Indianapolis

Darby and I started the tradition last year of going on a little trip to celebrate the end of the fall semester, so we went to Indianapolis this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, despite the cold snowy/drizzly weather. We stayed in the Westin downtown. I had gotten a really good deal on the hotel through Hotwire. I must say, though, if I had paid full price for our room, I would have been pretty ticked. The lobby of the hotel was gorgeous, but the halls and rooms were a little dingy and dated. It looked like a sloppy renovation of a less nice hotel. Oh, well. The room was pretty big, and at least they had free Starbucks coffee.

On Saturday we went to the Indianapolis Art Museum (which was amazing and FREE!) and the zoo. They have a "Christmas at the Zoo" thing in December with all kinds of lights and music. There are a lot of indoor exhibits, so we still enjoyed ourselves despite the snow.

In the "Oceans" exhibit, they had a tank full of sharks you could pet. I was too scared (even though there were parents dangling their toddlers over the edge to touch the sharks), but Darby did it. Here he is in action. So brave! :)


Other than that, we just ate at a lot of good restaurants and relaxed. It was so nice to have a whole weekend to spend together since the past couple of months have been busy with schoolwork for Darby and holiday stuff for both of us.

One funny story from the weekend: Darby and I went straight to a restaurant when we got in Friday night around 7:30 p.m. The restaurant was nearly empty and they started cleaning up while we were eating. We thought it was kind of weird that a restaurant would close at 8, but just chalked it up to it being a small local place. When we got to our hotel, we noticed that the clock in our room was an hour ahead, so we changed it back. The next morning, we slept in, ate breakfast, and went to the art museum. We got there about 11:45. Several staff members told us about a tour that was starting at 1 p.m. We thought it was strange that they were pushing the tour so hard when it was only 11:45. Then, we get up to the floor where the tour is taking place, and it is just starting. At that moment, Darby and I both look at each other and realize that it is 1 p.m. Indiana is in a different time zone than Illinois. Duh! I'm not sure how we ignored all the signs, especially the clock in our room. I'm really glad we noticed before we left, so we didn't get a late check-out fee!