Dateline: Grand Rapids

[mrissa]

We are here and safe.

Wish we could say the same for two of the three jars of jalapeno jam we got for my father-in-law. At least they didn't damage any of their fellow Christmas presents. We'll be hitting up seagrit for laundry facilities when we go back over there.

Niece report so far: still extremely cute.

Comments

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I wanted to let you know that your secret surprise has been ordered and should be on its way to you in the next week or two. It's a book published by one of my company's other imprints and relates to Finland, so you'll know how to recognize it once it arrives.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

P.S. I made your oatcakes for my family last week and they loved the recipe!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you for telling me both of those things! Very cool.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

So how are the rapids? Are they really all that grand?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

No! This was a subject of some disappointment in a past visit! They are Distinctly Mediocre Rapids! I was informed by Grand Rapids propagandists some of markgritter's relatives that they are called that because they are rapids of the Grand River. I am Skeptical, myself.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

I figure it is mere envy because Battle Creek has Kellogg's. And cereal factory trumps grandiose rivers any time. ;]

Actually, the niftier place is way up north. The Tacquamenon [sp?] Falls look like root beer. They are lovely. Until I saw them, I never would have expected that of root beer waterfalls, frothing and foaming.

Now I feel soggy nostalgia for Beer Lake and Meadowbrook Hall equally, and I certainly can't recommend the first as a non-local landmark...

Sorry. Missing my native Midwest. Ah, TREES! Seasons!

May your trip go well otherwise, despite the jam's refusal to participate.

- Chica

Whip Inflation Now

[jymdyer.livejournal.com]

=v= Grand Rapids?!?!? Did you ride on the Gerald R. Ford Expressway?

BTW, I never managed to visit the Gerald R. Ford Childhood Home in Omaha. It had all sorts of little tasteful signs, as befits Presidential residences, plus a big garish sign about bicycles being prohibited.

Re: Whip Inflation Now

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

We flew into the Gerald R. Ford (International?) Airport, but we have left the expressway strictly alone for this and most of our visits to GR.

I feel sure that I was taken to the Gerald R. Ford Childhood Home, but I couldn't tell you when. It may be a false conviction. Probably they had problems there with biker gangs, pedaling by waving their pieces of bike frame menacingly. That sort of thing can traumatize a Presidential Childhood Home, you know.