So Friday night before we went to the play at Hope College we stopped at a store called Menards...a nicer version of Home Depot/Lowes. We stopped here because Amber's husband Jimmy was going to be showcasing his race car along with several other racers and their cars. While we were there, Rebekka (the lucky little snot that she is) won tickets to go see the Detroit White Caps baseball team play on Saturday night in Grand Rapids. She didn't just win tickets, they were SUITE tickets over the first baseline. The girls were so very excited and now I had to figure out how we were going to do everything as planned on Saturday plus work in the baseball game.
The first stop of the day was at Fredrick Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids Michigan and let me just say these sculptures and gardens are absolutely SPECTACULAR! I was mesmerized by the beauty of these gardens and the sculptures were beautiful. The girls and I had a favorite sculpture called "Mad Mom". It wasn't necessarily of a person...it kind of reminded me of an old cartoon the girls watched called "Rolli Polli Ollie" where the people looked like shapes. It was really cute!
After the sculpture gardens we drove South past Holland to watch Jimmy's drag racing. If you have ever watched drag racing on TV (Pinks, Pinks All Out, etc...) it is NOTHING like that. It is soooooo much better in person! The nose, the smells, the adreneline are GREAT! I must say that this has been my favorite part of our trip right now. Jimmy ran two races while we were there and he won both races. I will say it again...IT WAS GREAT!
We left the race at 7:00 so that we could head back up to Grand Rapids for the baseball game that Rebekka won tickets for. The girls were really excited about going to the game. When we got to the stadium there were signs all over the place stating that the game was sold out. Then we found out that it was Star Wars Theme Night! We got a great parking spot...one of the last ones left before they started parking cars across the street at a bank, and went to go find our seats. Like I said earlier they we were in a suite above the first base line. The suite offered both indoor and outdoor seating so as soon as we were able to we went to sit outside. During the game different Star Wars characters were walking throughout the stands and into the suites so we were able to get some great pictures with the girls and the characters. We were sitting right at the railing able to look down on the field...ideal seats...and then it happened! My poor Emily, if something is going to happen it is going to happen to here! I honestly don't remember which team was at bat, but all of a sudden a foul ball was hit...DIRECTLY at EMILY! Poor child didn't even see it coming! Out of the corner of my eye I noticed the man sitting next to Emily reaching his hand up in the air and then I heard it! THUMP!!!!! Then the shrill SCREAM of my child! I couldn't move fast enough...I was on the end of the row and Samantha and Rebekka were sitting between Emily and myself. Poor Emily was hit smack in her left eye by the foul ball. I must take a minute here and rave about the wonderful staff at the Fifth Third Stadium in Grand Rapids. First off the people in our suite were wonderful scrambling to get us ice as I tried to calm ALL of my children(and myself I might add), but mainly Emily and then within minutes the stadium paramedics were there and everything started to calm down. The stadium staff was terrific they made sure we had everything we needed INCLUDING a game ball. The ball the actually hit Emily was finally caught by a little boy down below us and he refused to give it up so they brought Emily another game ball. We did decide to stay until the end of the game and watched the fireworks after the game. Poor Emily ended the evening with a nice shiner and a headache, but I keep reminding myself it could have been so much worse...she could have had her glasses on...Oh and the White Caps won, 10 to 3 although I still don't know who they were playing!
Sunday morning came sooner than we really wanted because it was time to leave to start our trek back home. Emily's eye was looking pretty good all things considered, she was sporting a nice welt and some bruising on her eyelid. So it was time to check out and head on down the road. The plan for the day was to head to Conner Prairie in Indiana. It is an interactive "period theme" hands on park focusing on the days of the settlers. What a great place...very hands on. You are encourage to touch and feel and experience everything there was at this park. We only did the settlers portion of the park because time didn't permit for us to also experience the civil war portion of the park...that just means we need to go back. Once we left Conner Prairie we continued driving South into Kentucky which is where we stopped for the night at a wonderful, beautiful, terrific, spectacular hotel (can you hear the sarcasm in my voice??? If not trust me it was there) The old addage you get what you pay for was definetly true in this instance. I will remember that for next time :)
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