My mom had a meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan and invited David and me to come along. Grand Rapids is less than an hour and a half from where we live. While she was in her meeting, we killed some time around the downtown area. We had breakfast at Bagel Beanery, which had delicious bagels, cream cheese, and coffee.

After figuring out how to get to it, we stopped at La Grande Vitesse. It’s a beautiful steel sculpture by American artist Alexander Calder located in front of Grand Rapids City Hall.

After that, we walked through the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Ford was from Grand Rapids and was the 38th president of the United States. He was appointed after Nixon resigned. I learned a lot about the Watergate scandal from walking through the museum.

They had fun memorabilia from the 1970’s.  Pet rock, anyone?

I thought these invitations were funny. They were for Gerald Ford’s wedding brunch. The options for “unable to come” are:

• My wife is pregnant
• I am in jail
• I am a Democrat
• The bank foreclosed
• I am going hunting
• Never could stand Ford
• I am reading the Kinsey Report

It’s kind of fun being a tourist in your home state!