Public Museum and Grand Coney

January 11:  Thursday. I renewed my GR Public Museum grandparent membership a few weeks ago, so Brendan and I took a little excursion downtown late Thursday afternoon. The museum closes at 5pm, so we only had an hour to enjoy it ... and we did!

We really enjoyed the LEGO display of Grand Rapids in earlier times. It was beautifully built. Brendan was super impressed, and he loved the working trolly-car.

The display was all roped off, so you could only get SO close to it ... but Brendan did well with it. We walked all around it for quite awhile and looked at all of the interesting stuff. 

 The museum was still decorated for Christmas and it looked so beautiful.

 The museum is quite the venue for fancy dinners ... nice view of the preparations going on following closing time I'm assuming ...

We took in the mythical creatures exhibit. Brendan's favorite part was designing his own fire-breathing many-headed dragon and then watching it annimated on the big screen above. 

 Brendan also sketched a mythical creature of his own ...

 There was a very cool puppet theatre where Brendan put on a very brief show ...

We ended our visit over at the carousel (naturally) ... We rode it 2x because ... we wanted to! 

 We ate dinner at the Grand Coney (see pictures at the bottom) ... I posted the pictures out of order. These next few are Brendan's Christmas gift from his god-parents. This little castle set is made of wood. It has a draw-bridge and a towers and little soldier-guys and even a king!

 It also comes with its very own DRAGON. I think Brendan named him "Snerkel". Sometimes Snerkel is super nice to people--but other days, he breathes fire on EVERYONE (this is according to Brendan).

 Here are the pictures of The Grand Coney. It's nice that it is so close to where Brendan lives! In the nicer weather, we can just take a little stroll right from Brendan's house! 

 Brendan ordered mini-corn dogs, and I ordered a cheese-burger smothered in crispy sauteed onions. YUM! First hamburger I have had in a very long time. It was really good.

The most memorable part of this evening, however, came when I found out the really really GOOD news ... but since it has not been officially announced yet, I will keep my lips sealed. But I will say, I have floated on a blissful grandma bubble ever since ...