lionsmane's Letterboxing Trips and Events: A Day in Michigan

We woke up this morning in Hammond, IN and found the skies extremely overcast but it wasn't yet raining. We dressed and got our things ready, loaded the car and headed out. No sooner than the tires on the car started rolling, it started raining. At first it wasn't too bad but just 20 minutes into our three hour drive it became a full blown thunderstorm - thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I couldn't see more than 50 feet in front of me. After about 50 minutes of driving in this we decided to exit the highway and stop for some breakfast and coffee and just take a break from the downpour. After eating and relaxing a bit we ventured back onto the highway. The rain went from just a tiny drizzle to full blown downpours on and off for the full three hours we drove from Hammond to Lansing, MI. We ended up taking one other break (besides the one for breakfast) just to get out of the rain. Thomas and I kept saying that it would be nice if all this rain went to New Mexico.

Michigan State Capitol Dome

Anyway, we survived and made it to the Michigan Capitol Building. We parked at a meter on the side of the building and made a quick dash into the building to enjoy some warmth and dryness. The staff at the Capitol were so friendly. They gave us a self guided tour book and stamped my Capitol Collection book and gave us some suggestions for what we should see and do in the building. One of those suggestions was to see the House Chambers first. The House was starting session today at 1:30pm and if we didn't get to the Chambers before they started we wouldn't have been able to see it. We ended up spending about 45 minutes walking around this beautiful building - taking pictures and learning some history. This is high up as one of my favorite Capitols. The staff was extremely nice, the building was beautiful and well kept, and they had security people walking around but you didn't have to go through any security checkpoints (so none of the paranoia that is sweeping our country). As we were leaving we thanked the people that helped us and headed outside expecting to walk back out into the rain. To our surprise it wasn't raining - at all. So we walked around the outside of the building and took some pictures and then returned to the car. Since it wasn't raining we decided to try and find a letterbox. We drove to Mount Hope Cemetery to find "His Eye is on the Sparrow" by King Edward/Princess Di. Just before we got to the cemetery it started raining again so we decided to drive around the cemetery and try to find all the landmarks from the car and luckily we were able to find the box and all I had to do was dash out and get it and bring it to the car. I sat in the car to stamp in and then replaced the box without getting too wet.

From Lansing we decided to head over to Grand Rapids. We got a suggestion to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. It rained lightly the whole drive and we wondered if we would enjoy a walk outside to see all the sculptures. Thankfully the rain stopped for a while and we did enjoy the park. After paying our fee we started our visit with the Butterfly exhibit in the conservatory. They have a whole area where they raise caterpillars and then there is an area where all the butterflies are flying around freely. The butterflies are species from all around the world so they are diligent about checking your clothes when you leave the area because they don't want to introduce non native species into the park. From there we went outside and walked all around the sculpture park.

Light of the Moon, Igor Mitoraj

There was no rain but it was cold - the temperature was around 37° and there was a little breeze. But we really enjoyed all the sculptures. My favorites were The American Horse by Nina Akamu, Neuron by Roxy Paine, Listening to History by Bill Woodrow and "I, You, She or He" by Jaume Plensa. When it became too cold we decided to head back inside. We walked through a temporary exhibit called Connected and Disconnected: The Sculpture of Hanneke Beaumont. There was something sad and eerie about the pieces and I am still not sure if I liked the exhibit. We did see two of her sculptures outside in the park but seeing an entire collection was a little weird. Also inside the building we got to see two Chihuly pieces, Lena's Garden in the Taste of the Gardens Café and Gilded Champagne Garden Chandelier in the Grand Atrium. We had a great time at the gardens and sculpture park and after about two hours we decided to move on. It wasn't raining so we decided to try to get some letterboxes. We ended up at Oak Hill Cemetery to find Angel Winks' ROY G BIV series. It worked out great because the cemetery was divided into sections and was really well marked. It also had roads around all the sections so we could drive around and find landmarks and locate the hiding spots for the boxes without leaving the car. Once I had the spot I would run and get the box and bring it back to the car for stamping in. This was great because the whole time we were at the cemetery it drizzled on and off. We ended up finding the entire series and were done by 6:00pm. Now it was time for dinner - we saw a sign for Steak 'n Shake and decided to go there. We love this place and there are none in New Mexico. After a good meal we were back in the car and making the drive to Kalamazoo for the night.

With the rain and cold and all the things we did today we are exhausted. Hopefully we will get a good night's sleep so that we are ready to begin our trip back west to Minneapolis tomorrow. We won't make the entire drive to Minneapolis tomorrow, we will just make our way to Madison, WI with a few stops along the way. I'll write about all that tomorrow night.