We awoke at the Sleep Inn
around 6 am after sleeping well. We
watched the morning news and went down to the lobby for a nice breakfast. After a shower and answering some email, we
left for the Eiteljorg Museum of American
Indians and Western Art which is next to the Indiana State Museum and along the
canal. We saw paintings and sculptures by
western artists like Fredric Remington, C. M. Russell, Georgia O’Keefe and many
others. A room featured work by many
contemporary western artists as well.
Upstairs we saw art by native people from antiquity as well as items
produced by modern native artists. There
were several items from Maria and Julian
Martinez of the San Ildefonso Pueblo near Santa Fe.
I also saw several pots in the Mesa Verde
patterns that I liked a lot. Both of us
saw a number of items that we liked and spent about three hours there. We were also pleased that we received a AAA
discount that took the $12 admission down to $10. They also validated our parking pass which
was worth $12 so our visit there was quite a bargain.
After leaving the museum we went to the car in the
underground parking garage below the museum and had a snack lunch of peanut
butter and crackers that we had packed from home. After our snack, we walked the short distance
across the canal to the Indianapolis Zoo.
When we checked in at the zoo we were told that our Cincinnati Zoo membership would get us a
discount but the admission we were charged didn’t seem to reflect a
discount. Since the money was going to
the zoo we didn’t protest. We walked
around the zoo for over three hours and really enjoyed the displays. Although the zoo isn’t large, the animals are
very well displayed. Perhaps the
Indianapolis Zoo’s feature animals are the orangutans. They had six orangutans on display of all
ages. They seemed to enjoy their
enclosure and entertained the human visitors.
The rhino’s exhibit was also very nice with three adult white
rhinos. While we were there two of the
rhinos had an altercation and butted heads right in front of us. The giraffe exhibit had three adult giraffes
that were easy to see. They had a polar
bear, brown bears, a red panda and a number of African plains animals. We stayed in the zoo until nearly 4:30 before
walked the short distance to the White
River Gardens and Hilbert Conservatory.
Although much of the growing season is over, there were many plants
still in the gardens and conservatory.
We wished that more of the plants had identification labels but the
gardens were very worth visiting and the admission is included in the zoo
admission.
By 5 pm, we were very tired and ready to rest a bit before
looking for a dinner spot so we walked back to the parking garage under the
museums and made our way back to the Sleep Inn.
We expected traffic to be really heavy since we were leaving the museums
at the height of rush hour. However, we
had little trouble making our way back the short distance to the motel.
After a short rest, we decided on a local drive-in, Mug-n-Bun, that has been in Indianapolis
since 1960 serving the local favorite pork tenderloin sandwiches as well as
other diner food choices. We first heard
about Mug-n-Bun from the Roadfood
segment on NPR’s Splendid Table. You can eat in your car or at a table under a
shelter there so we got a table and ordered pork tenderloin sandwiches and
onion rings with homemade root beer to drink. Neither of us could finish our meals although
they were very good.
After leaving Mug-n-Bun we drove past the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
on the way back to the motel. It was a
very good day. We are tired since we
were on our feet all day but we enjoyed everything we saw and did today.
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