This year we had an extra day off for the 4th of July holiday & we decided to go to Michigan for the extra long weekend. I picked
Holland which is about a 7 hour drive with a couple of short stops. It had been years since I spent a summer along Lake Michigan.
We loaded up our kayaks & bikes and left Lexington on Wednesday morning and got to our
hotel about 3PM. Since this was a holiday weekend & a last minute decision our
hotel was on the edge of town. The rooms were great & the access to all the sites was really easy.
Our first stop was the visitor center in downtown Holland and to check out some breweries. At the visitor center we picked up info for the area bike & hiking trails and the local
Handcrafted Passport books. Our first brewery stop for the long weekend was
New Holland Brewing on 8th. I got a flight of Tangerine Space Machine IPA, Mad Hatter IPA, Kombucha IPA & a Dark Dune Blueberry Stout. I enjoyed all the beers even the KIPA. I am a huge fan of Kombucha but didn't expect the KIPA to be that great. It was very drinkable although I would still prefer to keep my Kombucha & beer separate! The food was really good too.
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| New Holland Brewing |
We walked a bit more downtown & then attempted to see the sunset at
Holland State Park. You can walk or bike in for free into all the parks but for cars there is a $9 daily fee. We decided to skip the beach walk since the park was only open for another 45 minutes & parked a couple miles down the road to walk along Lake Macatawa instead. After walking around for a bit we called it a night & headed back to our hotel.
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| Lake Macatawa |
Thursday was the 4th of July. We grabbed a free breakfast at the hotel & then headed back to
Holland State Park. Our plan was to bike the
Lakeshore Connector Trail towards Grand Haven & then cool off in the lake afterwards. We got to the park about an hour after it opened so we got a good parking spot. The trail to
Grand Haven is about 20 miles one way. I had no idea if we would go that far but there were plenty of parks we could stop at along the way.
Once we got out of the park area the ride was great. Lots of shade along the route. Unfortunately, even though you are right next to the lake you don't get to see it very often. There are multi-million dollar properties that line this road between you & the lake. We made a couple of park stops along the way to check out the lake. We decided to turn around at Olive Beach & make our way back. There was no way we were going to make to Grand Haven AND back to Holland. We stopped for lunch at Sandy Point Beach House on our way back.
Once we got back to our car I changed into my swimsuit for a float in the water to cool off. Steve didn't bring his suit so he got to hang out on the beach with the 1000s of other folks. Being at this beach made me very nostalgic for my summers in Chicago during college. Everyone and their mother would go to the beach on those few hot summer days. Somehow in all the commotion of the people I didn't even get a photo of
Big Red lighthouse.
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| Lakeshore Connector Trail |
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| Pigeon Creek - We would later kayak under this bridge |
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| Lunch Stop |
After cooling off we packed up & went back to the hotel to shower. We spent the evening in downtown Holland. First up was
Big Lake Brewing. I got a flight & an appetizer. The flight tray was the shape of Lake Michigan. I sampled Mighty Mac IPA, Big Lake Camper New England IPA, Locked Out Pale Ale, Lake Haze New England IPA, Leroy Brown - a Brown Ale and Michi-gander a Session IPA. Every single one of their beers were amazing. I couldn't pick a favorite, they were all excellent.
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| So many great beers to choose from |
After we finished our beers we walked around Holland. Thursday evenings they have
street performers all over downtown. We went back to New Holland Brewing for dinner since they were the only brewery open regular hours on the holiday. Around 9PM we made the walk down to
Kollen Park to watch the fireworks. They shot the fireworks off a barge in Lake Macatawa. The city put on a great show. Afterwards we walked back to our car & headed back to the hotel. Holland isn't a big town so even though there was what seemed like a lot of people traffic wasn't bad at all.
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| Waiting for the fireworks |
Our plan for Friday was to kayak. It took a few attempts to find a suitable put in place but Steve found the perfect one. The rivers were high so the first couple places we looked at didn't work. Pigeon Creek ended up being a great little spot. It's about a mile or so from Lake Michigan & you can also go further down the creek to explore. We did both. The further away from the lake you went the more lily pad like stuff in the water. Not sure what the official name for it is. We initially didn't realize we could paddle under the road (remember bike photo above?) to get to Lake Michigan. On the other side of the road there were a lot of jet skies & big boats playing in the water or heading to the big lake. We decided to paddle to Lake Michigan. The Lake was very choppy by early afternoon but we made it. I took a couple of snaps & then headed back to our car. We were getting hungry. We spent a little over 2 hours paddling around & were ready for lunch. Next visit I would put in at the same place but head straight to the lake. There is a park just north of where we popped out along the lake that we could paddle to & then hang out on the beach.
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| Put in next to parking lot. Super easy. Porta Potty next to lot |
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| Made it to Lake Michigan! It was choppy by early afternoon |
For lunch we headed to
Zeeland to check out
Tripelroot Brewing. Zeeland has a super cute downtown area and its about 15 minutes from Holland. We ordered italian sandwiches & beer of course. They had what I thought was a perfect
beer but unfortunately didn't have any currently on tap. I took home a 6 pack just because I loved the concept so much. The other beers & the sandwich were very good. So far, we were 3 of 3 on breweries!
After lunch we headed back to the hotel for a nap & eventually showers before checking out
Saugatuck for dinner. I had been to Saugatuck years ago & new it was an artsy coastal feel of a town. We got lucky & found a parking spot right along the river. This is another town that lots of people from the big cities come to in the summer. High rent district! For dinner we settled on
Mitten Brewing. I got a flight of beers & a couple of ciders and we split a pizza. The beers were good but I'm just not a cider fan. Too sweet. One sip is plenty for me. The pizza was really good. After dinner we walked to
Charlies Round the Corner for ice cream. Vacation isn't really vacation without ice cream! We then sat by the river & watched the boats go by. Such a peaceful place!
Saturday of course was run day so we went to
Stu Visser Park to run from there. I thought it would be shady but I was very wrong. It was a full sun run that time of day. We got our run done & headed to the
Holland Saturday Farmers Market. We got a couple slices of watermelon, a glass of Kombucha and the famous
Bowerman Blueberry Donut. Oh so yummy! No pics of any of this. Everything jumped right into my belly! We picked up a quart of strawberries & blueberries on our way out to eat later.
Since we didn't get much of a beach day yet I suggested we go to
Oval Beach in Saugatuck. It is listed as one of the
worlds best beaches so we had to check it out. We got there just after noon & to my surprise the lot wasn't full yet. We grabbed our chairs & found a place to settle in. The beach was great & although a lot of people were there it wasn't as busy as Holland State Park was on the holiday. The water was a perfect 71 degrees. Chilly when you first got in but very refreshing and perfect to float around in. We floated around for a while then just sat in our chairs soaking it all in. It was such a great day. Not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. I'm not normally a beach person but this was so relaxing. We hung out for a couple of hours before packing up to grab lunch.
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| Oval Beach |
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| Oval Beach |
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| Oval Beach |
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| Oval Beach |
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| Oval Beach |
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| Oval Beach |
We left the beach about 2:30PM & the parking lot was packed. Guess folks come out later in the day. Our next brewery stop was
Saugatuck Brewing. This was probably my least favorite brewery for reasons outside of their control. The parking lot was a giant cluster. It wasn't big enough for the brewery & the antique mall that shared the lot. It took awhile & some patience to get a spot. Once in we had about a 10 minute wait. I got another flight but decided to try some non-Pale Ale & IPAs. I ordered a couple of Blondes & a Blueberry Lemon Shandy in addition to the IPAs. Big mistake. I don't like Blondes at all. Couldn't even finish them. The Blueberry Lemon Shandy was drinkable but not my favorite. The IPAs were all good. It still surprises me how much I like IPAs now since I used to feel the same way about IPAs as I do Blondes. Oh well. Glad I like them since everyone seems to brew them in mass amounts!
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| Saugatuck Brewing |
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| Saugatuck Brewing |
Our last evening in Michigan was spent in downtown Holland. The first stop was
Our Brewing. We hung out on their back patio & both drank a Pale Ale. Afterwards we stopped at
Big Lake Brewing again to get appetizers & drink some more of their beer. Plus wee wanted to grab some to-go beers to bring home. Our next stop was
New Holland Side Car for more beers to go. We had sampled so many great beers we wanted to take some home with us. We then carried our beers to
Kilwins for one last vacation ice cream. Our last stop of the evening was
Centennial Park to see the
Wizard of Oz Exhibit.
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| Our Brewing |
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| Kilwins Ice Cream |
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| Centennial Park |
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| The Michigan Beer Haul |
We packed in a ton of fun over the long weekend. Holland & the surrounding area is awesome. They have such a coastal feel to them which I absolutely love. I so want to go back for a week & rent a house near the beach. I truly forgot how wonderful northern summers are & how amazing Lake Michigan is!
