A Trip Back in Time: The Fallasburg Village Festival

I guess staying in a 155-year-old home in a historic neighborhood wasn’t enough, so we traveled about a half hour east to a spot in the woods where the whole village is historic!

Fallasburg Festival was our main event for our first Saturday in Grand Rapids. Fallasburg is a historic nineteenth century hamlet that includes a very charming covered bridge that crosses the Flat River.

The event was situated on both sides of a narrow country road that is dotted with old historic buildings, many of which are still being lived in. There was a car show, live music, free homemade ice cream, free horse-drawn wagon rides, craft booths, pygmy goats, and more.

One of the oddest booths was run by the West Michigan Avid Typewriters Club. They had a tent full of old typewriters and encouraged people to use them.. You could sit down at any of the old machines and bang out a few lines. So, I typed the first sentence my mom taught me when she let me try out her old typewriter, which I still have. I typed, “Every good boy does fine.”

Dale and I took our time and enjoyed everything the festival had to offer. We had a good visit with a couple of ladies in one of the booths who were both connected to the military. One’s husband was a Marine and the other lady was in the Army for several years and her husband retired from the Coast Guard. The latter told us about the big Coast Guard Festival going on in New Haven this week. We hope to go this weekend.

It was really quite fun. There were not a ton of people and everyone was very friendly. It was really humid though. The temperature was probably lower 90s, but the humidity had us sweating. I thought it was supposed to be cooler up north!

We left the festival around 3pm, had a late lunch in Lowell, then headed home. Another country good time.