Holland, MI-Holland State Park

We spent a week in Holland, Michigan at Holland State Park and had a good time.

The beach which was less than a mile away. The water was quite cold and the kids mostly played on the beach in the sand.

Holland has a lot of paved bike paths which made it nice to ride our bikes to the beach, to get ice cream and to check out Tunnel Park a couple of miles away. Being able to ride so much really hastened our attempt to get Jordan a new bike. I searched around a little and found her a great used bike at a local bike shop. It's pink and has a basket, which is just what she wanted!

So it was great for our ride to Tunnel Park. She rode on her own and kept up at a very good pace. Now we just have to try to get her on the trails!

The beach at Tunnel Park was very pretty.

They had a very nice playscape and a fun sand dune (which you can see behind the playscape but it's hard to appreciate the incline) for the kids to run up and down. So many kids had a blast on this. They would try to run down as fast as they could. And yes, many of them ended up rolling and flipping down. Fortunately, I didn't see any injuries!

One of the kids' most favorite places on our trip would be discovered in Zeeland, a small town next to Holland. It is called Critter Barn and I must say that it is a very cool place for kids who love animals. 

They have all the animals you would expect to see on a farm and you can get up close and personal with them. The Critter Barn was opened 20 years ago and aims at "promoting an understanding of agriculture, food sources, animal care, animal science, plus volunteer initiatives, and the farmer’s role in feeding the world".  They offer classes for children age 18 mos. and up where they learn and participate in taking care of the animals. And if they take a special care class, they can begin volunteering at age 8. The children there for classes and volunteering just beamed with pride. I could tell they were so happy to be contributing to something so important. And I was amazed as I watched a group of 4 from about age 10 and up shovel and haul away the bedding and poo from a pen clean for a couple hours without whining or giving up.

So, yes, I was there for more than a couple of hours to witness this. In fact, we went there not once, not twice but THREE times! The kids loved it so much and had to make sure that we took Daddy to see as well.

And guess what! It is FREE. They do, of course, take donations and we were happy to oblige considering the joy that my kids experienced here. They were truly in heaven. 

They held cats and rabbits

and ducks

and baby chicks.

We walked among sheep, fed goats, and watched a goat being milked. 

We saw chickens laying eggs, rabbits getting tagged and had a pony ride. 

And at nearly every step there were child volunteers and students learning and helping out.

We even saw a pot-bellied pig doing tricks

and the running of the goats! 

It truly was a great place and would love to have such a place in Austin for my kids.

We were also in town at just the right time for Maranda's Park Party. It was a fun gathering at beautiful Kollen Park in Holland on Lake Macatawa. Everything was free! They had a free lunch for the kids and then they had numerous activites and a couple of rides for the kids.

The fire dog taught them to Get Low and Go!

They tackled the rock wall, which was a first for both of them.

And guess who was there? Critter Barn! Woo hoo!

Lastly, we decided to go to Nelis' Dutch Vilage. It was a cute little amusement park and there was hardly anyone there. That made it a little depressing to Greg and I but the kids had a blast!

There were swings,

a zip line,

Dutch dancing,

and a few animals to visit.  You could even take a goat for a walk!

The kids had a lot of fun on these Pedal Pumper cars. It looked like a lot of work to me but they went around the track many times. 

There were also some educational opportunities. They had some demonstrations like cheese making, wooden shoe making and other things but we only made it to the cheese making demo. It was a bit disappointing since really she only talked about how to make cheese and gave very little actual demonstration. As you can see, there is no cheese anywhere!

And they showed a typical dutch home. It was divided into two sides. The grandparents on one side and the parents on the other. Look at the cabinets that housed their beds! The grandparents had the same on the other side of the wall. And one child would sleep with the parents, another would sleep on the shelf above the parents head and the eldest son would sleep out in the barn to protect the family. Yikes!

A friend of Greg's was supposed to come out on Saturday for a visit and couldn't make it. So that combined with rain that was headed our way and that on Saturday we would have to change sites, we decided to head out a day early and take our chances on getting a spot in a cool place closer to our next destination.

Next we will head to Paradise, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. But to find out if we got a spot in that other cool place, you will have to wait until my next entry! ;)