Indianapolis

Mike and Nora joined me for a trip to the Association of College and Research Libraries conference in April. We drove to Denver then flew to Indianapolis and Nora was a stoic little traveler. She made it through a long, long day of travel and when we got to our hotel and undressed her on the bed she just started giggling.

At the hotel

At the conference

In the exhibit hall

We met up with Mike's sister Rachel and her family while in Indy, and Nora also laughed at her cousin, Gavin. Mike and I agree that he's pretty funny.

With Gavin (picture credit: Rachel)

At the Indianapolis Zoo (picture credit: Rachel)

Indy

Yesterday Mike and I finally crossed the state line and made it into Indianapolis (or Indy, as folks around here call it). The whole purpose of our trip was to go to an exhibit at the Indiana State Museum: Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting. Unfortunately, once we got to the museum's parking garage we found out that the museum was closed for the day to repair the cooling system. Since we were already there, we spent a bit of time exploring downtown Indianapolis and we went out to lunch at Buca di Beppo. It was a very hot and humid day (don't look too closely at my hair in the photos -- it began to get really BIG) so we didn't spend too much time outside. Downtown Indy sidewalks were completely empty -- we hardly saw anyone outside at all. Then we walked into a mall and were overwhelmed with the mass of humanity. On our way home we drove past the massive Indy 500 stadium. Yep, it's massive. And that's about all there is to say about Indianapolis.

There's this giant monument/fountain in the middle of Indianapolis. It commemorates all the wars that Indiana's "Silent Victors" have fought in.

And here's Melissa. With the big hair.

The bears on the fountain are in a really goofy position, with their bellies sticking out. I guess they're holding up these posts?We're guessing that's Lady Liberty in her more aggressive mode. OH NO! Mike's falling in!

Here's the ceiling at Buca di Beppo. The walls look like this too -- covered from top to bottom with . . . stuff. We asked a server about the place, and he described the decor, "Well, I call it gaudy." Uhhh, yeah.