The last full day in Michigan we decided to visit some of the old buildings in downtown Holland…
The first thing we did was go to Coldstone 😀 Not very GAPS-legal, but oh well! This was vacation and we were willing to take the chance 😀 We actually had ice cream every single day on vacation…some GAPS legal ice cream we made at the cottage, and then other not-so-GAPS-legal at other places. It was wonderful 😀
Sitting outside to eat our ice cream…
Oh yum!
We always ‘trade bites’, because when you have eleven different people, usually there’s eleven different flavors and everyone wants to sample what the other flavors are 😀
The courtyard we ate our ice cream in was very pretty…the whole town was. We commented that it felt like Boston, only it wasn’t as hectic 😉
{family picture}
We got a lot of stares, and one lady was just smiling and smiling and came up behind Daddy and Mommy and started taking pictures of us with her camera 😯 😀 It’s kind of strange when people do that, but we’ve kind of gotten used to it by now 😀
This building was neat…the plaque tells the story, but the dents you see in the building are bullet marks from when the bank was robbed 😀
We loved the old buildings, and even the newer buildings looked neat and old-fashioned 🙂
{Walking by the shops}
We love posing with statues 😀
The tables out on the sidewalk and the open shop doors reminded us more and more of Boston 😀
The oldest building in Hollland, Michigan. It was a firehouse on the bottom floor and a city hall on the top. The tower was made to dry the 50-foot hoses of the fire engines 🙂
Across from the old fire station, there were these ‘fountains’ that would randomly shoot out of the sidewalk, so some of us had fun running between them and trying to dodge them 😀
Did we already tell you that Holland was very pretty?!
This shop had a unique clock…the price tag said $69.00. We decided we needed to scare up some of our own utensils and make a clock for $69.00, hehe! 😀
More statues!
They were so nice as to give us a concert, but they weren’t very talkative…
We visited the park last…
{all the lovely flowers}
There was a gazebo in the middle of the park, which of course was a perfect ‘family picture spot’ 😉
We had to do a funny one, too 😀
The ‘Women’s Literary Club’ building…also very pretty 🙂
We really liked this clock tower, too.
A nice grandfatherly man was sitting on a bench…
…and let us take our picture with him 😀 We were wondering why Benjamin Franklin got his own statue in Holland though…anybody know?
{old-fashioned lamp posts}
On our way out, we saw yet another statue, of a serviceman…with the flag it made a perfect picture!
And last of all, we have one more video for you of the house 😀 Has nothing to do with downtown Holland, and we don’t know that there is anything new of the house that you’ll see, but hopefully you’ll enjoy it anyhow!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-vc46FQff4[/youtube]
Our next post will be about the fun we had at the beach 😀 Thanks for all your comments…we really, really enjoy them all! You make our day!
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finally first commenter!!!!!
it looks like you guys had TONS of fun!!!!
i LOVE ice cream♥♥♥ 🙂 I really like the pic of the music statues:)
isaiah is so adorable!!!!
love
*alaina*
And to think that all those beautiful, downtown, sidewalks are heated in the winter, resulting in no snow or ice! It making browsing and shopping a year round adventure!
They do?! We didn’t know that! How neat 😀
Hi sisters and brothers! I red your blog for a looong time now and..I live in Holland! And not in Michigan, but in the Netherlands. The Holland you vissited looks a little like the old dutch houses in citycentres overhere. We build only brick (with concrete inside) houses overhere (I love the old wooden usa houses!!) as the winter can be cold (summers too…) and the wind can blow very hard. Now we all have save houses. The names of Zeeland, Overijssel and Friesland (different writing now a days), are still the names of provinces overhere. I live in the province of Drenthe and very close to the province of Overijssel (about 10 minutes by bike). Over ijssel means; over the IJssel. And the IJssel is a river. Zee land means land of sea (it’s in the south east, next to the north sea) and Fries land means; land of the friesians Close to us up north.
If you like, you can take a look on google to look for pictures about the (orthodox protestant) village of Staphorst, wich is our neighbour town. In Staphorst people wear the old dress that looks wonderful, but to our modern idea, also very uncomfortable. The woman even wear six skirts! They wear lovely headcoverings too, and decorate their own textile in a special way with the upside of nails. You can look that up too. It is a traditional farmers village with lovely traditional buildet farms in traditional collors. Please take a look! Unfortanily nowadays young people wear the traditional dress less…but I love it!
Anyway, loovvee your blog too and greetings from Holland, mama lieveheersbeestje.
Wow! That is so neat! Thanks for giving us a “Netherlands” lesson 😀 I’ve been looking up the different traditional costumes and really like the Friesland caps 🙂 Six skirts! Wow! I can’t imagine wearing that all the time, lol!
All the costumes are so pretty though 🙂 Thank you so much for your comment!
Jessica
It looks like your having a great time! 🙂 I live in Saginaw, MI but I’ve never been to Holland! I would LOVE to thought, and I agree… it looks so pretty! 😀 I love your posts, especially the videos! You all seem like a really neat family! I enjoy reading your blog!
Blessings,
Jenn