Love Is In The Air: My Indianapolis Date

Or, "Suck it, Virginia, Indianapolis is for lovers!"

It was a beautiful Saturday morning: the birds were singing, sun shining, love was in the air...

Ellen was coming to Indianapolis to spend part of the day with me, and I was determined to prove to her that we could have a great date in Naptown. "Uh oh, good luck, there's nothing to do here," you're probably thinking, and you're totally wrong.

We started off our morning heading to the Indianapolis Museum of Art: unfortunately, the exhibits didn't open up until 11 AM so we took a walk around the grounds holding hands, appreciating nature, taking pictures. We still had some time, suggested that we come back later, and then it was time to head to downtown Indy!

We get downtown, we admire the skyscrapers, the limestone buildings, and the awesome smell of the food trucks rolling in for the lunch rush.

The State Capitol building was looking beautiful in the morning sun. We walked around downtown checking out different stores, enjoying some coffee, and getting ideas for future dates on the Circle.

Man. Can we just...

I'm in love. Yep, calling it now. My heart's pitter-pattering.

Ahhh, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument on the Circle downtown. This beautiful monument is probably the most famous and notable aspects of Indianapolis. You see it everywhere: used in logos, pictures, on TV around here -- so of course we had to go to the top to admire the view!

...Right? Right guys?

WRONG.

Readers. Please hear me out. There are two ways to get to the top of the monument: you can either take the stairs or you can pay money to use the elevator to go up. Well, I had a momentary lapse of judgment that was preeeeetty bad. "Ellen, let's take the stairs!"

Ellen: "Okay, Henry!"

But about 15-20 flights of stairs up, Ellen grew silent and I knew I had made a huge mistake. When was this going to end? We were stuck on an endless staircase. Ugh. What had I done? We were going to die from all the stairs, I was sure of it.

Well, we get to the top. The view is ABSOLUTELY beautiful. I loved it. You can see the Marriot building, the Capital Building, the skyscrapers, the mall -- the people looked like ants from here.

Ellen wouldn't talk to me for a few minutes. Oops. Always. Use. The. Elevator.

BUT, things ended on a high note and we went off to the Indianapolis Zoo!

WE'RE ADORABLE.

And we were off to the Indianapolis Zoo! Not all the animals were out because of how cold it was, but we got to see most of our favorite animals!

This sea lion was just chillin' out next to this wall -- sunbathing in the nice 53 degree Indiana February weather. Ellen pointed to the sea lion: "That's my spirit animal, right there."

There was a guy who was able to get the sea lions to do flips and dance for us inside the aquatic life building. We pet dog sharks, we saw a lazy polar bear...

But best of all, we saw the penguins. Ellen loves penguins. Talk about giddy, Ellen was so excited to see them.

UGH. Just look at Ellen. I'm in love. Yep. Calling it again.

Ellen had the camera while we were in the Desert Biome. She caught me cheesin' and making jokes about the cute meerkats. Timon was the best part of The Lion King, hands down.

We walked through the snake corridor, passing by each one of the slithering reptiles. We get past some venomous snakes and I hold on to Ellen with all my might because I'm pretty scared of venomous things. Ellen asks, "Henry, what would you do if I was too close to a venomous snake?"

I laugh nervously: "Uh, well, if it attacks, I'd get in front of you and save your life. You'd be able to run away and you'd be safe! Heh...heh...*whimper*"

Ellen laughed, she squeezed my hand, I WALKED AWAY QUICKLY FROM THE SNAKES.

We headed back to the Indianapolis Museum of Art! I'm so glad we did as well: it was family day and a number of musicians were there playing beautiful music on some authentic Chinese instruments. Ellen and I danced and sang along as they played some old American favorites. I did a jig for Ellen, she clapped and sang, it was a grand time.

We waltzed through the museum as the festivities went on in the main hall. Our favorite exhibit was easily the Contemporary Art one -- it was filled with weird and cool pieces that we both enjoyed.

Ellen loved it. She took a number of really good, artsy photos.

*cue that music from Ferris Bueller's Day Off -- the part when they're all staring at the art and Cameron just stares into the girl's face*

It was such a fun time. We listened to an audio exhibit, we were tricked by optical illusions, we got too close to some of the paintings (sorry IMA staff...).

Ellen told me to look at her and smile while we were walking around. She looks at the photo she took of me and smiled, "Now THERE'S the best looking piece of art in this museum."

UH. I'M IN LOVE. YEP. CALLED IT.

Unfortunately, Ellen had to go to work for the evening -- but it's clear that we're going to have many more dates in Indianapolis. Readers, I hit the jackpot.

(By the way, thanks Cate for gifting me the USI longsleeve!)

You know: they do say you can't love someone without loving yourself. After Ellen left for work, I treated myself to the Carni pizza at Pizzology. Uh, talk about loving myself: I ate almost all of it in one sitting.

Delicious. Wow. I'm taking Ellen here in the future, that's for sure.