The musical fountain in Grand Haven, Michigan is a spectacle indeed. It actually sits across the Grand River from the viewing bleachers, on a small rise. The water plumes shoot high, shifting shapes and colors constantly.
The old-timey music is fairly lame, though. A treacly Gershwin tribute last night was a case in point. The word is alternately that the tenor of the music won't change until the local Old Guard dies, or, make a suggestion.
Well, here's one: Some livelier, more contemporary stuff would really enhance the experience. Maybe some reggae or Nigerian juju. Just what this quaint white-bread community's nightly summer light show needs.
After the show, our two families took a late night stroll down Washington Street, the cute-but-not-not-too-cute main drag of downtown Grand Haven, the air thick with the smell of gyros and the muffled sounds of so-so rock bands in local bars. We ended up in a bookstore jammed with parents and kids awaiting midnight, and the beginning of sales of the new Harry Potter epic. Lots of punch, odd-flavored jellybeans and wizard sticks (pretzels with frosting and sprinkles at one end). Plus intriguing volumes on how to lie your way out of any awkward situation, plus a long whine about motherhood, and several others that left me scratching my head.
Today was one of those great lazy days, where your kids play with your friends' kids all day long, and nobody feels like they really have to DO anything. Except the dads, who did the hunter-gatherer thing, stocking up for dinner tonight and our trip north to Sleeping Bear Dunes, starting tomorrow. Hit the beach here in Grand Haven around 4:15 p.m., for two-plus hours. Perfect timing.
Dinner tonight was choice: best Brats ever, from The Meat Market in Allendale (thanks, Georgette), plus two cool summer salads I whipped up: one of par-boiled, halved baby Yukon Gold potatoes with chopped green onion, celery, fresh basil, sauteed garlic, sweet yellow pepper, Anaheim pepper, and crisp bacon in a creamy Parmesan-Wasabi dressing; another of fresh sweet corn kernels with fresh mint, vine-ripened tomatoes, and a smidge of Serrano pepper, in a dill vinaigrette.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 16, 2005 06:48 PM