Road trip to Chicago and Indianapolis!

My love of the Midwest, especially Indianapolis, can't be a secret at this point. I first visited Indianapolis in high school actually, as part of a band trip (oh, yes, I was in band in high school), and I loved the city! I love that being a fan of the Colts gives me an excuse to go back there pretty much once a year. And having friends and family in Indianapolis/Chicago/the Chicago area gives us even more reasons to head to the Midwest.

So for this trip, we headed to Chicago first to see my cousin for her birthday. We had had tickets for the Colts/Giants game for awhile, and it happened to coincide with my cousin's birthday, so we extended our trip by a day, and swung through Chicago to celebrate with her. My other cousin flew in from DC for the weekend as well, so it was a nice little cousin reunion!

My cousin had cardboard mustaches for all of us to wear, so we stuck one on Marek's whale on his tee shirt.

Dashing

Here's the three of us doing a little impromptu dancing. As you can see, we have a lot of fun together! I really wish we all lived a bit closer so we could get together more often, but it makes for fun trips. I'm going to visit my DC cousin in October, and possibly back to Chicago in December, and then I'll see both of these girls at Christmas - I can't wait!

Love my girls! I can't believe we've only been hanging out for a year (even less)!

We partied for a long time on Friday night, but had a ton of fun. Saturday morning I had made plans to meet up with Julia. She and I connected through our blogs sometime last year, and met up in Chicago last year when Marek and I swung through on our way to Indianapolis. We both had pretty full schedules for the weekend, but were able to meet up at Ann Sather's for breakfast/brunch, which was great.

Saturday night I headed out of the city to visit with some more cousins of mine - and even meet some whom I had never met before! It was a nice visit, and we had a lot of fun!

Sunday morning we got up and got breakfast (third straight day of eggs/bacon/toast/pastry, blech), and then started the drive down to Indianapolis.

I LOVE the drive from Chicago to Indianapolis, really. We made the same drive last fall, but it was a bit later in the fall and a bit later in the day, so the sun was heading down, and it was just beautiful. There is this great stretch of road, heading south on I-65, for about 5 to 10 miles maybe? And there are wind turbines everywhere. I love it. I drove to Indy this time, so didn't get any pictures, but I imagine we'll make that drive again at some point, so maybe next time.

Once we got to Indy, we parked at a lot and then headed out to get some "must-dos" done: get my mom an Indianapolis Starbucks mug, make a stop at the Colts Pro Shop and get some new gear for the season, and get my Peyton Manning 2011 calendar. Living on the East Coast (and my state in particular), they don't sell Peyton Manning calendars around here, but luckily the Borders near Circle Centre always has them in stock...or at least has for the past 4 years!

Marek and I then hit up our favorite restaurant in Indy, Weber Grill! We really like this restaurant, and have made it one of our regular stops when we visit the city. We were really looking for a place to watch the Patriots/Jets game, and ended up scoring a table right near the TV. I was curious who the Indy fans would root for. They seemed largely indifferent, but there were more cheers when the Jets scored. (There were Giants fans around, too, though, so maybe it was them? Or do Giants fans hate the Jets?)

After the Patriots/Jets game, we headed over to the stadium (aka The Barn) for the game. Normally we get to the stadium an hour and a half to two hours before the game, and we get to watch the players warm-up and stuff. This time we got there about half an hour before the game started, so we missed getting our "Scout" magazines (free game programs), which made me super sad. (I ended up getting one that some guy in our row left behind though!) We also made a second trip to the Pro Shop, so that evened it out I guess.

They are doing a lot of work over near the stadium at the site of the old RCA Dome. The Indiana Convention Center renovations look pretty cool, and it looks like the Marriott is putting up a shiny new hotel. At least, we assumed it was the Marriott. Right now it's just the "Rriott".

Here's the view from our seats. We buy our tickets secondhand, so usually end up pretty high up, and this year was no exception. We did get tickets close to the 50-yd line, which was a nice change though. Lucas Oil Stadium is pretty big, and I always love going there. They had the roof open the night of the game, which is always pretty cool, too.

Here's the Colts' opening drive. Normally I take a lot of pictures of the game, but I left the SLR at home for the weekend, and felt like just relaxing and taking only a few pictures. I love game pictures, but you spend so much time taking them (especially with just a point-and-shoot) that it's easy to miss the fun!

I had to take a picture of Air Blue though. The Colts have a main mascot, Blue, who is a blue horse. There is a Junior Blue, who is a mini version of Blue, and then this buffoon, Air Blue. Poor guy is in a blow-up mascot suit, and he can sort of waddle around, but not much else. He has a long floppy tongue that flails around out of his mouth, too. Very strange. I love watching him though - always like to see if he falls over, haha!

Here I am after the game! (We won, woo hoo!) It took us awhile to get to a spot where we could take this picture, as people kept coming over to where we were. I love my Peyton Manning shirt. I get to wear it basically once a year when we go to the game, and I'll pull it out for playoffs (or the Super Bowl) occasionally, and I got new beads for the game this year (left my horseshoe beads at home). It was a very fun game, and we made sure we stayed until the end!!

Colts championship banners! I love the way they have them displayed! Wish the one on the right was for the Super Bowl Champions (not just AFC Champions)!

After the game, we met up with my friend Erin, whom I've known since freshman year of college (so long ago!). She lives in Indianapolis, and was kind enough to meet up with us after the game was over (after midnight!). We met outside the city at a Steak 'n Shake, which was my first time there, and I have to say, it was kind of awesome! We weren't able to catch up for as long as I would have liked, but we were able to hang out for a little over an hour, and then Marek and I had to get on the road. (Marek was probably grateful for this...last time Erin and I got together we were chatting nonstop for 3 hours.) Erin is someone I get to see very rarely, so I was really glad we got to hang out! Love this girl so much!

After Steak 'n Shake, Marek and I headed home. Normally I would drive for 2, maybe 3 hours, and I was ready to call it quits just outside of Columbus, Ohio, but instead, we might have gotten into an argument, which gave me the energy and adrenaline to drive until 7 AM (so about 5 hours). Marek drove the rest of the way back to New York (about 6.5 more hours), and so we actually made the drive home straight through, without stopping for any naps. New personal bests for us!

All in all, it was a really fun trip! I love seeing friends and family, and we got to see so many on this trip! Thanks to everyone who made time for us. And of course the Colts winning their home opener and winning their first game of the season wasn't so bad either. :)