Our first adventure today was touring the Gerald R Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.
with a beautiful fountain/waterfall/pool in front of it.
The marble sailboats in the pool are part of an upcoming ArtPrize competition. This is an international competition that brings a huge variety of pieces to the city for three weeks. Items are placed all around downtown Grand Rapids (they are expecting over 1500 pieces of art this year) and are voted on by the visiting public and a jury of artists with huge monetary prizes awarded. (check out ArtPrize.org for more information) Several items were being put up today so we got to see the artists in action setting their entries up. This "time" one was fun to look at as it had everything from watches to fancy clocks on it:
Then there this repurposed highway sign pole
The artist was working on setting it up and encouraged us to step in and look up so I did and took this picture
This series of poles were just being screwed in place as we were leaving
Inside a girl from Japan was hanging 3 very intricately cut paper sculptures of a wolf, polar bear and eagle. It took her 5 months to cut this one of the polar bear. It is held up with a huge number of thin threads tied to a thin poles hung from the ceiling.
She was still working on hanging this eagle that took her seven months to cut
And this glass mural was being mounted on the wall inside the museum
The museum itself was very well done giving much of the history surrounding Gerald Ford's appointment to the position of Vice President and then his moving into the presidency with Richard Nixon's resignation. A variety of media was used to share this story as well as his early history including the fact that he was a Boy Scout at 12 and made the status of Eagle Scout by the age of 14 which is quite a meterotic rise in such a short time. We have a personal sense of all that is involved in making that status as our grandson is just finishing the final steps of his project and follow up for his Eagle Scout status.
He was an outstanding football player in high school and a strong leader for his University of Michigan team but turned down being a pro so he could continue his education at Yale Law School.
There was a great "mock up" of the Oval Office with a recording of all that took place in it on just a single day to give a sense of what a president deals with on a given day.
and also one of the cabinet room with a video presentation of one of the major discussions that took place there shortly after he became president. He wanted to pardon Nixon so as to help the country move on and put that focus behind it. His support staff was very much against the idea but he persisted arguing that in the end it would really help our country then to refocus and begin to deal with a myriad of problems facing the country.
Outside the museum is his and his wife's burial ground with a beautiful display of flowers.
On the grounds was also this beautiful memorial to the three major Indian nations that occupied Michigan prior to the coming of the white man.
The sun was working hard at breaking through the clouds as we left the museum and headed toward the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park
At the entry the flowers are red and they move through the primary and secondary colors to this blue near the back
The entry way into the building and even the hall floors leading to the various indoor specialty gardens as well as the doors to the outdoor gardens are is even a art delight. The posts are made to look like trees and the floor has a wide variety of brass sculptures inlaid into it.
The indoor gardens included one for desert plants displayed in a variety of ways
This was just some of the orchids they had on display
Carnivorous plants had their own room with a sign that said they eat the bugs that manage to get into the area. Apparently enough do as they do not feed them anything but water.
In the seasonal flowers area was this central "post" with flowers all around the outer edges of the room
Display surfaces included this antique piece
and lots of statuary
Outside, this beautiful display spelled F A L L
A narrated trolley ride then took us past some of the 55 sculptures in the park all of which have landscaping to fit them such as this antelope (made from driftwood) in prairie grasses
and this young man contemplating while lying down near the music theater
Later we walked back to get a better look at this Leonardo DaVinci horse -
Then we spent a good deal of time in the Children's garden which truly is a place for people of all ages that provides special treats for all the senses including a nose, ear, and hand sculptures encouraging children to use those senses and look for certain things.
Their was a series of pools with boats in them that represented the five great lakes but an especially fun place for the kids to play.
At the entrance is this set of statues of all ages of children playing with a ball in a circle
A board walk through the woodlands with ponds and stream takes kids to a cabin with all kinds of games in it, a tree house overlook with posts made out of the trunks of the various trees found in Michigan to encourage them to know by the bark which was which, and even this little hut with stuffed animals in it.
And this cute little display fit the nursery rhyme of Mary Mary Quite Contrary
There were other gardens but our legs said we'd had enough so we said farewell and set off for our motorhomes for dinner and an evening of taking it easy.
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