Enjoying the Outdoors

I am technically back to work and Dad has plenty of recovering to do from his huge surgery with significant complications, therefore I really shouldn't be doing much other than helping my father and doing work. However, the weather in Indianapolis has been beautiful the past several days and quite frankly, how can you pass that up? Given that I still have the rental car (take that, Indy!), I have tried to take advantage of the car and the weather every day for a little sanity. Indianapolis is an interesting city with not a huge downtown presence, however there are plenty of recently-rejuvenated areas that have made for welcome breaks from the hotel. In case you ever want to visit Indianapolis in nice weather, I have some suggestions based on our week...

We went to Garfield Park on Saturday for a little picnic. There happened to be a sidewalk chalk festival with live folk music and plenty of children (and the associated-ice cream truck was convenient for our dessert--and, yes, I believe in dessert after lunch these days) which certainly broke-up our first full day in the hotel. The park is pretty large with various facilities, but seems like a long-time established park.

Picnic at Garfield Park

On Sunday, we drove around for quite a bit and wound-up taking a walk at White River State Park which was incredibly lively, particularly as the coolest minor league stadium I have ever seen--part of the park complex-- had a game finishing-up around when we arrived. Walking from the parking lot to some picnic tables (near the ice cream cart, of course) was the farthest Dad has walked yet which was exciting in itself. The park is very impressive and must have recently been revitalized/built. The zoo is also part of the park (in case you have children with you). We drove up to Broad Ripple Village, back through Meridian Kessler to check-out the beautiful neighborhood of homes, and picked-up Dad's favorite pizza he's had in years for dinner from Massachusetts Avenue downtown.

Monday was not quite as exciting since we had to go to SOPA, however we enjoyed taking an early evening break at the hotel by walking around the hotel and sitting on the chairs near the grill in the shade with the nice breeze blowing. Amazing that even a few blocks from downtown, Indianapolis can be a pretty quiet and peaceful location.

Today, we went to get Dad a much-needed haircut downtown in the late afternoon. The barber shop was located in the City Market and I only wish that: (a) the market didn't close so early and (2) we knew about this place earlier! Plenty of food stalls with interesting options and fresh produce--most of which were closed by the time we were going through there, unfortunately. We'll see if we get a chance to go back.... After Dad finished his hair cut, we shared a pretzel (the only vendor open in the market) "from Philly" and walked around the block. That part of town has updated walkways, bike paths, and beautiful flowers planted. I'm not sure how much was done in preparation for the Superbowl, however I was impressed with that block around the City Market.

After our walk, we got back into the car and went to the Upper Canal for an early dinner/snack and a nice walk along the canal area that I have been eyeing-up for several weeks. We had a nice, relaxing meal sitting on the patio overlooking the water while plenty of folks were running along the updated pathway. We took a walk around that part of the canal and stopped for another Kodak moment:

After "dinner" on the Upper Canal

I wish I could say this week has been like a vacation, particularly after the rough several weeks in the hospital. Dad still feels incredibly sick a lot of the time and he is not out of the woods yet with other potential complications.Yet, I am still very fortunate that Dad has come this far and can enjoy parts of these sunny days in Indianapolis with me. It certainly beats being indoors in the TICU...