The Year's Caches - 2014

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Cache of the Day - The Big Game in Indianapolis

The Letters at Memorial Circle

It's not too often that the Super Bowl comes to the city that you live in.  And after months of visible preparation, Indianapolis hosted to Big Game this past January.


Living within 1/2 mile of the stadium and all the activities made it even better.  Good thing we have bicycles, though, because parking was expensive and challenging to find.  But that minor inconvenience was far out-shadowed by the excitement of the event.  Here were some of the highlights:


Super Bowl Village
Georgia Street, just outside the building where I work, was converted into Super Bowl Village, four blocks of pure human connection with all things football.  There were food places, several concert stages, bars (included Fire and Ice, with flaming heat lamps and ice sculptures, all in the same place), warming benches (just like what the players use on the sidelines), magicians, and professional cheerleading squads.


NFL Experience

Stacy throwing balls

Super Bowl Village

An experience it was!  You could do all the activities that actual football players do, including throwing passes, catching passes, kicking, running, and going to the locker room.










Celebrities
We didn't see too many, but we heard about them.  Occasionally we'd see an ESPN guy inside a restaurant.
We tried to get tickets to see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon but we were unsuccessful.  We knew other who got in and they thought it was great.

John McLaughlin performs at Super Bowl Village

The Today Show
I've been there a couple of times while in NYC, but they broadcast downtown on Friday and Saturday morning.  Ann and Al were there, and I saw Adam Levine from Maroon 5 perform as one of their guests.

Georgia Street March 2011

George Street February 2012

Celebrity Beach Bowl
The minor league stadium was converted to a beach.  Seriously.  We were too late to get in to the actual beach, so we don't know if they actually had any water there, but it looked fun nonetheless.




Visitors
It was fun to talk to people from other places.  Once the Giants fans and the Patriots fans arrived, it was even more fun.


The Huddle
A previous Nordstrom store, this retail and entertainment complex had lots of great Super-wear, food, and games.  Lids grabbed the space and they certainly maximized the opportunity.  Well played!

Wish the Chargers were here

Wish the Packers were here

The Local Stuff
One of our favorite hangouts was the Sun King Brewery tent, featuring local performers and local brews and, well, local people.

JW Marriott

We also enjoyed biking to the 46 for XLVI murals throughout the city.


The Weather
Nothing like what we're used to in Indianapolis on February.  Mild temperatures, no snow, generally sunny.

Watching the Super Bowl at the Slippery Noodle Inn

The Super Bowl
Oh, yea, and the actual game itself.  We ended up at the Slippery Noodle Inn, a bar within about a block of the stadium, to watch the first half of the game in their pop-up tent.  Exhausted by half time, we headed back home to see the end of the game and the end of a truly exciting time in our city.

Cache of the Day - Getting Away

We decided to get away for the holidays and actually left on Christmas Eve and headed for the Bahamas.  Stacy had never seen a beach before or been to a tropical ocean, so this was especially fun!  We stayed at a Sandals resort.

We hung out at the hot tub a lot, went sailing and rode waverunners, and took a course on scuba diving (the next day we were drop unceremoniously and somewhat unprepared in 60 feet of roiling seas for our first dive....I went back to the boat before I even went down a few feet.).  We also had lovely evenings sitting on the beach by the firepits, sharing wine with friends.

The weather was gorgeous, we had a chance to see Junkanoo, and we ate lots (it was an all-inclusive, including drinks).  We weren't there very long but we had a great chance while we were there.

It felt REALLY GOOD to get away for the holidays.

Cache of the Day - Germanfest

There is so better way to celebrate my heritage than at Germanfest.  They've got a pretty good celebration here in Indianapolis.

In addition to participating in the beer and pretzels, I also participated in the Leiderhosen Lauf 5k, where I came in second (for my age group).  I had to come from behind to make it happen, but there is nothing more exciting than a home stretch run!

We celebrated later in the day with polka dancing, weiner dog races (how cute!) and the aforementioned beer.  Ein Prosit!

Cache of the Day - Hookah

Living in Indianapolis has been great...no real adjustment to city life, other than figuring out what to do when!  I especially love the culture, such as the Broad Ripple Art Fair, which we experienced last weekend.

eating fish tacos

artist booths at Broad Ripple Art Fair

eating crepes

Here are some shots of the artists' booths and us eating what comes down to "fair food".  The weather held up for the most part, and we really enjoyed the day, but we were disappointed that we missed the flash mob that the ISO had at noon (we were on the other side of the fair.  :(

coconut drinks

hookah puff

another puff

Broad Ripple is an eclectic suburb of Indianapolis and is very artsy, with lots of quirky stores and good eats.  We found an Egyptian Cafe, which served well, Egyptian food and Moroccan tea.  And not only that....they had HOOKAH, a wonderful aromatic concoction that you smoked through these ornate, elaborate waterpipes, all the while some sort of snake charmer music was going in the back ground.  We shared a "King Tut" blend (although Stacy refused to be shown in a picture with the thing in his mouth).

Moroccan Tea

Apparently this is all quite legal, but it does smack of those beatnik clubs of the 60's where all sorts of aromas filtered through the smoked-filled, poetry-laden environs.  (Of course I was barely a baby then and have no real recollection).  But it was quite fun, even though we had a hard time smoking our complete pipe and left about half of the hookah still in the narghile.


Has anyone else tried hookah or something similar?

Cache of the Day - New digs

After having lived in the really cool town of Bloomington for the past four years, I'm headed north to Indianapolis, the Big City, and the location of my new job at FlashPoint.

I never thought I'd live in a downtown area, always enjoyed more rural locations, but this is a rather exciting turn of events.  I love the energy of the city, the diversity of the people, the culture, the history, the renewal that the city has experienced.

 

FlashPoint sits above Georgia Street, which is in the process of being redesigned as a pedestrian entertainment area.  I have been catalogging the transformation of the street and have provided a couple of pictures here.

I've also signed the lease on a loft as of today. Here are some pics of the new location, which I'll move into next month.

I'm looking forward to this new adventure!