Exited Grand Rapids after a hearty lunch at the oldest restaurant in Michigan's second largest city, The Cottage. Get the Cottage Burger, a hefty one-third pound char-broiled baby on a toasty dark rye bun with a smidge of cheese and bacon. Try the chili too; it's muy tasty, and there are four kinds. Many beers on tap, dark wood interior, original art deco mahogany bar. Right next to a 1910 fire station.

Drove out of the 90-degree Grand Rapids heat to the cool Lake Michigan breezes of Grand Haven, a town of about 11,000 on the West Coast. Of Michigan. Sweet, sweet spot. I grew up along Lake Michigan, about three hours southwest of here, in Chicago, and my Chicago beach memories consist of dead alewives stinking up all of Hyde Park on the 57th Street beach across from the Museum of Science and Industry, and a lot of other beach trash, most of it not the human variety.

Here, as you can see, things are a bit different.

After arriving at the home of our dear friends Bruce and Georgette, and after their kids and ours did the Vulcan mindmeld thing (ongoing at this moment), we walked about three-quarters of a mile down to the beach, through dunes that start in B&G's back yard. The beach, and I believe we were at "Dog Beach," as it's called for obvious reasons, was clean and cool, and ultra-refreshing. Total chill-out. Eventually, we moseyed a bit north to watch the Grand Haven Beach Vault, the world's largest beach pole vaulting tourney (perhaps the only one, as well?).

They had dedicated runways (no slogging through the sand) and all the right gear. Mostly college-age competitors.

An inescapable observation: the women, competing seperately, were vastly inferior, and botched their attempts embarrassingly, about two out of every three times. The men's competition was much more robust, athletically. No darn way around it. Probably something to do with the upper-body strength required for serious pole vaulting.

Nice walk back home through a cemetery, and scrumptious cheese fondue for dinner. Now, off to see Grand Haven's musical fountain light up, and drench the kids.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 15, 2005 06:23 PM

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