one of their beers at this location, one block in Grand Rapids, MI. They produce over 500,000 barrels every year and are available in 47 states and 23 countries. That is mind blowing! Also mind blowing is the fact that they don't have ANY storage space, so they operate on a one order in one order out.

We learned the history; they started under the name Canal Street Brewing Co, the meanings behind the beer names, and that they almost filed for bankruptcy twice. We saw the bottling line, canning line, and keg-ing line. We spent over an hour walking through and it is very apparent that when they added the expansion they had these tours in mind. It was such a amazingly planned out tour with murals and diagrams.

Once we had finished the tour we headed back to the classroom where the tasting started. We sampled seven beers: Dirty Bastard, Rubaeus, Porter, Sumatra Brown, Red's Rye IPA, All Day IPA, and the highly coveted KBS as our surprise tasting. KBS just so happened to be on tap that week so Thomas was actually able to enjoy a few of them! Our Education Ambassador explained the history behind each beer and while I don't like beer I did taste each one :) Our tasting took about 45 minutes and at the end we were given a couple vouchers for a beer in the taproom and stickers. On our way back to the taproom we walked through the offices, conference rooms, etc. and even those were very impressive!

We were so blown away by this tour. Thomas has been to a couple brewery tours and said the others didn't even compare! We highly recommend that anyone visiting or living in Grand Rapids should check it out.  It is well worth the $30 price tag, even if you visit the taproom often.

GR Eats | Blue Dog

One of our favorite West Side hangouts is Blue Dog Tavern. It's off the beaten path and a local hole-in-the-wall bar, but it has an awesome atmosphere, including scrolling pictures of dogs on the TVs, and even better tater tots! The Buffalo Tots are my favorite and my mouth waters just thinking about them. Their hotdogs are pretty good too, despite looking the opposite :) My favorite is the Ditka. If you're ever in the mood for a low-key drink and love dogs it's a pretty great place!

Weekend Recap | Moving & Final Visitors

I am in denial that July is already half way over.... Where does the time go?! We had another amazing, albeit crazy jam packed weekend.

On Friday we picked up a U-Haul and then packed in 90% of our boxes. That evening my brother and his girlfriend, Sarah, arrived in town for a weekend of breweries and "hip Grand Rapids" aka the stuff my grandparents aren't interested in ;). We headed to Perrin Brewing, where we started our brewery tour and ate dinner. From there we headed to The BOB for the comedian show at Dr. Grin's. It was by far the best comedy show we've seen there! We all had such a great time. Once the show was over we headed to GRBC and then closed down Founders.

Saturday morning came early, but we grabbed some breakfast before hitting up Grand Rapids Coffee Roaster's Saturday Experience where you get to enjoy free coffee, espressos, and americanos. After everyone was hyped up on coffee we headed to Millennium Park with hopes of paddle boarding. Unfortunately, all of the paddle boards were checked out so we decided to kayak instead. After we got our workout in for the day we needed lunch, so we stopped at Blue Dog. We headed back to the house for a quick nap before hitting up Brewery Vivant and Le Bon Macaroons. Next up was dinner at The Mitten Brewing Co, where we enjoyed a pizza flight :) Our final stop for the night (and trip) was Founders for the Saved by the 90's concert. They are a 90's cover band and were awesome!

We were up at 6:30am Sunday morning and spent the entire day packing, loading up the truck, driving to our storage unit, and unloading. It was a longggg day and we couldn't have done it without our friends or my in-laws! I also feel like Duke deserves a shoutout for being the best copilot :)

Fourth Wedding Anniversary

On July 6th Thomas and I celebrated our four year wedding anniversary! I can't believe that it's already been four years!! Due to the 6th falling in the middle of the week we had an extended celebration this year, a staycation if you will :)

On Wednesday Thomas had to work in the morning and when he got home he had an Edible Arrangement for me. I prefer these over flowers any day ;) The chocolate covered strawberries were delicious! Next up on our agenda was to head to the hospital for T to get an MRI on his shoulder. #reallife It ended up taking way longer than we anticipated, but once that was over we headed to Rockwell-Republic for happy hour drinks and sushi! The main event of the evening was the Tour + Tasting we did at Founders. It was awesome! We were both blown away. I'll post a full recap soon. Bottom line: if you're ever in Grand Rapids do this tour!

The rest of the celebration took place on Friday when we stayed the night at the JW Marriott. My friend Michelle gave us her F&F discount so we took advantage of it. We were even upgraded to a river view room! The hotel is impeccable and so fancy. We headed over to The BOB for dinner before going to the movie in the park. This week it was A League of Their Own.

We had the room until noon on Saturday so we took our time, grabbed breakfast, and checked out the pool before I headed next door to The Amway Grand hotel for my massage and facial. It was my first time getting a facial done and now I want to get them all the time! So relaxing and definitely needed.

It was the perfect celebration and I wouldn't want to do life with anyone else <3

Grand Rapids | Fredrick Meijer Gardens & Sculptures

One of Grand Rapid's many gems is the Fredrick Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. It is ranked in the top 100 most-visited art museums in the world, so you can imagine that people come to Grand Rapids from all over the world to see it.

Since we moved to Grand Rapids in August of 2014 we have visited the gardens 7 times, taking different people and going at different times throughout the year. T and I have been in the fall, my grandma and I went to Holiday Exhibition last winter, and we've been a handful of other times. We still haven't seen everything! I'd highly recommend stopping by if you're ever in Grand Rapids. I've broken my pictures into four sections: sculpture park, Japanese garden, children's garden, and indoor gardens.

Sculpture Park
Meijer Gardens has over 200 sculptures throughout the grounds. I highly recommend taking the tram ride for this section, $4 ticket, as there is a tour guide who provides you with some background information. It's probably no surprise that The American Horse is our favorite!

Grand Rapids | Downtown Market

One of Grand Rapid's many gems is the Downtown Market. It's located half a mile away from the heart of downtown (down Ionia St) and features a ton of "stands" and restaurants. Apparel, beverages, baked goods, food to order, etc.; this market has it all. Within the past year two well known east Michigan restaurants have opened up: Slows BarBQ and Social Kitchen and Bar, both excellent places! The closest thing I can compare it to is Pike's Place Market in Seattle, but it's still a little different. They offer cooking classes, host parties/wedding receptions, and different weekly events, such as beer specials and outdoor lawn games in the parking lot. If you're ever in the area with a large group that has different taste buds it's a great place to go due to the variety of options (BBQ, Mexican, seafood, sushi, desserts, etc.).