Every year, I like to get out and do something for the season. One of my favorite places to visit nearby is Meijer Gardens, the arboretum and conservatory up in Grand Rapids. The picture of me in the sidebar is actually from Meijer Gardens, many years ago.
They have an annual holiday exhibit where they set up a model train that winds through some side rooms, and they have a whole setup dedicated to Christmas, with examples of decorated trees using traditional ornaments from different nations. It’s quite fascinating, and I love to go when I can.
Unfortunately, the last couple of years I haven’t had the opportunity to visit, so I was extra-excited to make it out this year. As an added bonus, they also had an interactive lights-and-sounds exhibit outdoors, called ENLIGHTEN. Music, cool lights, and a walk through the park on a temperate winter night? Sign me up!
This isn’t the first sensory light-show I’ve been to. Last year, when we visited friends in Oklahoma City and then family in Tennessee, we stopped by Gatlinburg and spent a day at Anakeesta. They have a similar light show called Astra Lumina, and that was a fantastic experience, so I was hopeful for something similar.
Fair warning: the pictures don’t really do it justice, since the whole thing is immersive and musical. I’d say give it a look yourself, but it’s such a limited-time event that it’s pretty much over already. Sorry!
The first of the major attractions along the path was a fairly robust light show with light bars, spotlights, and floodlights synced to music. The exhibit starts strong, and we were happy to sit for the ten-minute play-through.
This was a surprisingly tricky for me to figure out what was going on. I’ve been dealing with blurry vision for a while, and while it’s getting better, in the dark, these mirrored balls and rings of neon were really hard to identify. Very cool to see scattered around, though!
This thing, meanwhile, was really cool. The sculpture is a dendroid by Roxy Paine called Neuron, and it was lit up bright and vibrant. What you don’t get from a picture is that a little control box let you wave a hand and change the colors! It made it really pop. Again, the pictures don’t do it justice compared to see it in motion.
This field of lit-up grasses was also quite pretty, though very static compared to the rest of the experience. It was a nice, warm glow to settle you down between more vibrant segments.
One thing I didn’t get a photo of — only some videos — was the waterfall section, with lights projected over the tumbling water and lasers creating sparkly patterns on the bare trees around. It was synced to a handful of different classical songs, and it was extremely pretty, but also very hard to photograph.
Inside after the show, they had the tropical room all lit up. I love these stained glass stars, they look gorgeous.
The train is always a classic to see tooling around!
It was around this time that disaster struck. I have no idea how it happened, but somehow, something shattered the tempered glass protector that covers my phone’s camera. It didn’t stop me from taking pictures, but it DID stop me from being able to adjust the zoom, which really hindered my ability to take photos without people in them, especially of the Christmas trees.
Fortunately, the tree exhibits are there every year, so those will definitely be available if you wanted to visit for yourself. And I was relieved to confirm that it was just the protector and not the camera itself that was damaged.
Overall, I think this was a great evening out. Astra Lumina was louder and much more immersive, but it’s also by an international art collective and a more permanent installation, whereas ENLIGHTEN was just for a few weeks. I certainly wasn’t disappointed!
For those of you keeping up with the blog for my recipes, don’t worry! I’m not doing very many adventure posts like this these days, but as a way to enjoy the holidays, this gives me a chance to take a breather. Stay tuned next week for more tasty treats!