Best Friends

Off to Fountain Square for some fun photos with Rachel and her friend Katya.  Love taking advantage of the colorful murals and graffiti walls in this area.

Believe it or not they are only 5 months apart in age!

Cincinnati Day Tripping

Rachel and I decided to take advantage of this beautiful day by heading to Cincinnati.  In addition to our usual stops at Ikea and Jungle Jim's we found a new favorite.  If your looking for a fun place in downtown Cincinnati head to Smale Riverfront Park.  This is a fairly new park right along the Ohio river.  In addition to gorgeous view like this one..

There were plenty of fountains to play in

Play areas with bridges, slides

climbing walls

We made it to the middle of the labyrinth!

At the far east end of the park you can continue walking past the Reds stadium, down the canal walk to the pedestrian bridge that goes over the river to the Newport, KY area, including the Newport aquarium.  We have hit all of those attractions in the past and with our meter running out we didn't venture over the river.  I plan to come back and explore further and also walk across on the suspension bridge that is in the first photo.  All in all a very fun area that got 2 thumbs up from Rachel and me.

After lunch we hit Ikea and then off to Jungle Jim's.  Jungle Jim's is a must for any foodie.  Part regular grocery, part international food store, there's a little of everything.

Mmmm....olives, olives, olives

A bakery full of treats

....and those special little items, like a larvae lollipop!  Rachel declined my offer to buy her one!

Hundreds of hot sauces...including these top shelf items.  Adult Oriented Hot Sauces?!?!?

We passed on those

Cincinnati....you make for a fun day.  We'll be back!

Saturday Shots

Chasing the last hour of daylight today.

Friday Photos

Friday on fall break...Dusty's off work...clean house or wander around Indianapolis with a camera.  Wandering it is!

Indianapolis 9/11 Memorial

Canal Walk

9/11 Memorial

Playing "tourist"

Coxhall Gardens - Carmel

Roll the Dice

Our adventure today was inspired by the Whittaker family and this video.  Their family rolled 2 dice to determine how far they would drive and then played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see which direction to point the car.  They had a random activity for each stop...eat, treat, feet, & meet (Eat someplace, get a treat, do something active, or meet someone)  We decided to put a Hackney spin on this idea.  Roll the dice and then determine the direction.  Once we drove the required amount then we pulled out the phone and our Geocaching app and found the nearest geocache.  We also grabbed geocaches along the way.

To start we designated each direction to a number.  Rachel rolled a 2 and then a 5 so a 25 mile drive was up.  We rolled the number for South, reset our trip meter at zero and headed out.  This landed us only 1/2 mile from several geocaches, so we got to work.  Rachel got to pull her favorite tool out of our geocaching bag....the telescoping magnet.

We took a short detour over to Martinsville to grab lunch.  Found 2 caches near the restaurant including this one in a small family cemetery.  In fact we would end up in several cemeteries throughout the day.  

After lunch it was determined we would head West.  Rachel rolled a 23, we pulled out our map, found our road and took off.  I found it funny that this adventure inspired by the Whittaker family took us through a little place called Whitaker.

Conveniently our mileage landed us right by Cataract Falls.  So in addition to a few caches we were treated to some beautiful scenery.

Our next direction was North and we rolled a 26.  Conveniently we were on track to make a neat little square that would land us back close to home.  Up through Cloverdale and Greencastle we went hitting caches along the way.  What is it with geocachers and cemeteries?  

We neared the end of this leg right at US 36 which would take us right back home.  Here's where the numbers didn't play to our favor.  Rachel rolled a 55!  As it was getting late in the day and not wanting to end up on the far east side of Indy we deviated from the plan and just decided to cache all along US 36 until we got back home.

All in all it was a fun day and we nabbed 15 geocaches.  Something we will probably do again.  So if you don't mind not knowing where you will end up and can make your own fun along the way, try rolling the dice. :)

Random Indianapolis

No big trips for fall break this year, but Dusty did take a few days off.  So all off us minus Aaron who had class made our way randomly through Indianapolis.  It was nice to have no agenda and just wander around.  We started off with a quick pit stop at the Galyan's bear to grab a geocache.  I had passed this sculpture a lot of times on my way across the Eagle Creek reservoir, but never drove up to it.

This geocache was easy and straightforward.  We signed off on the log and headed to Holliday Park in the city.  An area of the park known as the Ruins had recently been reopened to the public.  It had been fenced off for years.  They have turned it into a very nice area with gardens and fountains.  It will be quite the magnet for photographers.  Rachel played around for a while and I scoped out some shooting locations.

Next up, some Chipotle in Broad Ripple and a failed geocaching attempt on the Monon Trail.  After that we headed down Meridian Street through downtown and over to the Fountain Square area.  Another fun area for photos loaded with graffiti walls and murals.

We found the Tardis....but couldn't locate Dr. Who

We wandered around the alleys and through some of the shops.  Fountain Square is also home to this sign which always makes a fun photo.

Dusty and I found it highly ironic that after shooting this photo if you turn around and shoot the other direction you are greeting with this sign...

I guess it's all just in how you feel that day!

A few more geocaches and then back to Brownsburg for some ice cream and a movie.  Who knows where we'll end up tomorrow.