Holland State Park, Holland, Michigan
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. James 3:17
Whenever we have a down day, Blaine makes up for it the next day, by attempting to wear me out. He did pretty good today! A 15-mile bike ride, a climb involving over 200 steps, a 2-mile hike (we think anyway, because there were no mile markers to be found), and a walk to the beach for sunset. Whew! Quite the expedition!
But even before all that, I did my own walk-about in the early morning hours – even before breakfast. I love that time! It’s a great time to commune with God! It was quiet and very peaceful, and don’t forget, beautiful.
Nothing but me and the seagulls
There aren’t many pictures from our ride, because we just didn’t stop much, and when we did, it never seemed to be in a very picturesque spot, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that Holland is an easy and beautiful place to bike.
This sign was along the road shortly after we started out – about 9am.
They have many miles of paved pedestrian/jog/bike paths that run all over the place. As I mentioned, we went 15 miles, but barely scratched the surface of how far you can actually go. And they’re not just up and down one street, they run all over the place. And they’re nice and wide so you can pass people – or they can pass you – with no problem. In addition, they have dedicated bike lanes along the wider-than-normal streets. I would guess that these are for the serious bikers who don’t mind running with traffic. That’s not us.
This is our next picture – taken just before 10am.
That’s a lot of stuff in between that we didn’t take pictures of. . . .
And we have no idea what this is – – or used to be.
We rode passed all types of neighborhoods from the obviously quite wealthy (gates on their driveway, landscaping out front, can’t see the houses – one place was getting their Fall mums put in and there were at least 4 vans out front working on it and gobs and gobs of flowers sitting around!), to upper-middle-class wannabes, to middle class, to lower class, to businesses, to produce farms.
We passed row after row after row of blueberry bushes, but the season is over and they were all empty.
Good thing. Otherwise, we may have been arrested for stealing.
Watering the blueberry bushes.
A happen-chance store!
And it’s a blueberry store!
And they have air conditioning!
And they have really, really good muffins!
And we’ll be back with the Jeep!
Quite a bit of what we rode through was tree-shaded and it was like riding around in a silent movie. You know – how the screen flickers? That’s what it reminded me of. . .
After a ride like that – albeit mostly flat – climbing to the top of Mt. Pisgah proved to be a bit of a challenge for my old knees and legs, but I made it with only a quick stop or two to check out the views. Yeah. That’s what I was doing . . . checking out the views.
The trail entrance.
Pretty fancy!
Beautiful view!
Plus, check out the shirt I’m wearing. Do you recognize it? It’s my ‘stinkin’ hot’ shirt. That says a lot in itself.
Notice the shirt?
But at least it didn’t remain stickin’ hot, as you will be able to tell by my sunset attire.
It’s a little foggy over Lake Michigan, but the sail boats look really cool! Like they’re floating!
All the way to the top now, and an even better view of Lake Macatawa!
No fog here!
But just look at all them steps!
The trail I mentioned, left from this upper portion of the stairs. There wasn’t much to see, but they did have a good part of it boardwalked. The rest was a very narrow sand trail.
Eeewwwww!
When did he take that???
I have tell you about dinner tonight. I forced Blaine to eat orange chicken. And I’ll bet some of you are thinking right now, “Oooo that sounds delicious!” and some (like Blaine) are saying, “Eww. I don’t know about that.” Or maybe you’re sure you wouldn’t like it, and are thinking, “Yuk!!” But I love it. And once in a while, I make something that I like, even if Blaine doesn’t particularly care for it. It also makes me think of my Grandpa Glass. My Grandma was a terrific cook, but whenever I asked Grandpa if he liked what we were eating, his response was always, “It’s all right.” 😊
Anyway, Blaine even fried the little chicken pieces for me! Outside on the picnic table. No muss, no fuss inside that way! No pictures either as I was busy inside getting everything else ready.
What a great sunset! Even though there wasn’t much sun or color, the fog was fantastic!
It was kinda funny to watch the boats. They would leave the channel and head into Lake Michigan, disappear into the fog within a few yards, and a couple of minutes later, they’d return. We were surprised at the number of boats that did that – all different sizes of them. Maybe they thought the fog might be limited to the shoreline and they could break free of it? Evidently, they discovered their better judgement out there.
ORANGE FLAVORED CHICKEN (Panda Express clone)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 egg white
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1 C. water
½ C. ketchup
½ C. sugar
2 T. apple cider vinegar
1 T soy sauce
2 T. cornstarch
1 T plus 1 t. sesame oil
2 T. vegetable oil
1 orange, zested and juiced
2 green onions, sliced
Broccoli, bite-size pieces and partially cooked
Oil for frying
1 C. cornstarch
Preheat oil in a deep fryer to 400 degrees.
Combine the egg white, salt and sugar in a bowl and stir vigorously until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Add the chicken cubes and stir to coat well.
In a large bag, add 1 C. cornstarch. Add the chicken cubes and shake to coat. Fry the chicken until golden brown. Drain. Reheat the oil and fry the chicken again for just a minute. (this step makes the chicken more crispy. If you don’t want that, you can omit re-frying.)
To make the orange sauce, combine the water, ketchup, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, cornstarch and sesame oil. Stir and set aside. Place a skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, add the vegetable oil. Add the orange zest and green onions and cook, stirring constantly for about 20 seconds. Be careful not to burn the zest.
Pour the combined sauce ingredients into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until the sauce has thickened. Add broccoli and fried chicken.
Serve over rice. Serves 4
HINT: Just like sweet and sour pork, you can cook the chicken ahead of time and save lots of time when preparing your meal!