Indianapolis: Indianapolis Zoo

We left Port Clinton as early as we could.  The gentleman who we rented the condo from wanted to come and check it before we left, which I can fully understand.  Once that was done we hit the road.

It was a rainy miserable drive, I drove first.  Ohio and Indianapolis are very flat places, with not much to see than the odd farm.  We stopped at a Burger King for lunch, another special local one.  The boys were certainly amusing for the locals.

We continued on, with the aim of visiting Indianapolis Zoo before checking into the hotel.  We drove through some interesting areas of Indianapolis en route.

We arrived at the zoo about 1.30.  It had been raining here most of the morning, so it wasn't too busy. Our first stop was the aquarium part.  The boys have a real thing for marine animals, and they loved being able to touch a shark.

Then it was out to see the polar bear.  So beautiful, with a pretty good size enclosure.  He had obviously enjoyed the rain that morning.

There was a dolphin show going on at the time, and we managed to head up past the show area, towards the orangutans.  There has been a new enclosure/research area built for them recently.  There are huge posts very high in the sky with ropes attached to them, which the orangutans are able to access from their indoor enclosure.  So good to see stimulus for them.  Inside their enclosure, one of the orangutans was doing a demonstration on a huge computer where he was matching shapes.  Such intelligent animals.

From there we headed to the plains area.

Like Columbia Zoo, you can pay extra to feed the giraffes, though we did not do this 

They have beautiful cheetahs, in a good size enclosure.  On weekend days they have an activity (pay extra of course)  where you can race the cheetahs up and down the fence.  Paul snapped this beautiful photo of this guy taking a stroll.

But we had to take a trip to see the elephants.  Since Joys departure from Greenville Zoo, Seb has been missing his elephant fix.  He was so happy to see this large herd.  But by now, the sun had come out, and it was time for some refreshment. 

We headed back to the central area, and had a couple of drinks.  The boys monkeyed around…..

We already had tickets to see the dolphin show at 4.30, so we decided to check out the rest of the zoo.  We were lucky enough to see a couple of brown bears having a play in the water.

We still had some time to kill, so we decided to let the boys go on the carousel.  They all loved it.  Seb was pleased as punch to be able to ride an elephant.

Then it was time for the dolphin show!  We parked the buggy and took our seats.  We were unsure how Seb would react, after the palaver of Seaworld last summer.  It was an ok show, nothing spectacular, and they appeared to be a dolphin trainer down.  The kids still loved it though.  It was just the right intensity for them.  Seb was shaking, but we think he was just in awe of these amazing creatures and being so close to them.

We were one of the last groups out of the zoo, through the gift shop of course.  We drove to our hotel, less than 10 minutes from the zoo.  We checked in, and parks the car in the underground car park.

We went for dinner in the TGI Fridays next door.  It wasn't a good experience, in fact none of our trips to that chain have been.  I can't be bothered to take the time to give them a bad review, lets just say it wasn't well maintained, service was slack, and it was only Monday.  

After dinner we took a little walk around the block where the hotel was.  It was downtown, on what I would call Marriott corner.  There was about 5 different brands of Marriott hotel, all on the same block. Funnily enough right by a baseball field and the convention centre.  Talk about a monopoly...

I really liked downtown Indianapolis.  It reminded me of Greenville in lots of ways.  Parts of the center have under gone regeneration fairly recently, and are pretty nice.  Definitely somewhere I would like to go back to.  

The BIG trip - the plan

So seeing as we are about a month away from our trip, I thought I would share our itinery as we have had requests from family.  So here goes....

These are all the journeys we will be doing.  It is about 2500+ miles in total! and that's just from accommodation to accommodation.  There are hotels and vacation rentals spread out across the trip, 9 different accommodations over 16 nights.  The longest we stay on one place is 3 nights.....

Leg 1- Simpsonville to Norfolk, 431 miles, 6 hours 50 minutes

We initially wanted to head straight to Washington, D.C., but it is just too far.  I decided on Norfolk, as it seemed a good place.  We have a hotel right on the beach, and intend to leave early, so when we finally get there we can check in and chuck the boys straight on to the beach, then into the pool.  We are only staying one night here.  

Leg 2 - Norfolk to Washington, D.C., 188 miles, 3 hours

On our journey to Washington, we are hoping to stop at Norfolk Naval Base and do a bus tour.  This is one of the biggest naval bases on the east coast with a very interesting history (find it here).

Our hotel in Washington is pretty central, with underground parking (at an additional cost of course). We are staying 2 nights, which gives us 1 full day and 1 maybe 2 half days.  We will see how we go! We want to see the monuments, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Air and Space museum.  And of course the White House!

Leg 3 - Washington, D.C. to New York, 231 miles, 4 hours 5 minutes 

We are actually staying in Queens.  We are renting a top floor apartment, for a very reasonable rate.  The hotels were soooooooo expensive, especially in Manhattan.  The area we are staying looks interesting but there is an Indian restaurant within walking distance, and the subway is 15 minutes walk.  We are staying 2 nights again, so the one full day we have we intend to jump on a subway and go in to Manhattan.  The subway will take us to a boat trip in lower Manhatten, plus the World Trade Centre site.  Then up to Central Park, where we want to go to the zoo, then to the Empire State Building and Times Square, then back over the Brooklyn Bridge, change trains at the Barclays Arena (Brooklyn nets basketball team play here) and head back to the apartment absolutely exhausted!

Leg 4 - New York to Douglas, MA, 185 miles, 3 hours 15 minutes

This looks like quite a scenic drive along the coast of the Long Island Sound.  We are staying in a cottage in Douglas for 2 nights.  The cottage has a lake at the back of the garden, supplied by a small spring, and the owner maintains a beach there, so hopefully the boys will enjoy it.  

I initially wanted to stay in Boston, but it was sooooo expensive.  Douglas is about an hour away from Boston, so we will take a day trip.  This is for me really.  I want to do some of the Freedom trail, the USS Constitution boat, and take in the culture (as much as you can in one day!).  It looks like such an amazing old city, depending on our first impressions, we may go back again at some point in the future.

Leg 5 - Douglas to Cortland, NY, 285 miles, 4 hours 40 minutes

This was actually the first thing I booked through Groupon.  2 nights in a resort with day passes to a water park on site.  I have looked at the water park, and it seems good for the boys.  It is in the Finger Lakes area of New York State, so will hopefully be very beautiful.  This is a good stop over point, with hopefully enough for the boys to do.  It is actually a pretty good deal when you throw in the water park tickets (they would be $150 for all of us if we weren't staying at the resort)

Leg 6 - Cortland, NY to Buffallo, NY via Niagra Falls, 187 miles, 3 hours

As we are up there, we may as well do Niagra Falls.  Due to complications with the car insurance, we cannot go into Canada, so will be seeing the falls from the American side.  We plan to do the Maid of the Mist boat trip, and take lots of photos.  Other than that there doesn't seem much to do.  We are staying in Buffalo for one night as it is cheaper.

Leg 7 - Buffalo, NY to Port Clinton, OH, 280 miles, 4 hours 30 minutes

We have booked a ground floor condo in Port Clinton on the shore of Lake Erie for 3 nights  It has a pool, a beach and a playground, and appears to be a walk into town.  From what I have seen, the Great Lakes are quite touristy.  There are a few islands in the lake which we may take a trip to, or there is a big amusement park about 30 minutes drive away. We will probably do a bit of exploring, and a lot of relaxing here

Leg 8 - Port Clinton, OH, to Indianapolis, IN, 256 miles, 4 hours 3 minutes

My boys want to see the race track.  If you know my boys, you will understand this.  We have a hotel booked right in the centre of the city, which is about a 20 minute drive from the track.  We are already booked on to a tour.  The boys are excited about this, as am I.  We will be in Indianapolis for 2 nights, so intend to have a little explore.  I can't imagine it is that different from any other medium size city in America, but we shall see.  We are planning on doing the zoo also, and possibly the children's museum, it gets very good reviews.  I have also just found out that the terra-cotta warriors are on a special exhibit there while we are in town.  Super exciting!!!! From here on in we are heading home....

Leg 9 - Indianapolis, IN, to Knoxville, TN, 340 miles, 5 hours

This is a one night stop to break up the journey.  You can even see Greenville on the map above.  This is a hotel with a cool pool, so hopefully it will be ok.  

So there you have it!  It is a lot to take in, many places will be seen, albeit briefly.  But we are not the kind of people who go and crazily explore one place, we like to just scratch the surface and get a feel for places.  It is going to be hard with the kids, but they are excited about seeing loads of different places, and watching lots of films, so hopefully it will all work out ok.  I have lots of stuff planned in my head to make it go as smoothly as possible....

I am going to try and blog as I go too.....wifi dependent of course!