Thursday, June 7th, 2007  »  Family Fun

Indianapolis

A scant three hours or so south is one of my favorite cities—Indianapolis, pride of the Hoosier State and the bustling, fast-paced crossroads of America. Its “crossroads” status is accurate since a web of Interstate highways crisscross the city, and 11 airlines offer flights to nearly 40 destinations daily. What’s more, Indy is within a day’s drive of half the nation’s population.

We took one of our Christmas Mystery Trips to Indianapolis in 2001. But it also seems that Indy was on our way to many other places we visited so we have traveled through, around and about the city lots of times—more testimony to its reputation as a crossroads.

Indy has a vibrant, compact downtown with ample shopping, entertainment and dining options. We stayed at a wonderful little hotel called the Canterbury which was connected to Circle Centre, a downtown shopping venue. The next time you’re in the Schoolcraft Library, ask Bobbi why this hotel is her favorite from all of our MTs.

In addition to all that Indy has to offer the traveler, I like it because it is of a manageable size. At about 860,000, Indy is the 12^th largest city in the U.S. The entire metro area is about 1.6 million. Still, its layout and size present no problems to the visitor.  To this day, I can easily direct you to my favorite Starbucks or tell you how to painlessly navigate your way to the Indianapolis Civic Theatre, Monument Circle in the heart of downtown or another of my family’s favorite shopping destinations—Broad Ripple.

It’s already clear that this topic deserves two posts. But let me begin where we—and many others I’m sure—started. That would be the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, widely regarded as one of, if not the, best in the world. For starters, it’s a breeze to locate. I always just drive to South Bend and drop straight south on 31. Just keep driving, and you’ll enter Indianapolis by way of Meridian Street. There is a stretch of this well-known drive that passes through a National Historic District, and you’ll be treated to a few miles of spectacular homes on both sides of the street.

If you keep heading south, you’ll find the Children’s Museum at 30^th and Meridian. This is the world’s largest children’s museum with 400,000 square feet devoted to the physical and natural sciences, world cultures, history and the arts in eleven major galleries. In addition to the endless exhibits, there are also two theatres, a store and a food court. The museum presents thousands of programs, activities and events each year.

The hours for the summer are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. For tickets, go online to www.childrensmuseum.org or call 800/820-6214. The general number for the museum is 317/334-3322. Their website is excellent, and if you’re planning a visit, I’d highly recommend spending some time on it. If you have kids and only a day to spend in Indy, this museum is an ideal choice. It’s only about three miles from the center of downtown. So you could drive to town, take in the museum, have dinner at some fun place downtown and drive back by early evening.

 

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