Holland

The last stop before returning to Ann Arbor was Holland. Yes, we crossed the Atlantic, visited Holland, and crossed the Atlantic again all in a morning. No, we definitely did not go to Holland, Michigan, an hour away from Grand Rapids.

We began our morning with another complimentary hotel breakfast before setting out for Holland. When we arrived, we spent some time walking around the downtown area and visited the farmer’s market. It was nice; it’s a lot like downtown in cities that are trying to maintain a small town feel. There are a bunch of specialty shops and restaurants along the sidewalk-lined streets to encourage people to spend their hard-earned money. The farmer’s market had a good variety of fruits, vegetables, flowers, jams, and other farmer’s market-y products.

After walking down to the farmer’s market and stopping in a couple stores, we drove over to Windmill Island. The main draws of Windmill Island are that it has the only working Dutch windmill in the United States and tulips. The tulips were long wilted, shriveled, and gone, so that left the windmill. Admission to the park is $9.00 a person, which is a little steep compared to the activities I usually partake in [think going to the library (free), voluntarily sweating on my bike all over Ann Arbor (free¹), and practicing scale exercises for all 24 major and minor scales on my clarinet (free²)]. Unless it’s tulip time or you really love windmills, in which case I’m sure it’s very worth it.

The windmill, De Zwaan

We ended up spending a couple hours at Windmill Island during which we saw the windmill, took the tour up the windmill, heard the organ play a bit, saw a few imitation Dutch houses, and visited the gift shop. Then it was off to Ann Arbor, my latest home away from home. We took a couple days to visit the Henry Ford Museum because I could honestly spend days there. Then we did the whirlwind tour of Ann Arbor, including North Campus and my very boring exciting office in NCRC, the farmer’s market and Kerrytown, the library, Central Campus, the State Street area, and a picnic lunch at the Nichols Arboretum.

Overall, it was a good trip, but it could have used more trees and hiking and it screwed up my sleep schedule (again). A few months later, I’ve mostly fixed my sleep schedule (my eating schedule could still use some work), and I moved in the recent past (again). And then classes just started, which is sure to screw everything up (again).

¹After a $100+ investment
²After a $500+ investment