The Pirate comes to visit

I left you all a week ago, telling you we had special friends coming to visit.  Now I'm back and reporting on the great time we had with Jenny from I'm Having a Thought Here and her husband TG.
Jenny and I met blogging, and have been friends for years.  Last November we went to South Carolina to celebrate their daughter's wedding, and now they drove up to us for a short visit.

The first night Laura, Heather and families came over to meet them. Because Jenny is a pirate lover and goes by 'Jenny the Pirate', Cassie came in a pirate costume.  By the time this photo was taken, all the remained was the cap!

Connor was there too, but was cranky when we took the photo of Jenny and the girls.

The girls had made gifts for Jenny.  Alaina made this pencil holder and paper flower.

Ruby made the pirate bracelet.  Cassie had drawn a picture for her.

We girls spent some time chatting on the porch.

Another thing Jenny is very interested in is old cemeteries.  We found an old one in Grand Rapids and went to check it out the next day.

It was a sunny day, perfect for wandering in this beautiful place.

This is the Bissell Obelisk, marking the grave of the man who invented the Bissell carpet sweeper.

This mausoleum cost $200,000 to build in the early 1900's.  It's estimated that the cost now would be two million dollars.  Look at the front of it - there are 2 Sphinx guarding it!

Here's one of them.

Some of the monuments are so beautiful. 

This mausoleum looked like a pyramid. Although the outside looks like wood shingles, it's actually stone.

We saw many headstones that were for children.  This one said "Little Blossom, 5 years".  So sad!

After this we headed to Holland, where the annual Tulip Time festival was going on. Unfortunately it was so busy we couldn't even find a place to park...
So we headed on to Grand Haven, to check out the Light House and Lake Michigan.

It was so cold on the pier! 

We didn't spend much time here, walked down and back quickly so we could get back to the warmth of the car.
We went into town and did a little shopping in the cute shops.

Then we headed off to the last stop of the day.

We drove about 40 minutes north of Grand Haven to the White River Lighthouse. It wasn't open for tours, but is always fun to walk around and see.  It was built in 1875.

Here's TG and Jenny in front of the Lighthouse.

They headed back home the next morning, but we sure enjoyed the time we spent with them!