11-28-2018 Return to Belize

It was 14 degrees (Farenheit) this morning - time to go!!! Farewell for the winter, Indianapolis!

De-icing the plane.

Take-off.

Sunrise over the clouds.

Arriving in Ft. Lauderdale.

Goodbye for now U.S.

Hello Belize!

Catching our "hopper" flight to Dangriga. Amazingly, we ran into our friend, John (on the right), at the Ft. Lauderdale
airport and shared the same flights since he was also headed to Hopkins.

They put all the guys at the front of the plane for weight balancing.

Leaving Belize City for Dangriga, where our friend Mark picked us up.

We've never flown in Belize when it is this cloudy.

Happy to be back in Belize!

11-23-2018 Black Friday Hiking

 

No Black Friday shopping for us. We stayed as far away from the stores as we could, which for us meant hiking with friends
the woods at Fort Harrison State Park.

It was a chilly day, but not freezing, thankfully.

November has been cold and rainy, so it felt really good to get out into nature on a decent day.

11-22-2018 Family Thanksgiving

We decided to stay in the States later this year so we could attend the Thanksgiving get-together with Eric's huge side of the
family. Cara's mother joined us as well.

It was held at the clubhouse at cousin Brittney's apartment complex.

With 70 people in attendance, we needed such a large space. There was even a great big game room (that we failed to photograph).

It was good to see family that we haven't seen for several years (having been in Belize), so braving the cold was worth it.

11-16-2018 Tonic Ball

For several years now, a great organization named Second Helpings has had a music event fundraiser called Tonic Ball that is held in the Fountain Square area of Indianapolis. It has grown a lot in popularity, and now there are five stages that each feature the music of a different artist.

Cara was lucky and won two tickets to Tonic Ball, as well as a VIP pre-party - woohoo! Thanks Nuvo!

The VIP Party was held at the Fountain Square Theatre, which was also one of the music venues for the night.

 

There was free food from Liter House and free beer from Sun King Brewing Co.

It's a lovely venue that we hadn't been to in quite a while.

After the VIP Party, the theater became the venue for the Johnny Cash stage. We like his music, so we stayed here for a bit.

One of the things Second Helpings does is provide free meals to those who need them.

We decided we should try to check out all five venues. Just outside the theater, though, we encountered a roaming brass band
that reminded us of being in New Orleans.

 

Next door at Radio Radio was the Pearl Jam stage.

We had to wait in a short line to get in here because it was always at capacity.

Next we went over to Pioneer and the Beyonce stage. We didn't have to wait in line to get in, but there was no chance of
getting drinks here because the bar was packed.

By this time in the evening, most venues were at capacity. There were long lines at the last two venues, White Rabbit (the
ABBA stage) and The Hi-Fi (the Elton John stage), so we didn't even try to get in there.

We ended the evening at the Johnny Cash stage in Fountain Square Theatre - there was plenty of room there all night, and we found a nice spot in the balcony.

One of our favorite acts was the Skyfall Steel Orchestra - their instrumental, all-drum rendition of "Ring of Fire" was great!

We had a wonderful time. We did, however, wonder how much the event was oversold due to the long lines. We also thought that maybe they packed too many acts onto each stage.  Each performer only got to play about three songs, so there was almost as much time transitioning between acts as music itself.

11-15-2018 Ice and Snow

We made a short trip to southern Indiana to visit family and work with a client. Wednesday night/Thursday morning there was freezing rain that coated every tree and bush, plus a light dusting of snow. We awoke to a beautiful site - too bad that freezing cold has to go along with that, and we had to drive back to Indianapolis for an appointment. Thankfully, the highways had been salted and were clear of ice.

 

 

 

11-2-2018 November First Friday in Indy

Heavy winds last night caused lots of leaves to fall and get plastered to our car and our friend's van. It just looked funny to us.

We went to three different art locations for our November First Friday experience. This is at the Indiana Landmarks Center,
our second stop.

All of the photos on display had been taken using this camera.

Our last stop was the Harrison Arts Center, which houses dozens of different artists studios.