Rockin' the Fest

A coworker was planning to take her nieces to the 500 Festival Kids' Fest 

this past Saturday. She told me the one thing they were really looking forward to 

was riding the Ferris wheel that was set up on the north side of the Circle.

When I walked through the crowd at mid-afternoon, the

line of people waiting their turn to ride the Ferris wheel was 

lo-o-ong, with little faces peeping over the sides of the gondolas

as the ride was loaded.

The Circle was full with the sounds of people and music,

vendors with little tents, food trucks offering a wide ranging menu

of familiar favorites and exotic dishes, and entertainers

whose talents spanned different tastes. The people streaming

through the sites seemed to come in two sizes -

my size and about half my size. Many were even shorter,

being pushed by their parents in strollers.

Little girls often wore paper crowns designating them

as princesses, while every child seemed to have some

sort of design painted on their faces.

Overall, it was a happy crowd, virtually guaranteeing

that people will return.

A Downtown Saturday

 This morning I went downtown to meet some folks at the Indianapolis Zoo, 

which I will tell you about later in the week 

I stopped at Cafe Patachou for an omelet because I hadn't had breakfast

then walked towards the Zoo, about a mile farther west.

There are people in this town who will tell you there is nothing

interesting to do in our city. During the walk I took Saturday,

I saw a lot of interesting activities, all of them with

hundreds of participants, the first of whom were folks 
preparing for the dedication of the Cultural Trail.

 As I passed the Eiteljorg Museum, the water at the deers' feet 

had been turned on, adding the illusion of a creek to

the sculpted herd's dash across the museum's lawn.

The grounds of the Indiana State Museum was alive 

with people who were setting up the venue for

the annual Asian Festival.

I walked across the Lawn at White River State Park where the grounds 

were being used as the finishing site for participants 

in the annual March for Healthy Babies events.

I spent about three hours at the Zoo, exploring a lot of the exhibits, 

and only saw about half of the grounds. Obviously, additional visits are

in order. After leaving the grounds, I returned via the River Promenade

and Central Canal Walk. On the Old Washington Street Bridge,

I encountered a couple tour groups, all of them on Segways.

All of the vehicles have rev limiters(?) on them 

to prevent riders from using them in an unsafe manner.

At the Canal basin, a group of people came down the staircase from 

street level for a photography session at the water feature 

near the Indiana State Library. Among the people accompanying

the young woman above were about a half dozen young men,

all wearing tuxes of the same shade of blue as her dress.

They appeared to be celebrating her Quinceanera,

her fifteenth birthday, a rite of passage marking her entrance

into young womanhood, leaving dolls behind.

On Monument Circle, another celebration was in progress, 

the 500 Festival Kids' Day, a free event for families

with vendors, activities, musicians and performers that

began late morning and ended late afternoon.

The Circle was crowded with throngs of happy children

and their parents. Clearly, anyone who says

there is nothing to do in Indianapolis has their head up their ass.