The 58th Annual Conference of the Michigan Science Teachers Association took place at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel & DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 25-26, 2011. With over 2,500 science teachers and administrators in attendance to listen to speakers and presenters even brainier than themselves, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the weekend. I knew Peg would be all of Friday afternoon and most of Saturday and that, short of sitting through seminars, I would have to find my own entertainment. Fortunately for Patrick, my surrogate son Tommy, and I, the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum and the Grand Rapids Museum were just across the river from our hotel. Both were great! The Gerald Ford Presidential Museum is worth the trip to Grand Rapids for its own sake.
The boys were immediately impressed upon seeing the statue of Gerald Ford as a Boy Scout. Whether because that somehow seals him with irreproachable character or whether their status as Boy Scouts now improves their bid at the presidency in 2040 was unclear to me. They were also impressed with the piece of the Berlin Wall on display, though not as impressed and emotionally charged by it as I.
Anyone who lived through Watergate and the energy crisis of the 1070′s or remembers the run-way budget deficits that were nearly put to right once upon a time will be filled with nostalgia as they walk through the exhibits. The people, places, and events of those incredible years come alive with an additional on-line Watergate exhibit.The Watergate exhibit immerses the visitor in one of the most critical constitutional crises in the nation’s history. It is the story of the bungled burglary at the Watergate apartments in Washington, D.C., in June 1972, that eventually forced Richard Nixon to resign as President of the United States, and elevated Gerald R. Ford to the nation’s highest office on August 9, 1974. The unfolding trauma and tragedy of those two years, and the final triumph of American democracy is dramatically told in this exhibit gallery.
The boys enjoyed the Oval Office replica with dramatic overhead lighting synchronized to a narration detailing activities in America’s most famous room. Recorded voices of actors portraying Ford, Rockefeller, Kissinger, and others describe a typical day in the most atypical of work spaces.
Probably the best part of the museum was an interactive replica of the Cabinet Room. The room, decorated as it was during the Ford Administration, introduces visitors to the issues faced by President Ford and his Cabinet members. Visitors are invited to sit at the cabinet table while videos highlight three major events discussed by the President and his Cabinet: the pardon of Richard Nixon, the seizure of the USS Mayaguez, and the New York City financial crisis. I sat in President Ford’s Chair while Patrick and Tommy scrambled to see who could lay claim to the Secretary of Defense’s chair.
Besides the museums, we were happy to find a great great coney shop – The One-Stop Coney Shop -
an easy walk from our hotel. We enjoyed a nice dinner with a bunch of the ‘science geeks’ who are actually not at all geeky, and left the boys with a sitter afterward while we checked out the bar across the street which boasted dueling grand pianos, It is apparently popular with college kids and draws them in from across the state, as we ran into Elizabeth and her boyfriend, Zachary, together with some of their Michigan State friends.
I wish that I hadn’t waited nearly half a century to spend some time in downtown Grand Rapids.
