Not the day we planned

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

We started the day by sending a message to Jerry and Barbara that Keith has a cough and cold. We were scheduled to arrive at their house tonight and to spend two full days enjoying their company, but we didn’t want to just show up with germs without letting them know. Jerry wrote back that postponing our visit would be best, because they are going to visit their kidney recipient friend soon and germs are not allowed. It was definitely the right call, but soooooo disappointing. We all lamented having to do the right thing, but this was so the right thing that it had to be.

We kept the first part of the day the same. We went to the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park down the street from our hotel. I had read earlier in the year that there was a big Dale Chihuly exhibit there for the summer and it was so perfect that we could go on our way to Traverse City. We love the glass art!!

Inside the welcome center was a retrospective exhibit on his 60-year career. I just stood in front of every piece and tried to fathom how it was possible. I took a million pictures and here are most of them because when I look back at this, I want to see them.

We went to see a movie about/by Dale Chihuly and found out that he is a really mediocre glass blower and hasn’t blown glass since 1979. What???!!!!! He is the idea man! He has a great crew who do the glass while he instructs and thinks and plans. I had no idea. Wow.

Next, we headed outside to see the installations around the park. There were pretties to see beyond the glass work.

Chartreuse is my favorite color, so this 2000+ piece tower was my favorite thing of the day. Now you will see too many pictures of the same thing because I could not stop looking at it.

The next thing we saw was kinda meh.

This one was decidedly meh. (Now I feel bad for saying that. Glass is always cool, but it is just leaning against black supports…) It was called something like reeds or something that shouldn’t be leaning against metal supports.

We went to the Japanese garden next. It was such a beautiful garden in addition to having the glass work.

I know. That is literally the same picture, but closer up. I could. not. stop. looking. at. it. You should look too.

Bonsai are always amazing. They did not list how old the trees are; that is interesting to me.

The sidehill filled with glass was so beautiful in the sunshine.

There were permanent sculptures we liked too.

This one is not glass, but some kind of other stuff. Huh. Still pretty.

We thought we were done and stumbled into some more glass. Win.

I love when people gather a lot of fall vegetables and heap them into piles for me to look at.

We had a late lunch at Jersey Mike’s before hitting the road. Keith pointed out that the triptych frames were beach chairs!

We stopped for gas at one point and had to go around the block behind the gas station to get to a stoplight to get across the big street. Were we ever lucky! The whole neighborhood was full of big pumpkins and lots of other inflatables. Keith suggested that the elementary school had a big pumpkin fundraiser. I want to go to a big pumpkin fundraiser. Yay!

We drove and drove in lots of Chicago traffic. Going to Jerry and Barbara’s was going to save us from Chicago, but it was still the right thing not to go.

We ended up having McDonald’s dinner (first day of the year’s Monopoly game!) with these nice people!