Grand Rapids with The Muppets

 'Sup gang.

Over the years, since we've been back in Michigan, my old comrade-in-arms BP and his fam have travelled up to visit us in our neck of the woods multiple times - for our Halloween and St. Patrick's Day parties, for our Jellystone camping trips, etc. While I've gone down there a handful of times - usually to switch vehicles before heading down to Chicago to visit Kimmel for a punk show of some sort - our fam has only gone down there once.  So we decided - back during our most recent Halloween Party - that we'd come down for a day visit during Christmas break in order to check out stuff in the greater Grand Rapids area.

BP caught wind that their local art museum was going to host a Jim Henson exhibition on the day we were to go down there, so - being the giant Muppet fans that BP and I are - we made plans to hit that up first and foremost.

Check it out. . .

Heading for the elevators from one of downtown Grand Rapids' giant parking garages.

Setting off for the art museum.

Grand Rapids' downtown area is slightly more impressive than ours.

Abby, Delia, and the Bastard Bastard Harbour Mastah.

Kris and Samwise.

It was only a few short blocks from the parking garage to the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which was much appreciated - it was pretty cold out.

The line to get into the exhibit was pretty long, mostly on account that they tried to keep the number of people in the exhibit down to a minimum in order to avoid crowding (which was cool, because then you could have your picture taken with the exhibit's many relics, like this original Kermit the Frog puppet.)

They had a ton of puppets and artifacts on display, dating back to the 50s and 60s - some were well-known (which you're about to see) and others (like this dude right here) were totally random.

Kris and Sesame Street's Count, throwing up peace signs.

Ernie, Abby, and Bert

Some handsome guy and Grover, one of the most badass Muppets of all time.

Scooter

Beaker and Doctor Bunson Honeydew

Kris sure does love Dr. Bunson Honeydew. . .

Some puppets based on Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and some other dude.

Show storyboards

An early Rolf prototype

More storyboards

Fraggle Rock's Red and Wimbley.

BP and I with The Dark Crystal's Augra.

She's pretty sexy.

Abby is impressed.

Kira and Jen - the Gelflings

Outfits from Labyrinth

Toys from Sara's bedroom, featured in the film.

Good to know David Bowie's package was purposely enhanced for the film.  That's totally acceptable for a kids' movie. . .

After checking out the Henson exhibit, we made our way up to the third floor to check out the permanent pieces that are on display in the museum.

Alayna, checking out some paintings.  She was just as bored as you would think with all of this.  F***ing teenagers. . .

This reminded me a lot of the artwork I saw in the Vatican when I went there back in 2013.

Back outside, after spending a couple hours inside the museum (I hadn't been in one in years, it was pretty awesome.)

Delia and Abby ham it up for Kris.

Making our way back towards the parking garage.

Along the way, we popped into a comic book store so Delia could pick up a graphic novel she'd been wanting.  Of course both of our kids wanted to grab a bunch of stuff, but refused to spend any of their own money on anything.

Pretty cool sunset over the city - we don't get a lot of sun these days.

BP and I dropped the wives and kids off back at their house before turning around and heading back out to check out a local vinyl and furniture store (random, I know.) BP picked up a couple LPs, but I didn't find anything there I was dying to grab (their prices were way over market value, so I held off.)

For dinner, BP and Sam recommended this Mediterranean restaurant that is nearby their house.  Kris and I are big fans of this cuisine, so we were all on board.

Waiting for food.

They kept bringing out bread and garlic dipping sauce (paste is a better term, I guess), so we were all pretty stuffed before the food even came out.

This food was absolutely incredible - I ordered my usual chicken shawarma.

Alayna wanted a pic of her food - meat kabobs of some kind.

The bread was a huge hit.

After gorging ourselves stupid, we dropped the DeBoers back off at their house, said our goodbyes, and headed back up north for Midland (we were going to stay the night but didn't want to mess with offloading our dogs on anything - maybe next time we'll board them and make a weekend out of it or something.)

- Brian