The first day was pretty much a full travel day. From Geneseo ALL the way to the other side of Grand Rapids was complete chaos, driving wise. Massive traffic issues, loads of construction, almost bumper-to-bumper the entire way. I can't believe I was originally going to drive up there by myself! I got to use my beats headphones in the car (I bought them specifically for this trip so my dad and I could listen to our own music) and they worked like a charm when I was getting nervous about the traffic. Being in the passenger seat is hard sometimes. The best parts were the Denny's in the suburbs of Chicago and seeing Lake Michigan for the first time! Lake Michigan is, honestly, the best part of the video. We had driven along the side of the interstate on some back/side roads until we finally found a park, in the little town of Glenn, that lead all the way down to the beach! It was the first beach I had ever set foot on. The sand was so soft, but inside the water it was full of little broken pieces of shells! They hurt to step on, my feet were red until we got home 4 days later, but man were they exfoliated! (: I ended up bringing home a ton of rocks, and I wish I had brought back more! The water was a lot warmer than we thought it would be so we stayed there for a good one and a half to two hours before making our way to Greenville, where my uncle and his girlfriend, who we stayed with, live. We stopped at a Pizza Hut and ate a salad or two each from the salad bar before heading to their house and settling in for the next few days.
We were originally going to go to Art Prize on Day 2, but my dad had injured his knee a week before we left for Michigan, and it was hurting him pretty badly. It was also drizzling outside and cold and rainy, so we decided it would be best to just chill and take a rest day. My uncle is a HUGE comic book nerd (in a good way!!) and him and I sat and read comic books and watched Marvel movies most of the day. In between the movies and comics, we went to a really good family restaurant for breakfast, explored a really cool cemetery, we got really bad customer service at an AT&T store, ate some really good Italian food, I played with his two cats and two dogs, and we drove around a really nice lake they go to all the time. It was nice to have a rest day in between the long road trip there and walking around Grand Rapids to look at Art Prize.
We were so glad we waited until our third day to go to Art Prize. The weather was a complete polar opposite of the day before. Low to mid 70's, bright sunshine, slight breeze. We couldn't have asked for a better day to go to Art Prize and walk around Grand Rapids! I was very surprised by how Grand Rapids, the city itself, looked. I always imagine bigger cities to be like Chicago (dirty, crowded, etc). But Grand Rapids was impressive! All nice and clean, even with a lot of people there it didn't feel crowded, and the buildings were just plain cool! I wouldn't mind living there, I love walking through big cities, and this one was one of my favorites so far! There was art plastered EVERYWHERE. We went into bars, hotels, restaurants, museums, everywhere had artwork. Even parks! There was a guy riding a bike around the Art Prize paths that he had made into a big fish, too. I wish I had gotten a better clip of it for the video, it was pretty cool looking and actually moved like a real fish!
I wish they had some different t-shirts, but I got two for myself and one for Austin. Unfortunately, the one for him didn't fit, so now it's a sleep shirt for me that stays at his house. Art Prize was such a fun and cool experience. If the drive wasn't so long and the traffic wasn't so horrible, I'd definitely go back more often! My work's headquarters is actually based in Grand Rapids, but by the end of walking around the big city none of us felt like searching out the work building, haha.
The way home was pretty uneventful. Lots of traffic, not as bad as the way up, but still a lot of traffic and construction. The way home always seems to take less time than getting there. Dad made some special stops on the way out of Michigan so I could get my usual magnet! I was so bummed not to find any Art Prize magnets ANYWHERE, so I settled for a simple Michigan one and a snowglobe with a moose in it. The clouds were crazy cool on the way back, so there's a lot of footage of that and traffic. Other than that not much happened. We got home Sunday in time for my dad to watch Sunday night football and catch the ends of some of the afternoon games, haha.
Overall it was a very fun trip! We got to eat a lot of good food and see a lot of amazing art! It was fun exploring a new city and I'm so glad I went on this trip even though it almost didn't happen. In the future I hope to go back. I'd like to explore Greenville's adorable downtown area more and I could stay in Grand Rapids all day! 10/10 would recommend for anyone interested in art, or not interested at all. It was really cool to meet the artists and learn new things!
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