Hey everyone, Webmaster Johnny here.
We would be overlooking a major attraction in West Michigan if we did not cover the Grand Haven Musical Fountain. It's not exactly roadside, but you can watch it from your car. And it's FREE!
The fountain has been around since 1962, and every year has new shows. In September of 2006, the City of Grand Haven put the control software up on their site to allow anyone who would like to have their hand at creating a new performance a chance to create and submit their show, and some of these have been pretty spectacular. Heck, the fountain is so well known it even has it's own Wikipedia page, located here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Haven_Musical_Fountain
Fourth of July weekend has a special show, including sycronized fireworks, and the Coast Guard Festival show is usually worth wading through the crowd to get a good seat for.
You have the option of either finding a close parking place (but get there early to do so) or bringing a lawn chair or seat cushion. There is a large section of bleachers available, but they are pretty hard on the back end if you don't bring something a little softer to sit on. Your coat works, but since the fountain only runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, you usually aren't carrying a coat.
You can check out more information and get directions at their website (which can sometimes take a bit to load, so be patient).
http://grandhaven.org/news-and-events/musical-fountain-schedule/
And if you would like to have a try at designing your own show, check out the software here:
http://www.ghmfsoftware.com/
The software site also has some video up, so you can see what others have done and what the fountain looks like in use.
Just thought I would throw that out there for you folks, I'm off to find something else to tell you about.
-Webmaster Johnny
