A New Appreciation for the Dutch

Jeff and I had a great Sunday. We started the morning at our new church Moran Park. For lunch, I made sloppy joes in our new kitchen. This is such a big deal! Later in the day we tried a local ice cream shop called Captain Sundae. All of their offerings are maritime themed. It was okay. Certainly no Doozies :) After our mediocre ice cream experience we decided to walk out to the lighthouse. Big Red sits at the front of the channel between Lake Michigan and Lake Macatawa. Oh, it is so beautiful out there. The story is that the Dutch saw this area as a great opportunity for industry and shipping. The government, however,disagreed and would not foot the bill to dig the channel to connect the two lakes. So, the Dutch people dug the channel themselves! Holy cow! This new connection went on to be very profitable and influential in the development of Holland. Jeff loves this, of course. People rising up to take action instead of relying on the government. Just that morning, I was telling Jeff how disappointed I was with the Dutch people. I find their names ridiculous and often impossible to pronounce (Graafschap, DeLeeuw, Nyenhuis, Saar for example). Are there no rules governing spelling in their homeland? All my sounding out skills I learned in kindergarten are useless here in Holland. But after learning that these same people dug a channel with their own hands (amazing), I figure I can let the name thing go :) (For a more complete history of the creation of the channel click here.)