Main Attractions

Musical Waters

This is a synchronized display of water and lights set to music. It is located on Dewey hill and can be watched from the waterfront stadium. It is supposed to be the biggest in the world. You can learn more about it at the performance. They tell a little history about it over the speakers before the show. There are nightly performances that start Memorial Day weekend and run until Labor Day. Performances are held on Friday and Saturday evenings only from Labor Day through September. Starting times vary from 8:30 p.m. to 10:10 p.m. To find out exact times visit grandhaven.org or call (616) 842-2550.

Beaches/Pier/Lighthouse

I love walking the beach on the Grand Haven state park area. You also have access to the pier with a lighthouse on it. It is beautiful to walk it. You can walk it from the beach or all the way from the downtown area. On windy days the waves really come up on the pier so be careful! Of course it is fun to get splashed but it is slippery. Usually the best place to get the high waves is at the end of the pier. I usually hold on to one of the cement structures sticking up at the end of the pier. Of course again be careful; some have been swept off during high waves. Remember to catch the sunset on the water, it is gorgeous.

Trolley

A fun thing to do is ride the trolley. It goes around Grand Haven and you can even tour Spring Lake and Ferrysburg. The drivers are college students who talk about various landmarks and add some humor!

Festivals

There are several festivals throughout the summer and fall but the highlight is the Coast Guard Festival. I have been to it several times. It is always packed in town so book your hotel rooms ahead of time. It is around the end of July through the first part of August. For 2008 it is July 25 to August 3. There is so much going on during this time. Some of the highlights are a Coast guard cutter ship, the Mackinaw, and the Biscane Bay ships. There is also a National Memorial service, a downtown carnival and parade, as well there are many music events going on at the waterfront. But there is always something to do at the festival for everyone’s budget.

Fireworks

The fireworks are spectacular. I have gone several times on the 4th of July. They shoot them off across the black river going into Lake Michigan , and you can sit in the Waterfront grandstands. And if feels like the fireworks are falling on you. It is wonderful!! Of course there are some other events leading up to the big fireworks night. When I went they put on a beautiful patriotic show in the waterfront stadium. There is usually a 5 k run that weekend as well. Then there is a fourth of July parade in Ferrysburg also. To find all the 4th events visit this page. 

Where to Stay

We have always stayed at Days INN, it is located off US 31. It is close to the downtown and the lake. It has an expanded continental breakfast included. There is also the Holiday Inn which is in Spring Lake, across the bridge, overlooking the spring Lake Marina, but still quite close. I have never stayed here but have eaten at the restaurant inside and know it is a nice hotel. Of course if you are more budget conscious there are other hotels and motels offering lesser rates. And there are several bed and breakfasts. One of the nice ones is Harbor House. I also have never stayed but have checked into it. There are also houses/cabins to rent, and even places to camp your trailers or tents. For a list of other places to stay visit this page.

Eating

• Dee-lite restaurant downtown is good, especially for breakfast. I have never eaten there for other meals.
• Jack’s Restaurant. For breakfast lunch or dinner–the fish is wonderful , and everything I’ve had has been good. Lunches run $6 and up, with dinners 10 and up. This overlooks the Spring lake Marina area. Beautiful view.
• Kirby house is wonderful! My mom and I love the hamburgers. And be sure to order the onion rings they come on a wooden peg stacked high. Also try the onion soup, it is the best! And the Wood fired pizzas are great there too I have heard!! This is casual/fine dining and runs from $4-20.
• Porto Bello is in one of the shopping centers downtown right across from Black River. This is wonderful Italian food. I would recommend everything. I have had the pizzas, and the lasagna. If you sit by the windows you can catch a glimpse looking at the Black river across the way. This is a casual dining as well. There is also outdoor seating. This runs $5-$9 for lunch and $10-$18 for dinner.

I hope this information will be helpful in your trip to Grand Haven Michigan. I hope to see you there this summer!

For further information on Grand Haven visit MyHaven.

It's not like a ghost town that you see in an old cowboy picture. Rather, it's a place with occasional spots of activity, encircling empty buildings of inactivity. Now, when everyone walks through downtown, you still see streets containing the same old brown buildings edged with corroded metal beams and black-covered windows obscuring the sun. It's as if the buildings are afraid to show their faces, for fear of reminding everyone how they once were and what they have now become.

Once proud landmarks like the Consumers Building and the Hayes Hotel now have sideways-hanging signs with “For Lease” printed on them. Pieces of paper with words like “condemned” and “set for demolition” flap in the breeze. Brown rust now blends into old brick-covered faces-bricks once assembled by proud citizens. These were the very same buildings where Jackson's forefathers gathered and planned the future of the town. But to the city's credit, there is a move to use these buildings again for business.

Most Jacksonians who were living here in the 1980's know why these buildings became vacant. Many people were laid off from their jobs. Plants closed down, and the mighty hands that kept Detroit going became idle. They became the hands that signed unemployment checks and drove Japanese cars on their way to far away places in search of new jobs in places like California, Arizona and New Mexico. These places took in the large numbers that made the American landscape seem like a big teeter-totter, with one side on the southwest dipping to the ground, while the northeast stood high in the atmosphere of uncertainty.

This town was once a proud part of the American automobile's past. Cam shafts and tires were made in small towns like Jackson, Lansing and the many counties surrounding Detroit, where it all started. The industry grew and thrived and for many years, it seemed like the prosperous times would never end for the state. But, unfortunately, they eventually did.

When I grew up in Jackson, my father and both my grandfathers worked in factories. We were middle-class, and having factory work at the time was a big deal. With these new jobs, the men in my family suddenly didn't seem like just my father and my grandfathers anymore. They seemed mightier, more alive and quite imposing, with their greasy shirts and their stories of smoke and stench and loud noises.

But one by one, the car industry began to lay off our mighty men. As the economy fell, the bottom fell out of the lives of these strong men. All of a sudden, they were standing in unemployment lines, looking for something else to work at, besides building cars. Cars were all they knew, so it was especially hard to adjust to.

And now, instead of looking mighty, they started to shrink in size. I don't mean literally-they just didn't look like the mighty men that they once were, when they were working for Goodyear and Fisher Body. They looked knocked down. They appeared defeated.

This doesn't have to happen again in 2008. Living in the southwest, I saw what relatively small towns could do with a little ingenuity. Towns like Tucson, Arizona that went through hard times as well, learned to bounce back. It was amazing to see them turn into bustling cities in a relatively short amount of time.

And here's how they did it!

Before they became major players in the economy of the country (and the world), these towns were investing their business in corporations from out of town. Tucson asked for businesses like Geico to build a customer service center there. They reduced Geico's property taxes to encourage them to build and to hire local workers to fill their buildings. It was a successful partnership.

Ask other towns out there how they became successful-how they became part of the global economy. Ask them how they were able to stop their businesses from becoming rusty relics of the past.

However you plan on tackling this problem, start slow, but start now.

This can be done. Unite for a change and who knows what could be accomplished in a short period of time. Pay more in higher taxes for it. I know that it's hard for Jacksonians to pay more taxes, but pay whatever you can. Let's not have our kids grow up to look at anymore empty buildings and wonder why nothing was done.

Our city is very family oriented. The children and the parents dress up in Dutch costumes every year and have an official scrubbing of the streets to show our cleanliness. The “Dutch” cleanser company actually come to our city took pictures of our dancing Dutch girls and put it on their cleanser can for everyone to see.

We are proud of the fact that over the years, we have had many Presidents and Presidential campaigners come to be in our Saturday Parades. We have often had guest celebrities over the years as well as Royalty. The Queen of The Netherlands paid us a visit along with her court.

Many times the citizens join together to clean up the city before the festivities starts as they like putting on a clean face. The children practice marching in the Children's parade and you can listen to the music of the marching bands long before the tourists arrive.

The uniqueness of our city helped us to win an award for being one of the beautiful cities in America today. The whole community noted for working together in times of crisis as well as helping each other on a daily basis. We have many churches in our town some are large and others are small. Our city founded by Van Raalte and his followers are instrumental in keeping our ecosystem.

Holland, Michigan is located by the lake shore and has many factories for those who desire to relocate and move in our community. Heinz's major American pickle-processing plant is located in our city and one of the oldest manufacturers in the area. We have other factories such as Request Foods, Perrigo, Herman Miller, Prince Corp, Howard Miller (Clock Company known around the world) and many more manufacturers. We are proud of our manufacturers, as they have paid an important part in keeping with the environment and recycling.

We have shopping malls, major department stores, and other large chain stores just like other cities. We have in our downtown area very nice unique shops that are family owned and many times, you can find things that you never thought existed. The streets lined with red brick and have a melting system underneath to keep the snow away in the winter.

Our local restaurants pride themselves in excellent Dutch foods and Hispanic foods. The Russ Restaurant is famous for their foods all made at their own commissary and in the Dutch style.

The winter months in Holland are beautiful you may catch the waves as they freeze in a certain pattern or go ice-skating. We have cross-country skiing and ice fishing. We have places that you can visit and watch the artisans create beautiful candles, wooden shoes, and other things that depict our city.

Our children are robust and healthy. They walk to school or playing outside on their sleds all of them enjoy the hearty winter climate. Our city has many people of many races that work together as a team. We have many Hispanics besides the Dutch population. We have many other smaller minorities that co-exist in our city and take great pride in being a part of our celebration during our Tulip Festival.

The Hispanic people of our city have help to build the community culture into part of what it is today. The Cinco De Mayo festival starts the Tulip Festival off with a flare. The food and the hospitality that the Hispanic people in our community are an outstanding feature that adds to our Dutch heritage. The Cinco de Mayo festival has many dancers and singers who portray the culture of their native country just as the Dutch present the culture of their native country.

Our sister city in Mexico brought us a beautiful fountain that we keep in Kollens park which is beside lake Macatawa a subsidiary of Lake Michigan. Along side the beautiful fountain, you will find a statute of three Dutch people as they are landing in our community.

The diversity that our community has together is part of what makes our city the beautiful city it is today. I would like to invite all of you to visit us anytime but especially in May during the Cinco de Mayo and the Tulip Festival. You will get very good culture awareness and share with us our hope for the future, our children living, working, and praying together.

Today in our city, many people fill our market places and enjoy our beaches all summer long. The winter months are great for winter sports and we still enjoy the company of many visitors.

The city is always growing and changing with the modern times but it seems to maintain the early era of our Dutch and Spanish settlers. We have museums and art shops that many who enjoy our culture like to visit.

We also have several colleges that are Hope College, Davenport, and Grand Valley University, where many come to get their higher education. The city noted for its work with the disabled as well. The residents are very helpful with workshops, taking food to the elderly, day camps and a beautiful center for the seniors called Evergreen Commons.

Welcome to Holland, Michigan, U.S.A.