After an exciting morning at Indianapolis Motor Speeedway, we headed towards Indianapolis Children's Museum, in the hope of finding some luck en route. We didn't. The museum has nothing other than residential areas around it. We bit the bullet and decided to have lunch in there.
We must have got there about noon. The queue for tickets was horrendous!!!! We waited about 25 minutes for tickets. Not cheap either (only kids under 2 get in free) particularly as we wanted to see the Tera Cotta Warriors, which was an extra charge $10 each for Paul and I, and an extra $5 for all 3 boys.
We ate lunch in the cafeteria, pizza all round. It wasn't too bad, and there were plenty of seats, even though it was busy.
As they have the Terra Cotta warriors visiting, there were a lot of exhibits based around China
Our boys had great fun dressing up in traditional Chinese costumes, and they liked the exhibits about the culture
We had a set time on our tickets for the Terra Cotta warriors, so we looked at other exhibits in the mean time. When it was our time, we headed into the exhibit. I remember when these guys came to the Natural History Museum in London. My dad went to see them, he said it was amazing.
He was right. The boys weren't that interested, but Paul and I could have spent a good chunk of time looking at them.
The boys were more interested in the interactive parts of the exhibit, luckily there were quite a few of them. Here they are making warriors out of clay, and adding them to the army. It wasn't easy
Such amazing armor
The boys even tried on some replica. Isaac has the right staunch face for it
Once we had seen the Terra Cotta warriors, we headed to the top floor, and made our way down. The boys had great fun having a tea party with the bears in the carousel wishes and dreams area. I think we did pretty much every exhibit (other than sitting in a race car, seeing as thats what they had done that morning!) .
They also really enjoyed sliding down the Great Wall of China slide (a staircase they had converted). I was lucky enough to sit this one out...
We then headed into the basement level, where there were more interesting exhibits. The boys had great fun digging for dinosaur bones, and checking out the lab they have there.
Seb enjoyed being able to interact in the dinosaurs environment.
We then headed to the All aboard! Area, which had many different trains to look at. The train below is called the Reuben Wells, an actual stem train that was used to pouch carriages up a steep incline in Madison Hills, Indiana. The museum acquired it in the 1960's and it is now a permanent fixture at the museum.
After exploring the last few areas of the museum, we headed out, just before closing time, pausing to take some photos of Bumblebee on the way.
If you are in Indianapolis, the Children's Museum is definitely worth a visit. There is plenty there for the kids to do, and even adults would enjoy it.
We decided to head into the city centre for dinner that evening. We were lucky enough to be able to walk it, and the streets were pretty quiet.
I wanted to see the Soldier Sailor Monument in the centre.
It's original purpose was to honor Hoosiers who were veterans of the American Civil War, but it is also a tribute to those who fought in the American Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War and the Mexican-American War (thats a lot of wars….)
The monument is only 15ft shorter than the Statue of Liberty.
After a quick walk around, we headed for some dinner. We had spotted the Rock Bottom Brewery on our way to the monument, so decided to give it a go. The boys were all pleased to be able to get diet dew to drink! Paul went with the Kolsch beer, and I had the RB White Ale. We have certainly got into our different beers/ales since we have lived there. I decided on the Laredo burger, a south west inspired burger (I am a sucker for guacamole on anything!) and Paul decided on the Bourbonzola burger, think the bourbon glaze swayed him… Isaac and Seb ordered the grilled cheese sandwiches, but Oliver wanted something else. He decided on a make your own pizza. He had great fun when the server bought him his board, and he was able to make his dinner from scratch.
It took a bit of a while for the food to come, but they were quite busy. When it arrived, it was delicious. Empty plates from all of us. The place had nice atmosphere and were very welcoming to kids, even with us leaving about 8pm!
We headed back to the hotel, and had a quick swim in the pool. Slight problem with the pool was the pool sides. They were very slippery when wet, not great with small children. After a couple of falls we headed back to the room, tired and ready for a day on the road the next day.
Time to start heading home…..
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