What to do in Grand Rapids, MI

Grand Rapids, MI, is not really conveniently on the way to anywhere, so you are unlikely to be “just passing through”. But as Michigan’s second largest city, there is plenty see and do there for a couple days, and specifically if you have an interest in gardens or presidential museums, it should be on your list.

Grand Rapids has a history of furniture manufacturing and is the home to Steelcase headquarters (which is what brought me to town), along with Herman Miller, and Haworth nearby. And Amway and the Devos family are big players in the area.

The Grand River is the main feature of the downtown splitting the city in half.

There are many bridges and a very nice walking path along the river.

It’s also pretty easy to get around within the downtown area without a car, because there is a free bus - DASH, with four different routes.

My top choice site is the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. It’s located to the east of the downtown area, and is accessible by bus (not the free route) with a walk at the end.

There’s sculpture throughout the garden. The thing that I found most striking were the extensive water features throughout. There’s a large Japanese garden surrounding a lake, along with a children’s garden, woodland garden, and conservatory.

Probably about a third of the garden is the sculpture park, with lots of different types of sculpture.

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum is right in downtown Grand Rapids, on the river. The Presidential Library is located in Ann Arbor. The museum goes through Ford’s life.

There are a number of other attractions in Grand Rapids, The GR Public Museum, The John Ball Zoo, and The GR Children’s Museum. I didn’t have time to go to all of them, but I did spend an hour in The Grand Rapids Art Museum.

A highlight was the very cool special exhibition by Maya Lin the day I visited.

Just to the east of downtown, is the Heritage Hill neighborhood, an excellent place to take a walk, if you like big old historic houses. I personally love houses with turrets and big porches.