pure michigan weekend!

this weekend my bud ryann and i drove to grand rapids, michigan to visit our friends jamie and kyle. they recently bought a house and got 2 pups so a visit was in order! as soon as we got up there jamie took us to an outdoor craft beer festival at a ball park. it was crazy and oh so michigan. jamie strung up some pretzel necklaces that you eat right off the string so that you keep something in your belly other than beer. we arrived and got our 13 tokens - you're supposed to turn one in with each tasting but we didn't really do that too much so it's sort of a free for all. i think we tried about 8 each?? not too sure...but we liked almost everything we got! i think my favorite part was the screaming - everyone would raise their glass and the entire tent would just kinda holler in unity. it reminded me of oktoberfest! it was pretty cold and slushy and all of our feet were quite frozen. they had fire pits that helped us warm up though. i think we made it a little over 3 hours before we had kyle come pick us up. we were giddy and slightly tipsy and made him take the top off his jeep - we had giggle fits over the snow coming in on the short ride home. then we zoned out for hours, ate some of jamie's wonderful homemade lasagna and enjoyed some fabulous desserts. kyle's friend from home came up too. the next day we went to their church which was really nice to see. they are part of the united church of christ and it's so community oriented and accepting. i really enjoyed going. after that we went to the omelet shoppe for an insanely large brunch. we were all starving so we all ordered way too much - but then ate it all. i got a spinach, swiss & onion quiche, a cup of soup and a side of hashbrowns. fantastic! we went back home with our full bellies so i could check out jamie's handmade jewelry and shop a little. she's got some really great pieces! then i interviewed her for my class while ryann snoozed. then jamie gave us a quick tour of the downtown area - we got to see several awesome pieces of art from their annual "art prize" event. my favorite was a beautiful mosaic in the JW mariott. so pretty! then we hit up Founders Brewery. it was so cool in there and they have AMAZING beer! we tried a bunch of little samples, some peanuts, cheesy beer dip and one big beer. we chatted a little while longer and then ry and i hit the road. it was a great weekend and i was thrilled to be part of jamie and kyle's michigan life!