Holland's Century Club

 I travel all over the Midwest (and beyond) giving talks about my Great Lakes Adventures.

This spring I was invited to give a talk to the Century Club of Holland.

This social club has been meeting to share the visual, literary, and performing arts for 120 years! 

They met at the Macatawa Yacht Club, a gorgeous facility on Lake Macatawa. 

Macatawa Yacht Club

Lake Macatawa

A painting of "Big Red," Holland's lighthouse

In the 1800s, the meetings were hosted in member's homes and the host would stage a play they had written, or share a concert with the club. Today, the club often brings in an author to talk to the group. Since they live so near Lake Michigan, they chose me for their spring meeting.

The president of the club

Night falls outside as I get ready to speak

If you are part of a group searching for a dynamic and engaging speaker, feel free to contact me at

LakeTrek@gmail.com

and learn more about me at

LakeTrek.com

Life should be an adventure,
-Loreen Niewenhuis 

Author, Adventurer & Speaker

"Loreen translates her passion for our Great Lakes into advocacy, education, science, humor, and beauty by taking her audience with her on these GREAT adventures. Her five-city speaking blitz awed and inspired Indiana conservationists. Her adventures are truly amazing!"

-Martha Bolyard, former Associate Director of Philanthropy

The Nature Conservancy of Indiana

"Loreen is a great speaker: funny, informative, approachable, and so interesting...she even makes geology fascinating! She's been featured in the Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Country Woman Magazine. I highly recommend her."

-Colleen Leddy, Head Librarian

Stair Public Library

West Michigan Book Tour

My book tour took me to Holland, Michigan in July. There, I spoke to a professional group, HASP (Hope Academy of Senior Professionals). This group had over 300 of their members there to hear me speak.

Some HASP business before my lecture

Quite the group!

Afterward, I signed books at Holland's own indie bookstore, Reader's World. 

Holland's indie bookstore at 194 River Ave

I always love to visit and support independent bookstores and encourage you to do the same.

An August Woman's Literary Club

The building where they used to meet

I recently gave a lecture about my Lake Michigan hike in Holland, Michigan.

The group there, the Woman's Literary Club of Holland, has been in existence for over a century and they currently have over 150 members who meet twice-monthly to discuss all things literary.  

They now meet in this Holland church 

This club has rich history. One woman told me that her grandmother was one of the founding members of the club.

Mimi is the president of the group 

Author visits are always followed by 

coffee, dessert, and chatting.

It was a pleasure to meet these 
literary-minded women! 

Photo shoot for Grand Rapids Magazine

I got out to the lake yesterday to meet up with
Johnny Quirin, photographer for Grand Rapids Magazine. We met at Kirk Park just north of Holland, and the weather cooperated to allow the photo shoot.

Mr. Quirin favored the backdrop of these ancient dock supports, now transformed to weathered, wooden sculptures reaching out into the waves.

The article about my Lake Trek will appear in the August issue of the magazine, so look for it then. It is sold in the greater Grand Rapids metro area.

Revisiting the Lake Trek: Segment 3

This segment spanned the 50 miles between South Haven and Grand Haven. I was delighted to have my son, Lucas, along on this part of the Lake Trek. We had some wild weather along the way!
Note: You may want to press the 'play' button, then pause it and let it completely load before resuming play. This will allow it to play smoothly.

You can find all videos from the Lake Trek on YouTube at: www.YouTube.com/lniewenhuis
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Walk with me:

Segment 3, Day 3 Holland->Grand Haven 19 miles

High of 49 degrees.

The day started off pretty brisk (the sand is white because of the frost in the first photo), but warmed quickly.

Lucas and I had a nice stretch of beach to walk up to Port Sheldon where we had to go inland due to the river, Pigeon Lake, and then the land owned by the power plant there.

It was in Port Sheldon that I passed a milestone on the Trek: 150 miles! Lucas took a photo of me with the Port Sheldon sign behind me at that very spot.

We walked inland for a few miles past the power plant to Kirk Park and back to the lake. This is where some news crews caught up with us.






Lucas let me do the final 8 miles alone this day since Phil was able to swing by and get him at Kirk Park.








The day was crystalline clear. The kind of day you want to inhabit and consume, to make it part of you.


It was wonderful to see Phil and Lucas waiting for me on the beach in Grand Haven. It was a long day covering 19 wonderful miles of the lakeshore.

Segment 3, Day 2 Douglas->Holland 12 miles

High of 41 degrees. Winds 20mph.

We hiked inland from the lake the morning of the second day. The Kalamazoo River snakes between the cities of Douglas and Saugatuck. We had to walk through the lovely city of Saugatuck in order to get past the river.

We stopped in at the Singapore Bank Bookstore and met the owner, Judy. (Singapore was a small town that was abandoned near Saugatuck in 1875. The building that houses the bookstore was moved to Saugatuck.)

We saw a couple of flurries while walking through the town, but we walked on to the state park just north of town and back to the lake.

We made good time on the lakeshore and covered 12 miles this day. We met up with Mark Copier (who took photos for the Grand Rapids Press article) at the Saugatuck Dunes State Park. Then we connected with Rick Wilson (reporter from the Grand Rapids Press) for an interview over a hot cup of coffee in Holland.

My brother, Phil (LakeTrek Transporter) met up with us in Holland. He drove us from the hotel to the north side of Lake Macatawa (the large, inland lake in Holland) for the start of day 3.