8-8-2018 walked around downtown Indianapolis

Indianapolis downtown has become a good place to live again.  In the late 60s Indianapolis downtown was fractured by 2 Interstates and people moved out.  It is nice to walk around and see the changes since we had been there.



The Capital building is undergoing a renovation



The Capital building is very beautiful and the whole downtown district has a lot to see and do.  Just a block west of here starts www.WhiteRiverStatePark.com  

This was how the sunset looked over the capital building....the picture doesn't show what we saw

Another shot of the sunset which came out a little better

We used a Restaurant.com to score 2 meals and 2 drinks for 15 bucks



This is a picture of the new $700,000 condos.  You cant read it, but it says "A new definition in Luxury Living.  11 Bespoke residences.  7500 square feet of living and 9500 square feet of office space.   I did not know what the word bespoke meant.  Bespoke means custom made for you.  It is a seldom used word.  Here is the link for the history of the word.  I guess if you don't know what the word means you cant afford the 700k.

8-4-2018 Indiana Paddlers Rendezvous

Every year on the first weekend in August is the Indiana Paddlers Rendezvous, held near Lafayette on Wildcat Creek.  The event is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday paddling and frivolity.  We could only make it for Saturday evening and get in a Sunday Paddle.

This overlooks the confluence of the South Fork (on the right) and the North Fork of Wildcat Creek

Every year they have an auction on Saturday night.  It is a good way to swap gear and help a good cause.

They have an auctioneer, 2 runners and 3 bookkeepers and still it takes hours to auction off the stuff

On Sunday at 9 we assemble for shuttle instructions.  We are gonna all stage our cars at the end.

There they are lined up for the shuttle

This is a picture of the access point

Zora had a good time in her pretty yellow boat

The weather was really beautiful

This is the lunch spot

Soft sand beaches

The water was clear on the Wildcat and we saw a lot of fish

This is the sandbar that is created when the Wildcat dumps into the Wabash

These are the houses right across from the take out point on the Wabash River at Davis Ferry. One of the boats had a funny
giant duck float on it.

This is a picture of the Davis Ferry access site

8-3-2018 First Friday in Downtown Indianapolis

Every First Friday of every month several different areas of Indianapolis host events.  There are too many to go to them all.  This time we focused in on the Indiana Landmarks Center area.  This part is notable because it was the epicenter of wealth in Indianapolis before the Interstate came through the middle of the neighborhood.   Everybody left in the 1970's and now they have come back and revitalized the area.

There are a bunch of booths and vendors at most events and we got some honey samples

Several of those had dog ashes in them

They turned this piano into an art piece

This is called the Cook Theatre because Mr Cook restored this whole beautiful old church

They had art and spoken word art in this room

There was a pop up after party in a parking lot at about 9

8-2-2018 Biked to Shakespeare at White River State Park

We headed out for about a 20 mile bike trip to Indianapolis Downtown.  The trip is mostly all on designated bike only trails.  There was a free performance by a Shakespeare troupe.

If you look closely they have scaffolding on that government building past the fountain

Beautiful view of the Canal from the bridge

The next three pictures are of this free library

There are a bunch of these artistic free libraries sprinkled around everywhere

Take a book or give a book

This is taking place at White River State Park by the river.  The seats are terraced with limestone.

There were several food trucks on site

This gives a better look at the stage

They even had a wine truck!

The grounds are really beautiful and you get a good view of the skyline

The performance is right over the hill there

Just one more shot of the skyline

7-31-2018 Lyft to the Chatterbox to hear Allison Walters

We headed out with Mark and Annette to Mass Ave. in Indianapolis to check out a band.  We went to the Chatterbox which is an old dive bar that has been there since nobody went downtown.

It was a misty day.  The Chatterbox is right on Mass Ave in Downtown Indianapolis.  We took a Lyft to get there and it cost 10$ one way for 4 people.

This is the bathroom wall

Allison was a good singer, but the bar was loud

it is a very small place

7-29-2018 Bike Trip to Broad Ripple

This was a Sunday and we hooked up with Mark and Annette and biked into Broad Ripple.  They had a little craft sale and a band and the neighborhood businesses were throwing a sidewalk sale.

The band was really really good

Your typical little pop up market.  All of the people at this one were making their own stuff.

This is a carved limestone block that is right on the Monon Trail in Broad Ripple.  For those unfamiliar, Broad Ripple is a section of Indianapolis.

The Trail borders the White River

7-27-2018 Biking around on the trails

It seems to be a common theme...Biking around. But Indianapolis has a bunch of great trails and you can get around to all sorts of stuff.  At first we were going to hang out at a new Brew Pub, but the wait was super long, so we went to Plan B.

We ran into these guys from the Goshen Brewery.  They were going to be going to the Indy Brewfest which was going on the next day.

Since the Brewpub was full, we ended up at Mama Corollas which is a little Italian Restaurant right on the bike trail

4 of us had the Lasagna which was some of the best I have ever had

Cara got the Ravioli