The joys of staycations

It is easy to forget the joys of your town when you're surrounded by them all the time.  I live in a great place.  Grand Rapids has a lot to offer a person when you don't let normal life cause you to forget all about it.  As I was on a forced vacation (no, I wasn't in trouble.  The family I work for was out of town), I spend the last couple of days walking my city trying to see it as a tourist instead of a resident.  Now, I didn't go anywhere I've never been before, but I did go to the places I went to complete immerse myself in them and enjoy them like I never have before. 
 
Yesterday I left my house and walked east.  I had no real destination in mind other than to take a walk and enjoy a few minutes of sun before the return of the rain we'd been getting for a week.  I ended up at my favorite antique store for awhile, followed by my favorite used bookstore.  While I go to both of these places often, I don't normally get to spend much time talking to people while I'm there, but this time around, I heard some great stories from the people who run the places.  I found a great lamp (and possible end table) to go into a room I'm working to furnish, I picked up some great books and in the walk from the antique store to the bookstore, I found a whole in the wall bakery that sells real boiled, not steamed bagels making a mental note that I was going to have to go back and try them out.  Continuing my walk, I found my way into a whole in the wall restaurant that I'd gotten food from, but never eaten at.  Since it was well after the lunch hour and several hours before dinner, I had the small place to myself.  Rinaldi's...thanks for the great lunch and fun conversation.  And for letting me loiter over my book long after I finished my food.  One more stop at an antique store to inquire about having a piece of furniture refinished, I headed home.  I took a stroll by a former residence of mine out of curiosity, was reminded why I'll never eat at a restaurant across the street from there and meandered up and down a few side streets I never travel on the way.  It was a pleasant afternoon that will probably end with me being able to buy the lamp and end table for $40 less than what they were marked.  I'd call that a good day.

Today I walked the other direction and this time I brought my camera.  I knew I wanted to get at least as far as the downtown branch of the library, but other than that, had no real plans.  Well, other than to walk to giant hill on Fulton on the way back for some added exercise since I wasn't going to the gym while on my staycation.  After returning a bag full of things to the library and managing not to check anything else out, I continued heading further into the downtown area.  I

View down Monroe Center

wandered down my favorite street in Grand Rapids, Monroe Center, with the vague idea that I might want to visit the Grand Rapids Art Museum.  Instead I stopped in at Madcap.  While my iced mocha was pretty good, I am definitely not cool enough to be a regular at the pretentiously hipster Madcap.  I got my drink to go and headed towards Rosa Park Circle to find a place to sit in the sun while enjoying my drink and a book.  Guess what?  The Circle is still set up for ice skating so no tables and chairs.  Guess I just have to keep walking.  Walking led me to the Grand River.  Across the river is the

GR Public Museum with GR in the background

Grand Rapids Public Museum.  My mom and sister were in town last week and made a visit to the Public Museum.  They said the Titanic special exhibit was pretty cool so I decided I'd see for myself.  I ended up spending the next 3 hours wandering the museum taking it all in, camera in hand.  Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the Titanic exhibit so to make up for that, I purchased the horrible souvenir photo.  Well, I'm assuming it's horrible.  I haven't actually looked at it.  I will in a minute when I attempt to get it digitalized so I can post it along with my other pictures from today. I also have my 'boarding pass' from the exhibit.  Everyone is given a card with your

Front of Boarding Pass

identity on it.  Each identity is someone who was actually aboard the Titanic on it's one and only voyage.  Before exiting the exhibit, you

Back of Boarding Pass

stop at a giant display that will tell you if you lived or died.  I found it a great way to personalize the history.  The rest of the exhibits were all things I'd seen before, but I still had a lot of fun seeing it all again and taking pictures this time.  My last stop before leaving was the carousel.  I love a carousel ride so whenever I have the option, I take the ride.  As this one was part of the admission price, I definitely wasn't going to miss it.  And I'm glad I didn't.  After I got off, the lady running the ride started pointing out some of her favorite of the horses and paintings on the ride.  We got talking and it turns out she and her guy own the bagel shop I had noticed on my walk only the day before!  I promised to try their bagels, we exchanged information and plan on getting together for coffee soon.  After I was finished at the museum, I started the walk back home.  At this point I was

Me and the ghost of the Captain

more than 2 miles from home and it was after 6pm.  I was tired and considered just getting on the bus, but talked myself into the walk as I told myself I wanted to walk up Fulton hill.  Glad I walked because I started to feel hungry and decided to stop in at The Cottage Bar for some dinner.  Yum!  Not my favorite burger in town, but their Cottage fries make up for

Yay for carousel rides!

that.  And now I'm home.  It was a day filled with walking, but I had a lot of fun and even made a new friend!  It's been a long time since I've made a completely new friend.  I wasn't sure I was capable anymore.  And as I like to read while I walk, I got about 60 pages read today.  Oh yeah...I survived my voyage on the Titanic

One more day to my staycation before it's back to work.  Wonder what I'll do tomorrow...

 More pictures available on Facebook.