Indianapolis, Day 8

As we were getting ready for our last night in Indianapolis, we had a special visitor!

Apparently there is a red fox family that lives on the hill behind the house, but we never got to see them, so seeing the deer so close to the house was a treat!
Day 8 was Saturday, and we left bright and early (6:20am) to come home.  The sun was barely up, and it was going to be another hot day!

 The trip home was pretty uneventful.  There was no construction this time, and we stopped for lunch at a Subway instead of a picnic.  I even got to access the free Wi-Fi from the Wendy's across the street to update my Facebook status, LOL.

 The border crossing was pretty slow...slow enough that we could snap this picture without holding up traffic!

We did have two slowdowns coming through Toronto at 5pm on a Saturday.  There was this crash in the westbound lanes.  There weren't very many emergency personnel there, and the people standing around looked horrified and shocked.  I googled when we got home but I couldn't find out anything.

Shortly after this, while we were in the eastbound express lanes, Meg said she had to go to the bathroom!  She had just gone when we came through Kitchener!  Nothing like having to move over 8 lanes of traffic and find an exit with good bathroom potential while travelling through Toronto! We were lucky though, and there was a nice Shell station just off the highway.

We got home shortly before 6pm and the kids instantly turned on the TV!

 I was hoping to get some pictures of Indianapolis, but you couldn't walk around the neighbourhood we were in.  The city itself feels like Calgary or Ottawa.  Sufficiently large, but not overwhelming.  It's easy to get around (except for a bit around Broad Ripple where the river gets in the way), but the residential areas within the city are not like they are here.  This area was developed in the mid-late 1930s.  The houses are spread out and well treed.  However, there are no sidewalks, and not even any shoulders to walk on!  The public school is just up the road, but even as an adult, I felt unsafe when Rob and I went for a little walk up the main road. 

 (Obviously, we were driving here, LOL, but we did walk one night).  A large area of Indianapolis is like this.  Comparable streets in Orangeville (Ontario),  would be Hansen Blvd, Blind Line, Alder Street....the main roads through areas, but in this case, there are many homes on them too!  In Whitby, think of Manning Dr, Garrard Rd, Thornton Rd, Adelaide St, Burns St, even Henry St and Cochrane St.  Two lane roads that are thoroughfares but also residential (albeit, low density).  Makes for beautiful drives, but not for exercise.  Rob also noticed areas like this on a recent trip to South Carolina.  Perhaps the fight against childhood obesity should start with re-vamping roads so that they are child-exercise friendly! 

This is a small ravine, or gully, between Lou's house and the neighbour.  The landscape is very interesting.  Although Indianapolis is fairly flat, the micro-topography shows a different story.

This is a bed of beautiful hostas at the neighbours.  It was stunning; this picture really doesn't show it well enough!  The flowers were a much more intense colour in real life!

I'm not going to show any house pictures, but I did have to share this one.  Who wouldn't love this in their family room?!  It was custom made to fit the wall/TV and houses everything a child could need or want.  Imagine how much tidier we could be if we had something like this (we used to have some great built ins in our townhouse, but not here).

Our trip to Indianapolis was great, despite the high heat.  I know it might not sound like a tourist town to visit, but really, it is very tourist friendly, with lots to see for visitors of all ages.  Great food, incredible architecture in the downtown and  along the residences on Meridian Ave, shopping (a Cutco store!!), trails, etc.  I would definitely recommend it for those who don't want a beach vacation or don't want to visit a large city.