White River State Park An Oasis

Crosby, Stills and Nash brought me to downtown Indianapolis, IN in August, a downtown concert sounded like a nice, little break and I am a huge CSN (and sometimes Young) fan. The plan was to just drive down for the night since it is under three hours from home, unknown to me the concert was canceled and rescheduled for the following night due to heavy morning storms that delayed planes and made timely show set up impossible. What the heck we had not been to downtown Indy in ages, so we called the dog sitter, the foreman and decided to stay over to take in some of the sights before attending the show the next day.

We got a room right across the street from the Hard Rock and all of downtown was within walking distance. Living in Angola we are culturally and culinary deprived so we drove to the suburbs and ate at one of my favorite places, The Cheesecake Factory, yum fucking yum. The warm summer night was perfect to stroll downtown, the circle with its fountains and lights, the downtown clubs, the new minor league ballpark and walking arm and arm along the canal offered a side of downtown Indy that I never knew existed. It has certainly changed for the better.

The next day a visit to the Gardens adjacent the Zoo seemed the perfect pre-concert event before meeting friends for an early dinner. What a pleasant surprise, these gardens offer whimsical sculpture, a variety of mini gardens depicting different themes, well kept knot garden, shaded arbors filled with the sweet fragrance of honeysuckle and a couple of simple but charming water features. It was easy to shot a couple of hundred photos and difficult to choose just a few to post.

I think downtown Indianapolis is a great spot to get away for a couple of days and has a lot to offer whether it's just the two of you or you have a family. There is ample to do from a ballgame to the zoo all within easy walking distance of some nice hotels, plus they are building a new Radisson that looks promising. CSN was awesome, I could see them every year, reminds of times gone by and what a perfect venue.