Got back on the road again and just a few miles down the road we passed by a sign for a blueberry farm and of course we had to stop. They allowed people to go pick their own blueberries so we all got small pails and picked some blueberries. It was a lot of fun picking blueberries and educational as we now all know what a blueberry plant looked like. The blueberries were sweet, plump and delicious, especially since we only chose the very best berries from each plant. At $1.46 a pound they were really cheap too, our only regret is we didn’t get more.
Our next stop was Holland, MI where we went to Nelis’ Dutch Village. As inferred by its name, Holland was founded by Dutch Americans and the Dutch Village is a touristy, Disney like amusement park designed to look like a pretty little Dutch village, canals and all. There were all sorts of displays and demonstrations of things like wooden shoe making, cheese making, and Dutch pottery, known as Delftware. They also had a very nice petting zoo with the usual goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, rabbits, a one room school and a few rides including a small carousel and merry go round. We enjoyed the Dutch dancing demonstration as well but be aware of the flying wooden shoes!
Afterwards we took a stroll through downtown Holland which is full of historic hundred year old buildings but looks like a yuppie paradise packed with microbreweries, hip tapas restaurants, Instagram ice cream shops and cute boutique stores.
The next morning we visited Windmill Garden Islands. The main attraction of the gardens is a real working Dutch windmill that had been brought over from Holland. It was quite pretty in the way Dutch windmills are and we got to go inside and climb up to see the inside. Other than that there were a few displays and of course a lot of flowers. It was all quite pretty and made for some good pictures but also quite small and not worth the $10 entry fee, especially considering Nelis’ Dutch Village was only $13 and had a lot more to activities.
After visiting Windmill Garden we decided to try something new and drove 30 minutes to nearby Hudsonville, MI. There we visited Action Wake Park, a tow cable skiing park. They had a lake with a cable round it and people could ski, wakeboard or knee-board towed by the cable rather than a boat. $35 per person for two hours and first time guest get free equipment rental. Holly and Olivia decided to try knee-boarding which is like wake boarding but you sit on your knees rather than stand. This was a good choice because it is easier than standing and we saw most first time wakeboarders immediately go face first into the water as soon as they started. Knee-boarding was fun was tiring and Holly’s arms and shoulders were very sore for a few days afterwards.
The park had a very nice patio overlooking the lake so we brought our dinner out to their patio and enjoyed the sunset before heading to a nearby Cracker Barrel for the night.