Indianapolis Trip

Robert needed to take in a trade show in Indianapolis.  It was going to be his second time out that way since January.  Our schedule worked out well to tag along.  I had heard the children's museum was great, and it did not disappoint.  Indiana boasts the largest children's museum in the world (sq. ft).

The museum had four floors that you could tour.  We were there when it opened at 10am and closed it down at 5:00 pm and did not see all the exhibits. 

 The kids all tried sitting in an Indy car

 One of many exhibits featured the making of movies and TV shows

 Bumblebee Camaro in the museum parking ramp, it was on exhibit and had a reserved parking spot!

 From the construction section.  They used a bicycle hand crank to move the bulldozer around to push the rocks. Emily was up a story in a working crane.

 On part of the museum featured retro toys.  Emily played Pong and Noelle played Pacman

 The fourth floor had a working carousel.  We had to take a ride.

Noelle sitting on her nest of dino eggs

 

The dinosaur part of the museum was really neat.  We went through a room that put you in an environment with dinosaurs.  There were sounds, models some with real bones, places you could dig, and even sit on eggs.  There are some paleontologist that work there full time in a lab studying different finds.  Currently the museum had a mummified dinosaur on loan. This was pretty special since they could learn about the skin/muscles as well. 

 More from the movie exhibit.  Trying out a green screen in capes, saving the world!

 The Transformer exhibit was really neat.  Lots of stuff on how the movies were made, you could design your own transformer, and run from the Autobots.

Noelle liked the places she could dig.  We stopped to dig dinosaur bones, this picture has her extracting Chinese Ming Dynasty Soldiers found in a cave. Half of floor three was dedicated for kids under 5, and no field trips were let in either.  These rooms had sensory tables galore, sand, water, and music activities, plus a climbing area.  Noelle was in heaven, but the older kids agreed to the docent in charge that they would only help if needed but not play.  They did pretty well for a while and then Dallas just could not handle it anymore. It all was pretty fun looking stuff.  We took a break to eat lunch, but Noelle could not stop talking about heading back to the sand table.

Dallas built this Chinese soldier, it was a 3D puzzle.

Bumblebee in the atrium

These dinosaurs are also in the atrium of the museum, trying to get in.  The baby is easily 4 stories up, and the mother just has her head in, the rest of that model is outside.

 We visited the Indiana War Memorial. Originally built as a memorial for WWI.  It also houses the national offices of the American Legion.  We covered American history this year so the kids were able to recognize some of displays, but mostly Dallas was tired/cranky and we just needed to run around in a less solemn place.

 Next stop was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Robert has done the museum tour and has attended a race before.  He thought the track tour might be run.  We did learn a couple of things but I wouldn't really recommend the tour to anyone.  I didn't feel it was worth the price tag.  We hopped on a van and did one loop around the track listening to a recording of a few track facts, the van did stop at the start finish line, "the bricks" but we were not allowed out.  I thought the track tour in Charlotte was much better!

The kids were "amazed" at this fancy machine the hotel had in the breakfast area.  One quick push of a button and a minute later two hot pancakes popped out onto the plate.

 

We had ice cream for lunch one day.  We googled the best local ice cream and ended up at a place that was open, but didn't have inside seating.  It was a little chilly to be eating ice cream outside, but it didn't disappoint. 

 

 

 

The side of the JW Marriot was wrapped in a huge March madness bracket. We were all wondering how they were going to fill in the entries.