The Best Christmas Gift...

Claude gave me a beautiful ruby pendant for my necklace chain. Ruby is my birthstone. I gave Claude an Air Force cap, t-shirt and hooded sweatshirt and some new kind of marker for his coloring books. As much fun as those were, the best gift we gave each other this Christmas was time.

We found two days and one night to just have time together. We drove to Indianapolis and spent Thursday and Friday learning a bit about this city. I booked us a room at the Comfort Inn near City Center and researched to find things to do in Indy this time of year.

The first adventure started about a week after making the hotel reservation. Received an eMail from Comfort Inn saying they really couldn't confirm our reservation as they were sold to Holiday Inn. I needed to call Holiday Inn and confirm we really had a reservation. Hmmm... Okay, I called Holiday Day Inn and they said we indeed had a reservation with them, it did carry over in their transfer. I then asked them to put my Priority Club number with this reservation. I was told that since I made the reservation through a third party they couldn't give me points for my stay. Okay?!?! I used to work at a hotel and was assistant manager before I left. I assured her I did make the reservation on line and at that time there was not a Holiday Inn at that location. It was not my fault that, when checking and comparing Holiday Inns in that area that I didn't choose Holiday Inn because it was not on the computer. This was not my fault and I had checked for a Holiday Inn. She said she would speak with her manager. The manager assured her she could add my Holiday Inn Priority Club number to my reservation this time. My plan B would have been to cancel and make a reservation directly with them. They were still not on the website but I would have called directly to the hotel and made the reservation. I truly would have understood if I used Expedia or some other third party but that was not my method and I also truly didn't feel I should be penalized for that. So, we had a place to stay near the part of town we wanted to be in.

We decided to go to the Eiteljorg Museum first. This museum features a very nice display of American Indian and Western Art. Lots of paintings, sculptures and artifacts. This first picture was the center and largest of three paintings forming a panorama of the Grand Canyon. Claude and I both really liked this display of art.

This is by an artist name Griffing and is titled "Secrets of the Dark Forest". The colors were gorgeous.

An artist named Phillips painted this entitled "Song of the Aspen". It was very bright yellow.

These are Ojibwe leggings. Aren't they beautifully embroidered. Our son-in-law is from this group that are in Canada and Michigan.

I loved all the beaded things. Doing needlework gives me a sense of the time taken to make this fully beaded baby bonnet. Amazing.

Claude is standing by a wigwam. The placard explained that there is a difference between a teepee and a wigwam. The wigwam is usually made of bark and is very temporary as in a shelter for a hunt. The teepee is usually more permanent, although it can be packed up and moved to a new location, but it is covered in skins.

Claude and I both agreed this particular saddle looks very uncomfortable. It made us think of the saddles on the camels in Egypt. Ouch!

Now...this is a teepee!!

I must be sure my kids see this. It is a 'clown' with a pipe in his mouth. I did paint-by-number clowns as wall hangings for my kids bedrooms. It wasn't until they were grown that I learned those clowns scared each of them. Who knew? Not I. This clown is very scary to me. Not funny in the least.

Also housed at the Eiteljorg Museum for a Christmas special was Jingle Rails. Lots and lots of G-gauge railroads running around and over your heads. The displays they ran though and over were all made of natural materials and were of everything from downtown Indianapolis to National Parks out West.

This is the City of Indianapolis. The Eiteljorg Museum is the brown building on the right. We also visited the Soldier's and Sailors Monument which is enshrouded with a tree of lights just to the left of center. 

Glacier National Park

Aspen, Colorado

Indianapolis State Fair

The Grand Canyon

Yellowstone National Park

Mount Rushmore

This completed our visit to Eiteljorg. Right next door was the Indiana State Museum. This was our next destination. There are lots of exhibits that take you through the history of Indiana from the creation to present day. We walked through these and then visited a place in the Museum to find something to drink. They were closing and we had not had lunch but we found a take out box with a chicken salad wrap and we purchased that and two bottles of water for lunch. We split the wrap and it was delicious. Funny how food tastes so much better when you don't eat all day long!

We purchased tickets for this epic adventure at the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum.

That's right, 'Rogue One' was playing at the IMAX. It was an excellent movie for us Star Wars fans. As we entered the theater, a lady who had just watched it was telling her child she hated it because everyone dies! She was right about the dying but the movie itself was superb. We were blown away by seeing this for the first time in IMAX form. We can't remember ever watching a movie at IMAX even though we have been to many IMAX theaters. We recommend this movie to anyone who loves Star Wars.

Then we found our Holiday Inn room and checked in. Very nice room. We left quickly because we needed two things: Dinner and a drive through "Lights at the Brickyard".

First we visited the Indianapolis Speedway to drive the "Lights at the Brickyard". This was amazing as well. They actually have you drive the speedway track to see some of the lights. Could not believe they did that. Here are a few pictures for proof of this adventure. Please note the turtle picture. In all the lights we have seen over the years, I do believe this was my first sighting of a turtle lit up. Loved it.

We found a very nice dinner in a dive of a place named El Mariachi. Mind you we had very cold weather and from 4pm on there were snow squalls which are light little tiny blizzards for very brief periods of time. Not fun when you are trying to find your way around at night in a new city. Fortunately my cell phone has Google Maps and the nice lady talked us all the way through every turn. I kept waiting for her to say, "Nice job Sweetie" to Claude when he made a correct turn!

Friday morning we decided to visit one final event in Indianapolis. It was at the Indiana Historical Society and it is called the Festival of Trees. Different businesses and people decorate beautiful trees in a theme of their choosing. Lots of pretty trees and lots of very interesting themes. Here are a few.

First, the Indiana Historical Society building sits along the canal. It is a beautiful building. 

In the lobby area were four trees. This one perfectly fits with Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

This grand area was filled with trees and went up two more floors with trees on them.

Claude saw this decoration at the end of the stairs and assured me it was a 'reindeer egg'!! Geez!!

This tree we took a picture of for our Mini's. It is based on Mario Brothers and was for all 'geeks'.

The next two trees are of the 'memory tree'. We want to take this idea to Sadieville in 2017. The streamers are full of memories people have of Christmas in Indiana. We will do Sadieville and Scott County. 

This is a Circus Tree. I particularly loved their choice for a tree skirt.

Another of the Interior from the second floor.

I really don't know what to say about this one. It left me speechless. And, I truly understood any theme, any decoration for a Christmas tree!

Looking up from the second floor to the third floor through openings in the ceiling.

Claude was trying a telescope and I turned and saw this cutie struggling to get her own view out of another telescope. 

Our son loved giraffes and collected them. I thought he might find this giraffe tree topper the Zoo put up fascinating.

The next two are from Claude's favorite tree of all "Angus We Have Herd on High". So very clever!

One of my favorite television series was Northern Exposure. In one episode, Rick, Maggie's boy friend at the time, when out on the mountains and was hit by a satellite. The satellite melded with Rick and they had to make a special casket to bury Rick and the satellite in. This tree was provided by a local radio station and that is a radio antennae as the topper. I saw it and immediately thought of that hilarious episode of Northern Exposure. Go figure.

This was in the basement or 'canal level' of the building. It is based on the song Star Dust. One wall of this area was a big mural to Hoagy Carmichael and this song. He was born in Bloomington, Indiana.

We left our hotel without having breakfast. By the time we finished our tour, we were grateful there was a little eatery in the canal level. We popped in to see if we could get something for a bite to tide us over to dinner. We each order a veggie bagel and it was yummy!

From Indianapolis, we pointed the Buick toward Kentucky again. We decided we would stop at The Creation Museum on the way home. We visited the Ark Encounter earlier this fall and decided to see what the Creation Museum was about.

There were a lot of dinosaurs. This one was outside the entrance. Claude has a buddy. 

Inside the museum was this beautiful Christmas display. All white and just gorgeous. 

I asked Claude to be sure I got a picture of him by this 'Utahraptor' dinosaur. Claude was born and raised in Utah and that only seemed appropriate.

This sign caught my eye as we entered the section of the museum about Adam and Eve. Powerful statement when one thinks about all it says.

Adam naming the animals.

Eve and Adam with the Serpent in the tree.

Adam working the land after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Eve is in the background very pregnant and there are two children.

Cain kills his brother, Abel.

There were a number of dioramas and pictures about the Ark. Since I have so many already posted from our Ark Encounter visit, I will only post these two. The first is loading the Ark. The second is Noah and family built and altar and offered sacrifice after leaving the Ark. 

About this time in our tour, they kept announcing a David Barry performing in the Legacy Theater. When we got to the theater, we quietly entered and took a seat. He sings old country sounding songs he has written that tell a gospel message. However, the second one he performed was Amazing Grace. Love this song. He played his harmonica and we were invited to sing the words as he played. The words for four verses were displayed on overheads screens on either side of the stage. Loved singing along. Then he bore a fervent testimony of being saved and we should all do the same. Then he sang a few more songs. It was nice to stop and sit for a while and we enjoyed the entertainment. 

As it turns out, David Barry also has a fascination with dinosaurs and the Creation Museum houses a 'Dinosaur Den' of dinosaurs David Barry has made. He was also taking a group in 2017 to the West to dig for dinosaur bones. This is Claude by one of his dinosaurs in the Dinosaur Den.

We finished up our tour of the museum and found their cafe to have something to drink. At 5pm they started, for the last night, 'Christmas Town'. Basically they have put Christmas lights on a lot of the things in the garden outside the museum and around the lake. The lights came on at 5pm and we went out to walk around the lake, garden and through the petting zoo and look at lights. It could only have gotten better as it got darker and the lights grew more prominent. But it was a nice walk on a cool evening.

In the petting zoo we found a 'zonkey' (part zebra/part donkey) and a 'zorse' (part zebra/part horse). Here they are with the wrong end facing the camera but I believe you can see the zebra stripes on each of them. 

Here are some of the lights.Claude is standing in the center of the bridge. The bottom picture is a reflection with two cranes. I think cranes are so neat. 

And a storyteller in costume by one of several fires at which to warm yourself.

And, a live nativity.

We enjoyed the Creation Museum. We both think we liked the Ark Encounter more. There were pictures of drawings of the final intentions for the Ark Encounter and we will definitely go back there when those areas are finished.

We were amazed at the people zip lining that evening after the lights were turned on. Kinda cool for that but more power to them. 

It was a great two days and a night of time to ourselves, time to learn something new, to see something new and to appreciate a little more of the many good things life has to offer.