Vacation comes to an end...

For our last day of vacation we stayed quite close to home.  We went to the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids.  We've been here numerous times, but always enjoy it, plus they are always adding something new.  The Gardens and trails cover almost 100 acres and the sculpture park on its own is 30 acres.  It's listed s one of the 30 must see Museums in the world.   If you are ever in the area, you need to check it out!

Here's the view as you walk up to the building.  It's gorgeous before you even get to the actual gardens.

 

I learned something new on this visit.  These concrete beams go through the whole building, and I just found out they are shaped to represent trees, which is quite fitting. I never paid much attention to them before.

 

They are decorating for Fall and it looks great.

 

There are some fun things to look at inside, as well as special exhibits, but the best is outside.  We loved looking at the berries and leaves on the plants.

 

The birds were very busy that day.

 

There are lots of different gardens there - woodlands, bog, childrens and this farm garden.  All of the gardens have pieces of art placed in them and I thought this was a pretty cute one.

 

The Grand Rapids arch.

 

 An entrance to one of the sculpture areas.

This is one of the better known sculptures - the American horse, modeled after a Da Vinci work.  It's 24 feet tall.

 

Here's a few more sculptures.  There is such a range of style, there's something for everyone.

 

I love the waterfalls they have. 

 

This is one of the new sculptures.  It represents a neuron and it looked quite pretty in the sunlight!

And that ended our outings for the week. Vacation is wonderful, but we're blessed with our jobs as well.