Lunch, a library and a dollhouse

Recently I had a lunch invitation that I have to share with you. It came from the son of a former patient. This lady was from Austria and was in a concentration camp at the end of WWII. Her whole family was killed. After the war she came to the United States and she often went to schools and spoke about what happened to her.

When she came to stay with us she had dementia. Her son put a US flag over her bed so when she woke up, she would remember that she was safe.  She was with us for years, so we got to know her son well and I still hear from him occasionally.  He was the director of the art department at the University here and traveled the world. In his travels he collected miniatures and has created the largest dollhouse I've ever seen. It's about to be moved from his house to be displayed in a museum in a nearby town, and after 6 months it will go to another museum.

So, another nurse and I went to his house, to see the dollhouse and to reminisce about his mom!

First, I have to show you the library.

Isn't a room full of books a beautiful thing?

And here is the dollhouse!  It fills the whole back section of the room.

Each section has its own theme, some are different rooms, others showcase different countries.

A ladder is on the other side so you can see into some of the top section.

It even has its own hot air balloon!

The church

A kitchen

Dining area, serving a feast

There is even an old hospital room!

This little section is kid friendly for his 2 granddaughters to play with

We had a lovely lunch and enjoyed the view of the city from the patio.  It was nice to catch up.

Chihuly at the Gardens

I've often shared our visits to the Meijer Sculpture and Botanical Gardens here in Grand Rapids. It's always a beautiful place to visit, but right now there is an added reason to visit. Dale Chihuly, a world famous glass artist has shared many of his pieces, which are displayed all through the over 150 acres of gardens. I love seeing this art outside in the flowers and the water. Here's a few photos of the beauty we saw as we wandered the gardens.

I hope you enjoyed this little taste of this outside Chihuly Glass Exhibit!

Last stop

Our last day we went to Dow Gardens in Midland Michigan. It's a beautiful Botanical Garden, but our reason to visit was the Canopy Walk.  It's a 1400 foot walk with some areas up to 40 feet in the air.

Walking through the gardens to get to the canopy walk.

Approaching the walk

We started on the walk, and came up this structure hanging from above, went inside and checked it out.

Here's another of those structures, but to get into this one, you had to walk this rope bridge.

A pretty view along the way.

This is what a lot of the walk looked like. You wouldn't know from looking at this that you were way up in the trees.

At the end is the glass viewing platform.

Looking at the viewing platform from another section.

Another beautiful scene as we made our way back out.

After this, it was time to head home. We had a wonderful time with our sweet girls!