I decided to plan a date for myself and Brad. Because he’s new to town (although not a complete stranger) and I haven’t lived here in years, I thought it would be fun to explore some of the local attractions. So I planned a few activities and told him to make himself available most of Saturday. I was excited.

And then we got in a fight. A bad one. Over something really important stupid, and I thought the date was off. I wasn’t going to do anything nice for that jerk!

But then he made things better and the date was back on. And I’m glad because we had a lot of fun. First we went to Frederik Meijer Garden and Sculpture Park. I hadn’t been there in so long that I had basically forgotten what it even was, so it was essentially new for both of us. Now we’re not a photographers. At all. But at a place like this, even a couple amateurs with a little point-and-shoot can have fun.

That’s little ol’ me with a giant horse. It’s the full-size sculpture that daVinci always intended. It’s pretty frickin’ sweet if you ask me.

A portion of a sculpture called Aria. I don’t really have an eye for framing photos, but you can pretty much point the camera anywhere at this thing and get a cool shot.

Here’s Brad with a giant circular sculpture. The name escapes me… something about a desert rose?

I don’t know, just proof that I was there too I guess. This pond was right across the path from…

The Thinker. Which was the genius of Rodin, who also created this one…

…called Eve. This is just a portion of her, in case that wasn’t obvious.

And lastly from the sculpture park, a sample work from featured artist, George Rickey. He did these crazy kinetic sculptures that all moved on their own. It was like a balancing act. Perpetual motion. Something. It was cool.

After all the walking around the park, we were low on energy, so we went to a Grand Rapids hot spot, Yesterdog.

I failed to take a picture of their sign, but here’s Brad standing pensively in the crowd. Yeah see that crowd? It grew bigger and gave me a bit of an anxiety attack. I had to go sit down, and Brad, brave soul, was left to deal with the masses and the “soup nazi” counter staff. I also failed to take a picture of the mess that are Yesterdog hotdogs, but believe me, they were worth it.

Then we saw a movie at the cheap theatre. We decided to see Knocked Up, which actually wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was prepared for a plot lost in extreme crudeness, but it was tolerable and even funny.

All in all, it was a fun date and a beautiful day. I’m sad that winter is coming soon to ruin all the fun. (Check out our Frederik Meijer photo set here.)