An Afternoon at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI

An Afternoon at the Frederik Meijer

Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, MI

By: John B. Holbrook, II

October 5th, 2007

Recently my family decided to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park – a marvelous blending of botanical and artistic creations located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Frederik “Fred” Meijer was the founder of the Meijer grocery store chain, which is headquartered in Grand Rapids. The facility opened in April 1995 after 13 years of planning and fundraising by the West Michigan Horticultural Society. In 1990, Frederik and Lena Meijer were asked for their support, and they embraced the concept of a major cultural attraction centering around horticulture and sculpture. In short, it’s a magnificent attraction that’s worth a day’s time to fully appreciate, and is a photographer’s paradise. Here’s some of the photos I got from our day:

After visiting the indoor attractions, we decided to venture outside:

One of the more famous sculptures on display – Leonardo d Vinci’s Horse:

The actual full size sculpture is HUGE!! How big you ask?…..

It’s about 24 feet tall!!

They also had Rodan’s “The Thinker” on display, which was a welcome surprise!

On the way back to the main building we took a detour through the Children’s Garden:

They had a small bee hive with some lovely flowers which created an opportunity to create some fantastic photos:

My son of course very much enjoyed this area – I think he was secretly hoping I’d get chased by a few bees, but they were pretty well BEEhaved, and didn’t seem to mind my taking pictures. 😉

If you ever get the opportunity to visit Fredrik Meijer Gardens, I highly recommend it. Many thanks to Fred and Lena for making it possible! For more information, visit the Fredrik Meijer Gardens website.

*All text and images contained in this web site are the original work of the author, John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information or images without the permission of the author is prohibited.

About John B. Holbrook, II
John B. Holbrook, II is a freelance writer, photographer, and author of ThruMyLens.org, as well as LuxuryTyme.com and TheSeamasterReferencePage.com. *All text and images contained in this web site are the original work of the author, John B. Holbrook, II and are copyright protected. Use of any of the information or images without the permission of the author is prohibited.