Indianapolis

 After Christmas and New Years, all the excitement had passed and yet nothing new had begun.  School didn't start for another week and even then not really because of snow days.  So, just like last year and the year before that, I determined to take a trip the first week of January and get kids away from screens and out doing something fun.  We tossed around a lot of ideas but since I was going to be the sole driver, I needed it to be fairly close.  Indianapolis won out.  It was a great trip.

We got an airbnb apartment in a building directly in the center of town for $50/night because it was off season and it was a wonderful place.  It had a huge common area with a pool table, ping pong, shuffle board, corn hole, bocce ball, and giant movie screen.  It was a great place to hang out in the evening after we were tired of exploring the city.  Indianapolis has more of a Detroit feel than a bigger city like Chicago or New York. It's definitely been through the same rough decades of urban flight that Detroit has but it seems to be recovering very well and it was very walkable and had plenty of fun things to do.

We visited the zoo, the highlight of which was the dolphins and the dolphin show.  Also, the seal enclosure was getting cleaned while we were there so there were scuba divers in the tank and other workers above ground who were interacting with the seals and that was fun to watch.

We visited the Children's Museum which is supposedly one of the best in the world.  It was over-hyped in our opinion and we honestly didn't like it as much as the one in Ann Arbor or the one in Toledo, but it was ok.  It was a fun way to spend a few hours and the space station exhibit and the Terra Cota warriors display and presentation were great.  Christian was the hero on this day because it really wasn't very geared to his age and yet he never complained and made the best of it for many hours.

You can't go to Indianapolis and not visit the Indy 500 Motor Speedway.  That was definitely a highlight.  They drive you out onto the track and drive the whole loop while the tour guide tells you all about it.  We all felt like we were breaking some rule as we drove out onto the track.  I felt like someone was going to come out any moment and yell at us!  Then they took our picture at the famous bricked finish line, with the timing and officials pagoda, and the score board.  The building in the background of the first picture is the museum which, sadly, was closed for renovations.  It says "Indianapolis Motor Speedway - Racing Capital of the World" on it.

We also went to an outdoor evening lightshow at a beautiful place called Newfields.  It has outdoor gardens, a modern art museum, a sculpture garden, etc.  We spent the day exploring the grounds and when the sun went down, went into the light show area.  We found some of the church's Light the World machines there!  That was cool. We'd only ever seen them on the church's website.  So we chatted with the members that were volunteering to help people and we bought chickens and produce for the needy. 

 

The show was spectacular with all sorts of amazing ways of displaying the lights.  Our favorite was a dried up river bed into which they'd placed dozens of lights on posts so they looked like they were floating down the river, all up to a gorgeous giant dome of lights that looked like the moon on the horizon.  The best part was when we came up to the "moon" and discovered that we could go inside.  The boys couldn't get enough of the experience.

Peter's highlight of the day was the escalator.  An up and down one side by side - perfect for endless looping.  He rode it for about 30 minutes non-stop.  Christian discovered the joy of going the wrong way on the escalator.  I was shocked that at 13 he'd never done that before!  My sweet rule-abiding kid.  Another day we found another set of escalators side by side like this in the mall and it was another 30 minutes of riding.  I think that will be the only thing Peter remembers of Indianapolis in the future!

Or maybe playing on the giant numbers in a sculpture in front of the museum.  Not sure that was allowed, but no one stopped us.

We explored a beautiful park area around the river one day and discovered they have the NCAA Hall of Fame there.  We hadn't intended to visit, but it was a lot of fun.  The highlight there was the interactive games where you get to play any sport you want against the computer and cameras which track your movements.  So you throw/kick a real football/baseball/soccerball/etc. at the screen and it acts as if you're playing against real players who catch/hit/block/etc the ball (or don't, if you throw really poorly)  It was a lot of fun.

We also spent time just exploring around - the Saints and Soldiers monument to all the military from Indiana, the state capitol building, the 9/11 monument (not pictured) and random funny little things we found like this man on a bench.  No idea who he is, but he seemed very friendly.   We got so lucky with the weather.  It was always sunny and in the 40s so we never froze.

Random extras:

We ate sushi several times, exploring what the city had to offer.  We also ate our weight in gyros and chicken shwarma because I discovered Christian had no idea what they were and I was sure he'd love them.  He did.

We got stymied by the winter season closures in one park which blocked off all the paths we'd intended to take back to the car.  Rather than go all the way back the way we came, Christian suggested going straight up along the freeway overpass and along the free way for 100 meters to get back to the car.  Stupid idea but definitely more fun and adventurous, so that's what we did. 

The apartment building we stayed in.  Other than parking costs, this place was fantastic.  In fairness, though, parking was half what we paid in Chicago.

I have no pictures of the skywalk.  It's a multi-mile glass enclosed walkway that lets you walk all around the downtown center over the streets without going outside and allowed us to go from our apartment building to the mall and a ton of other places without ever needing a jacket.  That was a lot of fun.

I'm so glad this tradition of January trips continues.  I'm sad that Bella and Benjamin couldn't be convinced to come and that Kelly had to work.  Otherwise, it was a great week.