Great Lakes - Eastern USA - page 1120

tion Museum ( 517-372-0529; www.reoldsmuseum.org ; 240 Museum Dr; adult/child $6/4;
10am-5pm Tue-Sat year-round, noon-5pm Sun Apr-Oct) will please car buffs.
Lansing's downtown hotels feed off politicians and lobbyists, so they're fairly expens-
ive. It's best to head to East Lansing's Wild Goose Inn ( 517-333-3334;
www.wildgooseinn.com ; 512 Albert St; r incl breakfast $139-159; ) , a six-room B&B one block
from Michigan State's campus. All rooms have fireplaces and most have Jacuzzis.
Golden Harvest ( 517-485-3663; 1625 Turner St; mains $7-9; 7am-2:30pm Mon-Fri,
from 8am Sat & Sun) is a loud, punk-rock-meets-hippie diner serving the sausage-and-
French-toast Bubba Sandwich and hearty omelets; cash only. Abundant restaurants, pubs
and nightclubs also fill Michigan State's northern campus area.
Grand Rapids
The second-largest city in Michigan, Grand Rapids is known for office-furniture manu-
facturing and, more recently, beer tourism. Twenty craft breweries operate in the area.
The Grand Rapids CVB ( www.experiencegr.com ) has maps and self-guided tour informa-
tion online.
Let's cut to the chase: if you've only got time for one brewery, make it rock-and-roll
Founders Brewing Company ( www.foundersbrewing.com ; 235 Grandville Ave SW;
11am-2am Mon-Sat, noon-midnight Sun) . The ruby-tinged Dirty Bastard Ale is good swillin',
and there's meaty (or vegetable-y, for vegetarians) deli sandwiches to soak it up. Want to
try one more? Head to Brewery Vivant ( www.breweryvivant.com ; 925 Cherry St SE; from
3pm Mon-Fri, from 11am Sat, from noon Sun) , which specializes in Belgian-style beers. Set in
an old chapel with stained glass and a vaulted ceiling, the atmospheric brewpub also
serves locally sourced cheese plates and burgers at farmhouse-style communal tables.
For intriguing non-beer sights, the downtown Gerald R Ford Museum (
616-254-0400; www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov ; 303 Pearl St NW; adult/child $7/3; 9am-5pm) is
dedicated to Michigan's only president. Ford stepped into the Oval Office after Richard
Nixon and his vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned in disgrace. It's an intriguing period
in US history, and the museum does an excellent job of covering it, down to displaying
the burglary tools used in the Watergate break-in. Ford and wife Betty are buried in the
museum's grounds.
The 118-acre Frederik Meijer Gardens ( 616-957-1580; www.meijergardens.org ; 1000 E
Beltline NE; adult/child $12/6; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat, 9am-9pm Tue, 11am-5pm Sun) features im-
pressive blooms and sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Henry Moore and others. It is 5 miles
east of downtown via I-196. There's a good art museum downtown, too.