Birthday Bike Tour of Indianapolis

My wife is amazing!  Amazing at so many things.  However, it is very difficult to select great gifts for her birthday.  And she loves her birthday. So I tried to think a little outside the box this year by actually listening to her and making note of things she said she liked.  I know, novel idea, she has been doing it every day since I met her, it took me almost 9 years to figure it out.  So I listened and learned, and the result was a great day, traveling by rented bike, around our wonderful city of Indianapolis.

Beautiful lady on a bike

If you are not familiar, Indianapolis has a new bike rental program called Pacers Bike Share, where you park your car, then rent a bike at any of the several locations around the city.  The bike is yours for the day, for only $8.  You just have to drop it off or log it in at another bike location every half hour or you get a few more bucks added to your bill.  It isn't hard to find a location, they are located very close to the Cultural trail and other popular Indianapolis locations.  For the day, we decided to combine so many things that Jen loves, exercise, food and drinks.  

Fountain Square is a great place to start, parking is free and there is a bike share location right in front of the library.  We started a bit late though, around 11, so why not start out with a drink from one of our cities many microbreweries.

Chilly Waters Brewing Company

Chilly Waters Brewing Company is fairly new, but has a nice selection of beers and the added benefit of a bike share location just outside their doors.  There are also several restaurants around and a short jump over the bridge to get to Fountain Square.  Jen and I ended up switching beers, she ended up with the After Midnight Mild Ale (Nitro), a dark beer, which she loves and I started with the 5 String ESB.  The place has a bike them going on, with a very cool bike chandelier and painted seats on the wall.  You would have thought I would have taken more pictures of the location, but I was enamored with my drinking buddy, so the only other shot I have is of their nice outdoor seating.

Chilly Waters outdoor seating

What better way to work off the calories than to jump on a bike and ride around the city.  The bikes are very comfortable and easy to modify for height.  Indy is a great town to ride around as well.  The cultural trail takes you very close to many nice breweries and restaurants and then sometimes it is just a short walk to get to one of those off the beaten path.

Jen and I tried to stop at the Outliers Brewing, a small brewery in the Mass Avenue area.  We rode the bikes from Fountain Square to Massachusetts Avenue, through town.  People were very friendly and accepting of bikes swerving in and out of pedestrians and traffic.  Downtown has become very bike friendly.

Posing on Mass Ave!

As it was lunch, there were quite a few people wandering around and we just wanted to get to Outliers.  So we parked the bikes near the Rathskeller and started walking.  Eventually I had to break out the phone with Google maps to find the place and it was still difficult.  Twisting and turning through the historic Chatham Arch district is all well and good, unless your bladder is about to burst and the only place to relieve it is a brewery that is VERY hard to find and not even open, historic houses that might frown upon public urination and of course, the new Irish pub, Nine Irish Brothers, from Lafayette.  So we stopped in, ordered a beer and an appetizer and had our first bathroom break.  The local beer selection is not too bad at Nine Irish Brothers and the fried goat cheese balls are great.  So we cleared our bowels and whetted our whistles and headed out to our next stop.

There is a book store on Mass. Ave called Indy Reads Books.  They sell mostly used books, some new and can order practically any book you will need.  They also support adult literacy by donating their profits to improving literacy among adults.  So a good cause and a great little bookstore.  The only one downtown.  Jen found a book, looked interesting and I found a Neil Gaiman book that I have been looking forward to reading for some time, The Graveyard Book.

After our book purchase, we decided to try out another new brewery that has a great little lunch menu.  Tow Yard Brewing, it is very cool inside, with plenty of seating and a great location.  Inside the old Chateau Thomas Winery building, there is pretty cool outdoor seating and some nice sandwiches to order inside.  Some used Smoking Goose meat, so you can't argue with that.

Tow Yard Brewing

So another beer and some good food and even better time spent with Jen.  We need more days like this.  The beer is pretty good as well.

 Beer is central to our day, rather beer, wine and other forms of alcohol.  Jen and I used to visit another great bar/restaurant in Indianapolis called the Slippery Noodle Inn, oldest bar in Indiana.  Schmidty was still working there.  We used to visit pre-children and play the games at the end of the bar and drink way too much.  Always fun and visiting during the day brought back memories without having to deal with the crowd, noise or cover charge.  So a quick beer before we find our next bike pickup.

Slippery Noodle Inn

Which just happened to be near the convention center.  Thankfully, because we broke the seal and a bathroom was needed immediately.  A little hint, there are almost always meetings or conventions going on, but they don't always open up the bathrooms downstairs.  However, if you just take a short escalator ride up, you might find an open, very clean bathroom on one of the other levels.

Back to our bikes though.  Empty bladders, we were ready to hop back on the bike and ride over towards the Eiteljorg Museum and NCAA area along the canal.  That is a great area to ride, as there are two museums, plenty of artwork, parks, the NCAA HQ, Victory Field, the Zoo and probably some other places that I forgot about.  The canal is cool, just ride down a ramp and you can follow along the canal have a nice scenic ride.  There is even a bike drop off there.  Though, there was only one other bike, so we didn't stay long, afraid to lose our bikes, plus there was a light rain that was kind of nice.

Path behind the Zoo

There is a path behind the zoo, very cool looking, fun little ride, just over a bridge.  I would be a little worried to ride it at night, but I am just a nervous fellow.  Jen and I raced over the bridge on the way back, she was cheered on by others and probably beat me.  Granted, I was just getting over a very bad case of bronchitis, so I was at a disadvantage.  But, we headed back to Georgia Street.  On some Fridays, they close off a section of Georgia street right in front of the Omni Severin hotel.

Omni Severin

 They usually have some music or other form of entertainment available and free to the public.

 It was some cover band this time.  I can't recall their name, but I was not really concerned.  Harry and Izzys has a little area staked out, and you can get the St. Elmo's signature appetizer, the shrimp cocktail!  It is pretty much all we could think about.  So spicy and amazing.

only three left, fresh horseradish just knocks you over

If you have never had the shrimp cocktail from St. Elmo's just stop in and sit at the bar, order it and enjoy.  It is probably our favorite appetizer anywhere.  I love sharing it with Jen because we both love the heat of the sauce and the shrimp are huge!  We just want more.  Anyway, another good thing we found out is that kids are allowed at Georgia street.

This little kid was dancing when the band was playing and there were other kids sitting in bean bag chairs, presumably brought over by the Omni.  We decided to leave though, as nice as it was and as much fun as we were having, we needed to grab another bike and look for some more food.  Sadly, some people got a little fresh with Jen on the way out, she seemed to enjoy it though.

Grabby legends

There is a bike rack right next to Conseco Fieldhouse.  So Jen and I jumped on our bikes and started to head back to Fountain Square.  We have wanted to try La Margaritas for some time.  It is usually very busy, but as we were having the blue plate special, we had no problem getting in.

Agreed!!

Great tacos and food, plus a great selection of tequila and beer.  Fearing what would happen if we indulged in tequila after so much beer, we opted to stick with the beer.  The food was great though and we need to come back again.  There are just so many places to eat in that area now, it is hard to go back to one, you feel guilty not trying them.  We finished the meal and decided it would probably be good to get back and pick up our kids.  Of course, one more stop before heading out.  Just around the corner is the New Day Meadery, a pleasant diversion from the normal brewery tour.  We have three growlers from here, so we felt it was very important to have them filled before we left.  Of course, you need to sample what they have on tap or you won't know what you will get.

My hair is looking especially thin in this one, she is radiant of course

Finally, we had to pick up the car.  That involved dropping off the bikes one last time where we had left our car.  We left it right in front of Chilly Waters and that bike rack was FULL. So then we drove on to the next closest and there was only one spot available.  So I dropped my bike off and Jen rode back to Fountain Square to drop hers off at the library.  I picked her up and off we went, home to pick up the kiddos, take them home and put them to bed.

One last cheers to her Grandma though.

Amazing day, with the most spectacular women a guy could ever hope for.  I am so lucky and I can only hope that others get to enjoy just a fraction of the bliss I enjoy when I realize how lucky I am.

Love you babe.