7-11-2018 rode our bikes to broad ripple and listened to music

Mark was busy so Cara, Annette, and Eric rode up to Broad Ripple and found a nice bluegrass band to listen to.  The band was right on the Canal in Broad Ripple

7-6-2018 Indianapolis First Friday with Mark and Annette

This time we went to the Circle City Industrial complex that is an old factory of some kind.  You just mingle around and there is cheese and wine and laughter.

First Friday is when the little art workshops open up for tours around Indianapolis.  These are usually in old factories or other cheap places to rent.  They fix up their little space within a building as big as a city block.

Half of the fun is that you meet artists that just do this for a hobby and they are really fun people to meet.

They can turn an old hall into a cool gallery

People really get into first Fridays

6-26-2018 Mark and Annette's 25th Wedding Anniversary

What a GREAT party it was.  There was a live band and great food and lots to drink. 

First check out a timelapse movie of the event

There was beer at the party

Add caption

lots of food and laughter

the band played on the screened in porch

It was a kid friendly event

6-23-2018 Jake's Day

So we took our nephew out for a day of doing whatever he wanted.  We called it Jake's day in honor of Jake! 

Jake has a goat so we started the day by pushing a branch down to his mouth level

Our first stop was Wesselman Park.  They have a large stand of old growth timber and some cool trails and a nice nature center.

Jake doesn't normally go hiking, but was enthusiastic.

There had been a lot of rain and the woods was very lush and green



After the hike we headed to the batting cage

Then we headed to the trail on the river.  It is nice to watch the barges go by

We stumbled on a guy getting ready to ride his penny farthing

Jake brought his rollerblades and we walked

They have a very nice trail on the Evansville Riverfront



Although I have no pictures, we finished off the day by eating some Mexican food and then going to Lics for some Choco Bites.

6-14-2018 Haubstadt Sommerfest

This is a 3 day event chocked full of activities.  Haubstadt is a small town of 1600 and is where Eric grew up.  It is nice to see old friends.

This is where the music teacher used to live....she still probably does.

This is the general action of the bierstube  at the Haubstadt Sommerfest.  There is live entertainment and all of the proceeds of the event go to a town improvement.

My Uncle Dave is a shriner and this is the mariner float

they put a lot of work into that float

6-9-2018 Biking with Friends

When we are in Indianapolis we ride our bicycles a LOT, all over town, with our friends Mark and Annette. This day we biked all over downtown.

We started at 1205 Distillery near the Fountain Square area. Yes, that glass is leaning, but it won't fall over - it's like the
Weeble Wobble toys.

We found an Italian Festival nearby. We were deterred by the "no drink" - we couldn't even bring in our water bottles, which
we weren't going to leave on our bikes to get stolen.

 

This must have been Hotel Tango's entry in the Pride parade that had gone on downtown earlier that day.

LOVE IT!

Over at Military Park we saw the end of the huge Pride Festival going on.

6-3 to 6-5-2018 Anniversary Trip to northern Michigan

We had finished work with our client in northern Indiana, and our anniversary was coming right up, so we decided to head
north to one of our favorite towns - Traverse City, Michigan. We found a good deal at the historic Park Place Hotel in the
heart of downtown, so we booked two nights.

The view of downtown and the bay from the rooftop bar of our hotel.

   

There was a cold spell going on, and it rained a lot one day (should have checked the weather before we came here, I guess), but we still enjoyed wandering around and seeing how things have changed in the five years since our last visit.

What had been a liquor store and parking lot is now a food truck court.

We looked at our lunch options and decided on Cordwood BBQ.

We tried jackfruit for the first time in the form of a "Sloppy Jack" sandwich with BBQ jackfruit, and we both loved it!

We also loved the waste disposal options at this food court.

We checked out the waterfront parks.

 

 

We had the $6 burger and beer special at Firefly restaurant (Cara was able to sub a nice veggie burger).

After checking our of our hotel we headed over to nearby Torch Lake to surprise some friends we met in Belize who own a
marina there. (Unfortunately, we failed to get a photo.) They were working, so we decided to drive around the lake and visit
the small towns. We stopped for lunch in Bellaire.

We had a nice lunch at Short's Brewing Company.

We drove on and stopped in Elk Rapids to walk around.

 

We stopped at the Short's Brewing Company production facility. We later met one of our friends for dinner at a nearby
restaurant, and again failed to get a photo. We decided to drive all night back to northern Indiana after that.