Trip to Grand Rapids

So, this weekend I took a long overdue trip to Grand Rapids. Andrew and I went up Sunday after church and stayed until late last night with Aune at her mom's condo. Here's how the trip went.Sunday, Andrew picked me up from church at about 1:15, and we got on Lake Shore Drive and headed South (then East, then North). To my great pleasure, Andrew was in the middle of listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, so much of the ride was spent enjoying the dulcet tones of Jim Dale.

We arrived at the Carlson complex at 6 p.m. EST and first went on a tour of Grand Rapids. We saw downtown, Wealthy St (I mean, their rich people have no shame), the many, many churches in the area (which seemed to alternate between some type of reformed church or a megachurch of some kind), First Covenant, and also the scenic beauty of some of their parks. I was also reminded of the more conservative nature of Western Michigan when I saw a billboard with this message (this isn't the exact billboard, but it is the exact wording):

I know it's true for me. You don't know how many times someone goes into cardiac arrest at the hospital, and I think to myself, "If only one of us had a pistol, we might be able to save this person!"

So, after going on the tour, we ordered pizza from a place named Jet's and went back to the condo and ate. It was a good time had by all, and Trix (Aune's mom) entertained us by showing us her old Swedish/Dutch books and records. At about 10 we headed out to Founders, Grand Rapids local brewery.

We had a couple tasty brews, watched a very inebriated man painfully hit on a group of girls, and then watched as they got into a screaming match that somehow climaxed with the man smashing his fist into his own passenger side window of his truck. It was a pretty eventful night.

The next morning we woke up late and headed for the pool. We spent the majority of the afternoon sipping on margaritas and sunning ourselves poolside with intermittent swims. At about 4:30 we headed to a mansion that had been turned into a restaurant/bar and had some pizza. That night we headed back to the Carlson complex and I took a nap while the others went for a walk. When I got back, Aune had grabbed her great uncle's old tenor sax, so Andrew and I played a bit. I haven't played in quite a while, so that was pretty great.

Around 11 we decided to go. The drive home was smooth, again entranced by HP5. I arrived home at 1:20 a.m. making today a little touch-and-go. To use hospital lingo, I'm kind of feeling Alert Oriented x 2.

Softball game tonight...hopefully. ResCov made the playoffs, so now it's all about seeding. Okay, I'm out.