Return to the Mother Mitt

After the Fourth of July, Jess and I had the opportunity to return to Grand Rapids, where we both went to school. Rob Bell was hosting a preaching conference, so it gave us a good excuse to hear some interesting teaching, see a city we really love, and to spend a little time away from almost all the kids (Elliot came with us). The conference was really thought-provoking, and it provided me with a lot to work with as I return to pastoral ministry. The coolest part - at least for us - was that we got to stay in the Amway Grand Hotel in downtown GR, which was something that felt completely unattainable for us when we were Calvin students. I guess we can check that off of our list.

Grand Rapids is a really neat city. The people are really independent, and you see a lot of young entrepreneurs trying to make a go of it. The downtown area continues to see some (slow) revitalization, but there's a coffee shop there now called MadCap Coffee, which roasts its own beans and makes an amazing cup of coffee. You can see the picture below for Jess' morning cappuccino. We also got a chance to try the Cherry Deli, which is close to where we used to live. They, like everywhere else in Grand Rapids, served boxed water. Interesting.

We ended our time by taking Elliot to see Calvin College for himself. I doubt he'll go there some day, but it was nice to see a place that was so formative for us again.

Our Special Fourth of July

One of the main reasons we did this trip when we did was that Grandma Judy was turning 60 on July 4th. We had a lot of fun planning her special day with other family members, and the day turned out very well. We had a great time at the parade, and Grandma was surprised by her friends for an evening supper at Barone's in Glen Ellyn. The whole trip was worth it to celebrate such a wonderful person.

Hail to the Victors!

After leaving Erie, we made our way to Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is easily one of our favorite places on the planet. Having lived there for three years, we had 20 hours or so to see and do everything we wanted to do. And we were able to do quite a lot. We visited my brother, Trevor, and his son, Quentin. We met them at the Arbor Brewing Company, where we enjoyed some Sacred Cow IPA and organic pub food.



After spending the night, we got up and enjoyed some Washtenaw Dairy Doughnuts - the best cake doughnuts we know of. It was a treat to share them with Annika (again) and with Sammy for the first time.


Jess had managed to save frequent buyer cards for Bubble Island Bubble Tea, and so we ran over there to get a free bubble tea, almost five years after she last purchased a drink there.

We had lunch at the Jerusalem Garden (a middle-eastern greasy spoon) with our friend, Derek, and he was able to take another typically goofy HB family picture.

And, of course, no trip to Ann Arbor is complete without going to Zingerman's. We bought some bread and brownies to take with us to Chicago, packed our bags, and kept heading west.

It was great to get back to Ann Arbor, and next time, we definitely need more time and bigger stomachs!

More Pictures from Erie

Back from the North

We've been back from our Great Northern Journey for a few days, and so I wanted to take a few days to give an update on our trip. We started out in mid-June heading from St. Simons Island to my parents' house in North East, PA. We drove to Charlotte, NC, the first day, where we got to see good friends in a wonderful city. (Did we say that we think Charlotte is great?)

After a long day of driving, we made it to my parents, where we spent most of the week playing with the chickens, dodging massive dogs, going to the zoo, seeing extended family, and enjoying wonderful summer weather. The pictures below are from a couple of the highlights of that portion of the trip. I'll add some more to another post later tonight. I also plan to update the blog over the next several days with more highlights from our adventure.

We had a great trip. It was good to reconnect with our families!