around town: live like a local

My blog buddy Kait came up with the greatest idea for a guest post series: Live Like a Local, in which she invites other bloggers to share where they live, and what local gems are not to be missed by any visitors. I'm excited to have shared my town today - it might not be as glamorous as other featured locales like Palm Springs, or historic as places like Heidelberg, but it is really a great small town, situated on the shore of Lake Michigan, with plenty of local things to enjoy.

While I encourage you to go check out the full post about visiting Holland, I thought I'd go into a bit more detail here about one of my favorite areas: downtown.

Holland's downtown runs for several blocks of 8th Street and has tons of shops, restaurants, and such, making it very fun for a stroll. Major bonuses: in the spring and summer, there are always gorgeous flower beds (especially the tulip-filled ones in May!), and in the winter, it's always entirely walkable as all the sidewalks are fitted with a snowmelt system, meaning they're never snow-covered or icy, no matter the depths of winter we're in. It's the best!

So if you were to come downtown for the day, here are the things I'd say you can't miss. These are great for visitors, but they're also places that I walk over to from my home on a very regular basis.

shops

• Frances Jaye: probably our most hip option in town for clothes and shoes for both men and women - always fun for a browse.
• JB and Me: another local clothing boutique, with more of a boho feel, plus lots of great denim and shoes. They have some home stuff too, with displays that remind me of Anthropologie.
• Urban Found: another clothes shop with a feel like Anthro/JB and Me.
• Tip Toes: children's boutique with cute clothes from brands like Tea Collection, plus lots of toys and even a little tree house for kids to climb/play in while you shop.
• The Sandcastle: the other place to stop if you've got kids along - the local toy store!
• Gazelle Sports: all things running! Super knowledgeable staff, and I always like to browse the sale racks for something from Nike, Patagonia, Lole, etc.
• The Outpost: all kinds of outdoorsy stuff for hiking, camping, and such, plus loads of Patagonia and North Face.
• Reader's World: the downtown bookstore. Not the coziest place ever, but you really can't skip the local bookstore.
• Cherry Republic: they've got all things cherry, from chocolate covered ones, to salsas and sodas and beyond. Definitely worth a stop, especially because there are always free samples out.
• Michigan Pantry: lots more local foodie items to bring home, from nut mixes to chocolate colored blueberries, to local wines (+ tastings!).

restaurants/breweries

• New Holland Brewing Pub on 8th: probably our most-visited restaurant, because they have some great quality pub food (the pizzas and salads are always favorites of ours) and of course excellent beer. Plus it's a pretty good place to go with kids, especially because of the big beer garden out back.
• Our Brewing Company: great little brewery with interesting beers with a fun atmosphere and even games/pinball/trivia night for entertainment. They have free popcorn, but no other food - but you can bring in whatever you like, or even grab takeout from anywhere downtown. Our choices are usually pizza from Crust 54 or sushi from Mizu Sushi. Otherwise we just go for a pre-dinner drink!
• Butch's Drydock: our go-to for a slightly fancier dinner. They've got a great wine/beer selection (you can go in and just shop that) along with great cocktails, and menu that changes seasonally. I've had some excellent fish dishes and much more.
• Seventy-Six: so brand new that we haven't had a chance to eat there yet, but we fully expect it to be excellent, as it's by the same chef as one of our favorite restaurants in the region (Public). It's our first farm-to-table option downtown, and it looks great.
• Windmill Restaurant: hole-in-the-wall type of breakfast place - which is my favorite kind of breakfast place. You've got your standard diner-type eggs, pancakes, and potatoes, and cheap too! Warning: if they're busy, you have to just stand in line and wait. There's no putting your name in.

other fun stuff

• The Peanut Store: you can't miss our local candy shop, which has been around for 115 years.
• The 205 Coffee Bar: our newest coffee shop of the 3 downtown is our best one, in my opinion (though I admit, that says nothing about the coffee, as I don't drink it...) - a pretty hip atmosphere, but my favorite part is how the front windows all open up on nice days so that you can sit outside as well.
• Holland Area Arts Council: always fun (and free) to walk through and see what they have in the gallery here, and there's a makers' studio that has some open hours + some event times. Plus I have an extra special affinity for this place, as it's where we had our wedding reception.
• Farmers market: down on the other end of 8th is our large farmers market that runs every Wednesday and Saturday in the late spring/summer/early fall. Tons of seasonal produce; local breads, coffees, cheeses, meats, etc.; and flowers that I can never resist. On Wednesdays in the summer there are fun kids' activities and story time put on by the library.
• Downtown events: there's always something going on downtown, from Fall Fest to Tulip Time to sidewalk sales to Up on the Rooftops, a holiday event where you can get a peek into homes and offices above downtown shops. Check the Downtown Holland website for a calendar.

places to stay

• rentals: check AirBnB and VRBO for rentals of apartments/homes downtown to really live like a local! Or check out Teerman Lofts, located above a shop downtown. It's my goal in life to retire to a place above a downtown shop, so I really want an excuse to check this place out...
• City Flats Hotel: a contemporary, LEED-certified hotel. We've stayed here - it has a cool vibe and is very walkable to all restaurants and shops. Plus it has its own great bar + yummy flatbreads.
• Courtyard by Marriott: I've never stayed there, but it does have a great location. And a pool.

So that's just downtown Holland - then there's also THE BEACH, our annual Tulip Time festival, the pretty historic district and the local college campus, not to mention tons of other restaurants/activities in nearby Grand Rapids. For even more fun stuff for every season, check out my ideas on Kait's blog!

around town lately: Lake Michigan

My weekend time around here lately can pretty much be summed up by Poppy and Hendrik's t-shirts below: my great lake: Lake Michigan ... and best. day. ever. I'm still reveling in how great it is to be living close to the lake again and am loving spending time at two family cottages with lots of fun people and books and sun.

Here are some recent shots from what we've been up to on Lake Michigan lately - from playing on the beach to lots of porch sitting and dining and doodling and sunset watching. And of course reading! Last beach weekend I finished A God in Ruins and Better Than Before, so now I need to get my hands on something else from that stack of all my family members' books. Maybe first my dad's summer cocktail book, from which he was making the porch happy hour drink of the day...

in the [beach] bag

Crazy but true, I haven't made it to the beach yet this summer. We've been to my parents' cottage, but on those trips either the weather didn't work out or it just seemed like too much to cart everything down to the beach with a baby of this age... This week, though, quality grandparent time = 2 days of pure Michigan time for us! So I've got my bag packed and ready to go with my beach day essentials:

1. towel | 2. reading material | 3. sunnies | 4. hat | 5. snack & drink | 6. sunscreen | 7. pouch with essentials (hairband, lip gloss with sunscreen, iPhone protected from sand)

My beach bag of choice is a Baggu canvas tote, which I had monogrammed at the embroidery stand in the mall for about $10. Some other great options:

Pretty much my idea of a perfect day off: sunshine, reading an entire book, and having an early happy hour with my toes in the sand. Quiet Dell is next up for one of my book clubs, and I think it'll be perfect for a vacation read - reported to be a "riveting" novel based on a real-life crime. With no mom duties, I think I'll easily get through this one in a day or so. And speaking of no mom duties... when it comes to vacation, I say beer-thirty arrives in the middle of the afternoon. This local brew is my current favorite, but I'm just as happy with any summer ale or Mike's lemonade, which tends to be well stocked at the cottage. Happy Monday!

Check out what's in my other bags: handbag | diaper bag | gym bag

one year

Today marks the beginning of Peter's 5th year of residency... which means we're one year away from being done, and thus one year away from moving back to our home town in Michigan.

Residency has been difficult on both of us in a lot of ways, and this last year comes with more responsibility (and thus more work hours and more stress!) for Peter, but I'm still feeling a sad for how quickly the year will probably fly by, and a little nostalgic already about our time in Cincinnati. We'll really miss this city and all the great things we've fallen in love with here: our first house, our friends, our favorite restaurants, the milder winters and springs, the proximity to so many things I love but Holland doesn't have (Trader Joes, Ikea, Whole Foods, Crate & Barrel. Even Chipotle!).

And I admit I also feel a little cliche, being married to my high school sweetheart and moving back to our hometown. But we're also excited to be close to our families, for the great job opportunity Peter has there, and for all the new friends, experiences, restaurants, and activities that we'll discover as we settle back into a place that we know well but haven't lived in for years now. Oh, and to live close to the beach in the summer again - so excited about that.

Moving to a city for residency is kind of interesting - you get to choose which cities/residency programs are on the rank list that you submit, but the match process ultimately decides for you which one you'll end up in. It's such a big unknown, going in to that Match Day in March, which I found so stressful: there were 8 cities we could have ended up in, and with one opening of an envelope suddenly the location of our next 5 years was mandated. But it also has its excitement: it was a great time in our lives to try out a new city, to explore a little farther afield from where we grew up, to develop a new set of relationships and hobbies in a new place.

The other interesting thing about moving to a city for residency is that most of the people we know best here are also residents or spouses of residents, so we've all settled into this new city together as transplants and transients. It's great to know people with shared current experiences and varied past experiences - but I'm also reminded, when I have fleeting thoughts of maybe making Peter break his contract in Michigan so we can stay because I'm going to miss it so much, that many of our friends will be moving on at the same time, so it would hardly feel like the same city any more if we were to stay. The end of residency is quite a transition point in many ways.

The experience of moving at the completion of residency will be so much different than how it all started - Peter actually accepted this job last September, so by the time we move we'll have known for nearly two years the location of our next move. And of course we also know the city itself, having lived there for many years and still visiting our families there with some frequency. It'll still feel new in a lot of ways, given how long it's been since we graduated from high school and moved away for college - and given that now we're a family of three! Our Ohio-made baby is soon to be a Michigan-raised boy... And as much as we've enjoyed our time here in Ohio, as a Michigan-raised girl, I'm happy about that. 

Sharing on Medical Mondays. Photos by Jacqueline Vollat from our photo shoot in May.

lately: porch life

Last week we got back to one of my favorite places on earth: my parents' cottage on Lake Michigan. I hadn't been since last August, which is the longest stretch I've gone without being there since they built it, and that means Hendrik had never been! We love to hang out there with my family - walking, reading, beach-going, tennis watching - but it's also a special place for Peter & me: where we got engaged, had the beginning of our honeymoon, spent a lot of our precious vacation time in medical school/residency - so it was fun to finally introduce Hendrik (plus get a night there to ourselves, thanks to babysitting from my mom!).

Most of all, it's a place we like to spend as much of the day as possible on the porch, where the living is fine as you can see:

Isn't this the perfect life? We spent much of the week lounging, reading, having happy hour, eating dinner here - except for the times when we took our books and drinks to the open deck above to get some sunshine. And if this sounds good, you haven't even seen the beach! Next visit, at the end of the month, we'll get Hendrik's toes in the wonderful Lake Michigan sand (and maybe even waves, if it's not too frigid by that point) for the first time. I imagine a lot of sand in the mouth too.

So that's my happy place. What's yours?

week(end): beach week, round 2

I'm back from pure Michigan, round 2... Another lovely week at Lake Michigan (though a little chilly at times - weird August weather!) and even nicer this time because Peter had the week off, so he was along too. Most it was spent at a cottage with his parents and all of his siblings, followed by a few days at my parents' cottage with all of my siblings - rare to have all of these siblings together at the same time, so it was great. Some photos of our fun, sun, and even a baby shower - so nice.

Peter had a chance to read his first novel in a while... I got in two

the rental cottage | one of many lovely sunsets over the lake

family ice cream outing - flurries are my favorite

pregnant lady happy with her ice cream | nephews too (everyone a little chilly)

nice walks with Peter in the mornings | peaceful views in the evenings

evening strolls around the area

baby party with the whole family

fun games included baby bottle bowling for the kids | adorable knit things from my grandma

Peter & his pup on the porch at my parents' cottage

my whole fam on the beach, in profile to show off our newest member

Our last pre-baby trip to Michigan - hitting the 31-week mark today, I'm thinking that soon I won't want to venture too far from the hospital where we plan to deliver, plus there's lots to do around here in preparation. Exciting, but a little sad to be done with the beach (and getting to see our families) for the summer. How was your weekend?