June Show: Ionia, Michigan

June 2nd and 3rd, 2007 we entered the Mid-Michigan Magic AMHR Show in Ionia, Michigan. The show was held at the Ionia Free Fairgrounds.

The fairgrounds were nicely laid out, clean and spacious. Except for the small horse stalls I can't complain about the experience showing there. The show itself was well run and the folks were helpful and friendly. It is a show worth going to and I hope to make some of their shows in the coming years.

But we did not spend all the time at the show. We did some sightseeing and wandered around the town.


We learned that the town was founded in 1833 and the plaque above is in front of the Ionia County Courthouse, and "the largest structure ever built of Ionia sandstone." (The photos on this post are all mine, but similar photos are on at the link site)


I have included other photos of the town because it is special both because of the quality of these old, historic buildings but it was one of the cleanest towns we visited the entire year.

Above the Metroplitian Title building the facade of a building showing the words: "Silver" and "Graff". Unfortunately we did not find out if these were the orginal builders or owners the building, but it was old.



We walked down to the end of town and then came back on the other side of the road, stopped in the Bluewater Cafe for lunch Saturday and stopped in the The Cellar where to our delight we found several interesting bottles of wine to bring home and savor at a later time.


Dinner both nights was at the LampLight Grill and the photo below was lifted off the website...sorry I did not get a good photo of it myself. The meals were great and reasonably priced.



We took many photos of the town but later I will be posting about the antique car show that Ionia hosted...it was quite nice that they decided to have the event while we were in town.

The last photo is a building with the upper fascade of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. It would appear that the Elks have moved because the lower level houses a pawnshop that had some interesting things in.

Ionia was a great little town, which lots of character, and we hope to have another opportunity to visit it again.

The show in Ionia, Michigan was put on by the Mid-Western Michigan Miniature Horse Club.