July 4th was a Saturday this year, and nothing says “Freedom” like a road trip to go see outdoor sculpture. So, we headed off early to go to the Meijer Sculpture Gardens in Grand Rapids, which was about 90 minutes away. It was a fine day, with some clouds, but we figured that between the slight threat of rain and the holiday, we would have the gardens mostly to ourselves, which turned out to be pretty accurate. The rain never came, and so we had a warm but not sunburn-likely day, which is pretty ideal for me.

Getting to the gardens was uneventful, and Meredith was tickled to see that it was right across the street from Cornerstone University, where she has had several students go. We parked in the lightly-populated parking lot, and made our way inside. We paid, and used the restrooms, and saw that there were some inside exhibits, but made our way outside pretty quickly in case it were to rain. We grabbed a map from the inside info desk, and armed with this, Meredith was able to plan our orderly tour of the grounds. We immediately dismissed the idea of a guided tour via tram (neither of us likes tram tours since you cannot always linger at a place). Mer decided to circle around the outside of the park, strongly encouraged by me since it was a wooden walkway through some wetlands. I like walkways. The wetlands were pretty, and had some animal sculptures placed in the trees and bushes and that pleased us both very much. The gardens overall did a very nice job of incorporating the sculptures with the landscape, even when the sculptures were abstract.

The walkway ended near the “farm” area of the gardens, with pretty farm buildings and sculptures of farm animals. We poked around the barn (which had been moved to the gardens from elsewhere) and farmhouse (which really just held bathrooms), and then Mer kicked into gentle tour-mode. We took the wandering garden paths in a gentle stroll, but in a manner that would allow us to see the entire gardens without have to backtrack much. There are several areas of the gardens that are quite isolated, with sculptures down shielded paths, and the largest sculptures are spaced quite a bit apart, so nowhere does the park feel cramped or crowded.

We did end up seeing the entire park. I think it took about 5 hours, plus a little more to see the inside exhibits. I liked most of the pieces I saw, and I do not remember being made angry by any of the modern pieces. I do give much more allowance for abstract sculpture for some reason. I generally like it, especially when it is outside. I think the abstract pieces are better when surrounded by trees. Some of my favorite works included:

A horse sculpture that looks for all the world like it is made of driftwood, and it looks like a horse Death would ride. It is actually made of bronze, but it really does look like wood. It is pretty remarkable.

A huge horse sculpture that is one of the main works of the Gardens. Here we came across a family with two small children. They were running around under the sculpture, and the dad announced they had to move on. As they ran under the sculpture, the older of the two children (who was probably four) looked up and announced “Daddy! This horse is a boy horse!” I found that rather amusing.

There were a pair of very whimsical dragons in the children’s section of the park which made me think of a former student of mine and made me convinced that Mer and I need to kidnap her and take her to the Gardens to see these creations. 

There was a sculpture of an old man and a young girl, and I think it was just called The Storyteller. I’d love to be a good storyteller someday, so I liked the piece.

There were many more sculptures around, and they were quite wonderful. I strongly recommend swinging by Grand Rapids if you are ever even close to the area. You can spend a quite delightful 4-6 hours here.

We did also look at the indoor exhibits, which had a special exhibit featuring works by Calder, who invented the mobile (sculptures that hang and balance from string or wire), as well as huge steel sculptures that can be found worldwide (including Grand Rapids). There are regular indoor exhibits as well that included a carnivorous plant exhibit and a Victorian garden. It really is a wonderful place to visit, and Mer and I want to go back in the fall and winter to see how the grounds change.

Once we were back to the car, Meredith asked if we could swing by the three nearby colleges where she either had students attending or where she had known people who had gone there. She likes to be able to visualize the campuses. Since they were close, I agreed, so we popped across the street to the small but nice campus of Cornerstone University. We made the circuit of campus in just a few minutes, and so proceeded on to the other side of town to Calvin University. Calvin has a much bigger campus, and is more traditional- looking, with more brick buildings, paths, and many trees. Even driving, it took us over 10 minutes to get around the entire campus. It just seemed to go on and on.

We hit the highway and headed back south. Our last stop was to be in Holland, home of Hope College. We got off at the Holland exit and proceeded in to town, and it looked pretty bland – huge strip malls and nondescript housing areas. Mer’s friend had always talked about how cute the college and town were, and I have to admit that I was skeptical. We pushed on and drove into the real downtown, the historical area. It was charming. There were traditional shops that faced wide sidewalks, with restaurants and bookstores and music shops. We drove around Hope College, and it was fairly contained (about 1 block by 2 blocks), but it was very pretty. I needed to use a restroom, so we stopped and wandered around a bit. We found a great bakery that served unusual, large, chocolate desserts, and we were quite won over. We hope to get back to Holland again soon as well.

Once we got back to Mom and Marc’s place, we told them about our day, and then the four of us went downstairs to watch the movie Doubt. It is a film about a Catholic priest who is accused of molesting a boy in his school, and the film revolves around how one can prove something like that. It was quite excellent and thought- provoking. Oddly, Marc and I felt for the priest, while Mom and Mer felt more for the nun who was defending the child. A very good film – I recommend it.

We went home on Sunday, and picked up with a pleasant stay-at-home summer (including going to see The Winter’s Tale for free with our friends Matt and Lis). However, so that I can soon get back to live blogging, I’ll wrap up the entire month of July with this journaling of a very good vacation.