Great Lakes 2nd Annual Irish Music Festival ~ Fifth Third Ballpark ~ Grand Rapids Michigan

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Terry & Bonnie

Wearing o’ the green would be appropriate for attending the

Great Lakes Irish Music Festival held at Fifth Third Ball Park,

this Saturday August 22, 2009 11:00 am – 9:20 pm.

Gates open at 11:00 am and the first entertainment hits the

stage at noon.

Of course there will be Irish food available for purchase, bangers

and beer, for starters, plus other delectable Irish delights.

The musical entertainment will be performed by international acts:

Quinn’s School of Irish Dance, Stephen’s Green, The Elders,

Brendan Nolan and the Screaming Orphans. Michigan’s Fenian’s

Players will once again take the stage to regale the crowd with

ballads and the spoken word.

There will also be Irish markets and workshops devoted to Irish music,

history and it’s language that will be available for participants. A

Children’s Area will be provided by the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum

from 12:00pm-4pm for the wee ones entertainment.

An added attraction at Fifth Third Ballpark this year is Art in the Park,

an non-juried art fair running from noon until 6 pm, where you can buy

artwork to take home.

Admission for this one day event is $12 for adults, children 3-12 $1, and

those babes under 3 get free admission. Parking is $5 per car, $10 for

buses and RVs.

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate – Westbrook Realty

Monday Nights ~ GR Jazz at the Zoo ~

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Terry & Bonnie

Begins Monday June 15, 2009 – John Ball Park Band Shell

From 6:30 to 8:30 pm at the The John Ball Park Band Shell,

The West Michigan Jazz Society will be featuring local bands

and talent Monday nights. Free admission, although the hat

is passed for donations. This year, the park is requiring liability

insurance for the group to perform. So, grab a blanket, food,

or purchase food at the event, and enjoy local jazz at its best.

The line-up for Summer 2009:

June 15 – The Beltline Big Band 20 piece with vocalists

June 22 – Michael Holmes Trio

June 29 – Mary Rademacher & The Rad Pack

July 6 – Rand Marsh Quartet

July 13 – River Rogues Jazz Band

July 20 – Evan Hyde Quintet with Edye Evans Hyde

July 27 – The Fred Knapp Trio

August 3 – Grupo Aye – Afro-Cuban Jazz

August 10- Wonderland Jazz Ensemble

August 17 – Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra

Grand Rapids – Ada Real Estate Westbrook Realty

Save the Planet ~ Drink Local Beer ~ June 20th ~ Founder’s Fest ‘09

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Terry & Bonnie

Okay, so it is a small thing. The average six pack is rumored to put

7 pounds of carbon in the atmosphere in production & shipping. An

excellent reason to drink your local brew. Grand Rapidians are

especially fortunate because we are home to Founders Brewing,

located at 235 Grandville Avenue.

On June 20th , the 2nd Annual Founders Fest will take place there.

The street will be cordoned off (between Williams and Bartlett)and

all the happy beer drinkers can help save the planet by drinking

Founders locally craft brewed beer and enjoying the outdoor beer &

music festival.

The Big Event will be from 3-11pm and cost is $15 for a ticket.

Regional entertainment will be provided by Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe,

Ultraviolet Hippopotamus, Four Finger Five, Chance Jones,

Total Blam Blams, Oracle, Back Forty, Red Frog and Mucca Pazza.

In case you have been hiding under a beer keg for the past 12 years,

Founders Brewing is rated the 7th Best Brewery IN THE WORLD.

Yeah, pretty great, huh? Serious beer aficionados from around the

world would love to be here for this festival.

Some of them will come. Will you ?

Founders Brewing

Michigan Brewers Guild

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Westbrook Realty

A Night at The Griffins Play Off Game

Posted on May 11, 2009 by Terry & Bonnie

We are so fortunate to have several minor league teams here in Grand Rapids

Michigan. We have baseball with the West Michigan Whitecaps, arena

football with the Grand Rapids Rampage, basketball with The Grand Rapids

Flight, and last, but not least, is the Grand Rapids Ice Hockey team,

The Griffins.

The Griffins have won the IHL Joseph Turner Memorial Cup runner up in 2000

and the Fed A Huber Trophy ( regular season champion) 2001. This year they

are in the Playoffs again. We are all rooting for our home team, and there is

some real talent to found here. The Griffins are affiliated with the Detroit Red

Wings, not exactly unknown in the hockey arena.

Here is a few shots of the recent play-off game I attended against The

Hamilton Bulldogs. I was a guest of Arbor Mortgage, thanks guys!

Not quite sure how The Griffins took a 3-0 lead into 4-3 loss but oh, well,

that’s hockey! Unfortunately, The Griffins didn’t win the Calder Cup Playoffs

this year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beq3bB30Gjs&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6]

Westbrook Realty Grand Rapids MI Real Estate

White Caps Baseball Signals Spring in West Michigan

Posted on March 15, 2009 by Terry & Bonnie

The West Michigan White Caps start their summer season with their

opening day on Thursday, April 9th. It isn’t that far away and would

be a great outing for Spring Break Week. They have many promotions

and specials going on, so don’t delay, if baseball is your passion, get

your tickets now.

The match is with South Bend Silver Hawks and there will be a post

game fireworks show sponsored by Farm Bureau Insurance. Altogas

sponsors Thrifty Thursdays throughout the season, which means

$2 beers, $2 Pepsi products, and 2 hot dogs for, yep, you guessed it

$2.

Big changes at the Fifth Third Ball Park this year:

New food items on the menu = monster burgers, frozen bananas,

Chicago-style dogs and more……+++

Fifth Third Ball Park has gone Smoke Free!! No smoking within the

facility but there will be designated areas outside the 3 entrances

to accommodate smokers.

Personal note:

I love baseball. I started with Little League and didn’t stop until my

better sense decided to limit my exposure to hurtful things. I played

on 3 separate leagues in my heyday. The White Cap games are

always a flashback to my playing days.

I sure do enjoy a good ball game.

White Caps Opening Day Directions to Ball Park

Grand Rapids Ada Real Estate ~ Five Star Real Estate

Fireworks photo by Terry Westbrook

Wm Seidman Talk hosted by GVSU Alumni

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Terry & Bonnie

We had an interesting start to our day. We had a sit down talk with William Seidman,

commentator for CNBC, former FDIC chairman, and Grand Rapids native son.

Well, we were sitting in the audience with about 200 other Grand Rapidians while Bill

told us how he believes we got into this financial crisis. He was scheduled to talk about

which candidate would be the best one for our financial times. With all that has

happened in the last few weeks, his advice was sage and to the point.

Check out their financial advisors.

Neither candidate is a businessman or financial expert, so they will be getting lots

of advice. Try to find out who is advising them and vote for the one whom you

considered to be well advised. He also said we are in uncharted waters with this

whole mess. It will take some original thinking to get us out. And we need to come

out of the “PANIC STAGE” we are in now.

We caught a few minutes of Bill’s Talk at the GVSU downtown campus that you can

see on this short video: