09/04 & 05/06 - Navi & Kayla head to Indiana for Kayla's birthday.
Kayla's not a materialistic person. She's the type of girl that would rather get a meaningful card than a pair of Fendi glasses. That being said; I knew that a good idea for her birthday would be to bring her on a trip somewhere, because she likes to get out of Essex County and because she'd enjoy it much more than a ring or a new bed frame.
Kayla loves mountains; but since my Ford checkbook was running a little slim...we needed to go to the highest point in a closer state - Indiana!
Indiana - Crossroads of America!
Indiana ranks 15th in population (6.3 million) & 38th in Size (being comparable to the Canadian Island of Newfoundland).
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At first my intentions were to get on the road at about 12 so that we could get to the highest point in Indiana and watch the sunset together; but the border had us wait 45 minutes and that didn't happen. So we just went to Indianapolis on the first night for some Carrabba's and Borat. After that, Kayla wanted to finally legally drink in the U.S., so we headed out for a few beers.
This is where we went for a few beers - the Coaches Tavern. It was a pretty damn good place if you ask me - lots of beer selection, girls making out & best of all, old school Wu-Tang Clan & Outkast playing.
There's nothing like drinking some Sam Adams, listening to old Outkast and looking at a Reggie Miller poster.
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I woke up to look outside and saw this abandoned bank. I wanted to do some urbex...but Kayla wasn't really feeling it & after all; it was her birthday weekend.
That being said; Indianapolis didn't seem to have that much abandonment. Actually a quite low number of abandoned buildings for a rust belt city.
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We had a Sunday all to ourselves to experience Indianapolis. We started out the day with some driving around and found this building with some really good legal graffiti.
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We also spotted this liquor barn while driving around.
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After a few hours of driving around, we parked the car and walked around the downtown core for a bit. The center of the city had quite impressive buildings - including this post office and court house building.
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Behind the post office, we found this fountain & Kayla commented on the amount of sculpture nudity in the city...
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While the Post Office / Courthouse was quite impressive; this building took the cake.
The Indiana World War Memorial.
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Beautiful entrance doors.
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The architectural work on the outside of the building was unbelievable...
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An idea of how big that tiger was in comparison to Kayla.
The building was located at the top of those stairs to the right.
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Standing atop a pillar - I took this picture of Kayla looking beautiful...
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After we gawked at the outside of the War Memorial for a while; we realized that it was open & decided to check out the inside.
I would have preferred the institute of arts; but Kayla enjoys learning about war.
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The War Museum started at times of colonization & Kayla commented on the fairness of muskets versus tomahawks...
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Emancipation Proclamation ...
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An actual life mask from Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was being sculpted and the artist didn't wish to make him wait...so he just made a cast of his face and hands to sculpt them.
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A black soldier petting his horse head...
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The world war section of the museum had plenty of propaganda posters supporting the war. Some were quite humorous.
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I thought this bike was pretty rad...
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Better not let that shadow touch them...
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The bugle used to sound the "cease fire" that ended the World War.
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Back when you could use derogatory racial terms on the front page...
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Czechoslovakia will live again!
Damn Right.
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This IS the Enemy.
Damn Germans.
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Can this poster be any more patriotic?
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Shoot to Kill...Protect Your Victory Garden...
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You can read this one yourself.
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The interior of the War Museum was equally stunning.
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A list of all the Navy veterans from Indiana.
Quite a large list of names for such a specific requirement...
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We wondered into a theatre that was quite amazing as well...
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A look back at the War Memorial / Museum as we walked away gave an idea of just how impressive it really is.
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A walk up the center square in Indy brought us to this monument similar to the one in Washington.
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There was a little curved wall with letters like this engraved on it.
Quite sobering.
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The center courtyard at the American Legion Headquarters.
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The Indianapolis Library impressed as well; but it was undergoing repairs.
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I especially liked how there was authors above each pillar that supported the library.
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A grand cathedral near the city center square in Indy.
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The actual city center was a round-a-bout with this statue in the center.
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The statue honored some soldiers from Indiana that fought in lesser known wars.
Indianapolis had quite the infrastructure based on war...
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A look up at one side of the round-a-bout statue.
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The other side...
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It was getting into the afternoon hours; we departed from Indianapolis so that we could get to the highest point in Indiana for sunset.
Here's a picture of the Indiana hills very near the highest point.
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A look up the final descent to Hoosier Hill.
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Hoosier Hill - the highest point in the state of Indiana at 1257 ft. (383 meters).
(Windsor is 622 ft (190 meters).)
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Atop the hill was a small mailbox for a guestbook of visitors.
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I read the notebook for a bit and noted that 2 other people had already been there that day.
Kayla & I added our names and put the book back where it belonged.
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A look at Kayla in front of the marker and the surrounding rugged area.
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Indiana was fun. Indianapolis had quite impressive architecture & I was especially pleased to get my first state highpoint out of the way.
Hmm...maybe we should get a Tom Raper Home?
Navi
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