A Hometown Super Bowl

Super Bowl XLVI

It's coming!



Downtown had been buzzing for weeks now with actual Super Bowl set-up going on.

Constructions is heavy in and around Georgia Street and they've started taking major arteries through Downtown down to just  a single lane or two in some areas.

So DO NOT park in the Moon Garage at Circle Centre Mall. You know, the one that spits you out onto Georgia? Just don't. Trust me on this one.

And for each person I've heard say "I'm not going anywhere near Downtown on Super Bowl Weekend!" I've heard four more than that hatching plans to come Downtown not just over the weekend, but on weeknights and random afternoon lunch-hours to check out all that the Big Event has to offer. What? People in Indiana going out on a weeknight? In February?! Amazing.

There's so much to do that doesn't cost a dime, that I'm planning on schlepping The Munchkins out and about all weekend to see what kind of Super Bowl Mania we can get into.

I'll try and do a roundup next week of Not-To-Be-Missed spots and photo ops...in case anyone else wants to try and experience a bit of the Bowl without facing game-day crowds.

Super Bowl Countdown Clock:

11 Days and Counting...

 So...Um...Who can guess what I did on MY lunch break today?

I might have just maybe frozen my tush off walking over to the Circle, just to be jostled by swarms and swarms of people desperately jockeying for positions to take "THE"  photo of the day: Giant Roman Numerals have found a home nestled just to the south of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the Circle Downtown, and you can't go more than six inches in any directions without bumping into a news crew or a professionamateur photographer.  Awesome.

Don't ask me why I'm tired...

I can't imagine why I'm so tired these days...

It's not like we wake up the moment the sun crests the horizon...

It's not like we're on the go 24/7...

I cannot even imagine my life without The Munchkins anymore. What did I do before them? I must have slept in...I vaguely remember that. But no memory from my prior life is so crystalline as that of the past Saturday. And Saturday wasn't even all that earth-shattering. We all five hit the IMAX with popcorn & drinks (thank you Groupon!).They're laughter echoed off the ways of the nearly-empty theater, and it was contagious. Then we played on the canal for a while, because it was one of those rare late summer days that actually contained a breeze. So much of a  breeze, in fact, that it was blowing droplets of canal water in all directions.

The Biz thought it smelled vaguely fishy... the canal water that is.

We played duck-duck-goose in the dry, summer grass at White River, and wandered slowly around the State Museum, touching all the County Sculptures, climbing on the rough-hewn limestone benches.

There's just something about Downtown Indy that makes me smile softly, seeing the brood cavorting out in front of the skyline. It's home. It's where we are raising our family, fractured though it may be. It's a big city with a small town sensibility, and I love it for that.

I feel comfortable letting my kids wander about the park, running that awkward no-longer-a-toddler canter that reminds me of nature filmstrips in 2nd grade science of baby colts.

They're such good sports about letting us capture them on film.

Well...most days they're good sports about it...

 

I suppose it must get old for them...

Okay, I think we can safely say it got old for them...

But they are only stuck in this hiatus of not-yet-grown for so long.
This age where they still want to snuggle when they're not rebelling; where they want to smile for photos; where they want to play with me instead of their friends. I feel this urge to capture some of it on film. So years from now, when they're all running in three different directions to three different sports or clubs or (godforbid) dates, I can pull out the photos and remember...

okay...well...let's not remember this... hah.