Crockstar Chronicle: anniversary

This year marked our 18th wedding anniversary!!! Time seems to be going much faster these days. William just graduated out of his booster seat, and come November, will meet all the criteria to ride in the front seat! = 0 Alice turns 16 in August, Emily starts high school in the fall, and the twins will be heading to middle school. I'm glad the sun was out today because I needed the comfort. lol.

I digress. My mom agreed to a sleep over with the kids, and Billy and I headed back to Grand Rapids to see somethings we missed the first go round! Once again, Grand Rapids was not our first choice, but Ann Arbor was expensive, again, and Claire was booked, because it was St. Patrick's Day weekend!

When we pulled into town, there was an event, Irish off Ionia, going on. We saw tons of people dressed up to celebrate. I was really glad that we wore green, and a little sad that I hadn't grabbed some of our other accessories. We also saw tons of college kids walking around, so I guess classes were out on our previous trip, in January.

The hotel was easy to find, since we'd already stayed there once, and we were upgraded at check in! The room wasn't much bigger, but did have a coffee maker and the bedroom was walled off from the bedroom. I didn't take any pictures this time. After settling in, it was time to venture out!

Our first stop was a pinball bar.

Billy played the James Bond Pinball game, and his jet pack caught the ball to give him a bonus! It's hard to see, but I thought I'd give y'all a sporting chance to spot it; it's circled below.

Once we had our fill of pinball, we made our way to the Irish Pub that we missed out on last time, but the line was out the door, and halfway down the block! Despite the weather being better than it was on our previous visit, we decided to find a less packed location.

So, we stopped back in to Max's South Sea's Hideaway. We weren't planning on eating a meal there, so we sat at the bar.

We shared a Boo Loo, which was served in a pineapple!

I wanted to do something to celebrate the 'holiday' so I ordered the Emerald Viper. It wasn't very good, but it was pretty.

And I got this lovely picture of the bar, with my pretty drink in front of it. lol.

Billy got a Henry's Baby, it was not as pretty, but he enjoyed it.

Our next stop was for some food, at a bar with a secret back entrance!

We approached from the road, through the parking lot and across the alley to get to the door. It felt very secret. There was a street entrance on the other side, but I don't think we left that way either!

A place with a legit physical menu in Grand Rapids! What a novelty!

We played some physical pong. Billy beat me handily: 5-1 or something.

They were playing reruns of Nickelodeon shows, including commercials, so I saw some things that I've not seen in decades! It was pretty cool.

One of the concerts on our radar was in a bar with a long line, so we passed on it, and went to check out some specials in the building that houses the comedy club. We skipped on the comedy this time, but did get some lucky charms in our drinks! The flavors didn't mesh well at all though.

While we sat there, we saw more and more college kids heading in to celebrate! Lots of green. I had no idea that it was such a big holiday for people!

Without the concert or comedy club, we just spent time chatting, until dinner time. We went out to a hibachi grill. The 6:30 reservation did not show up, so we were seated alone, with our first white hibachi chef, Brandon! He was really good, and all of our food was perfect!

We attempted one more stop at a wine bar that boasts live jazz, but they had apparently, recently, closed for business. = / There were lines, in the cold, everywhere, so we called it a night and headed back to our hotel.

The weather turned on us again, and it was rainy and cold on Sunday, so we were not feeling adventurous and just headed home. Maybe next time, because I think we will go back when the weather is better!

later days

Previous Anniversary celebrations:

17th Anniversary - English Inn: Holmes and Watson
16th Anniversary - Nico's
15th Anniversary- Etran Adventure
14th Anniversary- Ann Arbor
13th Anniversary- The trip that wasn't
12th Anniversary - Toledo
11th Anniversary - St. Louis
10th Anniversary - Fish Grille, Waxahachie
9th Anniversary - Ft. Worth
8th Anniversary - Arby's
7th Anniversary - Hookah bar
6th Anniversary - Thai Chili
5th Anniversary - Carino's - Waxahachie
4th Anniversary - Flemming's Steakhouse @ City Centre
3rd Anniversary - Dinner Movie Theater
2nd Anniversary - Le Mistral
1st Anniversary - Paris
Recap of 1st-5th

edited 4-1-25: backdated for continuity.

This iteration of the murder mysteries held at the English Inn just happened to coincide with our 17th anniversary! Sarah sweetly offered to watch the kids overnight so that we could stay the night after the event, then passed the commitment off to Avia when she returned. It was an extra challenging weekend, since it also coincided with the time change!

The weather had returned to it's usual miserable March cold, and we were staying in a totally different room than our previous visits!

Once we got settled in, we went to the pub to wait until the venue opened.

We were joined by the Olmsteds at the Sherlock and Watson table. It was awesome to have people that we actually knew at our table! I hope they had fun too!

The namesakes were not present often, and neither Billy nor I guessed the actor that would play Sherlock!

I spent months on my costume. Sadly, not nearly as many people dressed up for this theme.

The props were awesome, as were our tablemates! Thanks to the observation of one of our table mates were able to crack the case before the end of the lines!

As soon as our prime suspect revealed that he had a pet snake, and we confirmed that it was indeed a venomous rattlesnake, I felt extremely confident in our answer, and kept our paper in the air for the duration of the "speed round" since the first time we missed out on accolades because we were too slow!

We got every question correct! It was really fun, and I totally felt like a celebrity with all of the people who came to congratulate our table! = )

As far as anniversaries go, this has to be in the top 5! Sadly, they did not announce the next theme as they usually do, leading me to believe that they may be moving venues, or worse, disbanding! = ( Hopefully they are just renegotiating with the English Inn! It is ideal for us, being just down the road, but we would probably follow them to a new outlet!

For gifts, Billy got me the Murder, She Wrote boxed set! His gift was an evening out at Nico's = )

I kept having to check my math, because 17 seemed much too high of a number, but the math doesn't lie! Here's to many, many more!

later days

Previous Anniversary celebrations:

16th Anniversary - Nico's
15th Anniversary- Etran Adventure
14th Anniversary- Ann Arbor

13th Anniversary- The trip that wasn't

12th Anniversary - Toledo
11th Anniversary - St. Louis
10th Anniversary - Fish Grille, Waxahachie

9th Anniversary - Ft. Worth

8th Anniversary - Arby's

7th Anniversary - Hookah bar

6th Anniversary - Thai Chili

5th Anniversary - Carino's - Waxahachie