Greetings from Indianapolis!

We're on our last two days in Indy and we've been having a blast, as always. As a lifelong East Coast girl, I (like many others in DC) used to wonder why anyone would ever want to go to the Midwest (cue Jason Aldean's "Fly Over States"). This is my fourth time coming to Indy and I love coming out here every time we go.

We've had picture perfect weather this time, but my absolute favorite part about coming here is how nice everyone is. The first time I came here, Billy and I had only been dating a few months and I was a little nervous about meeting everyone. Everyone welcomed me in with open arms and acted like they'd already known me for years. And everyone in Indiana is like that! It's fantastic. And a welcome change from the DC area. I love DC, but let's be honest, it's not the friendliest of cities. I remember when I first met Billy, I thought it was extremely odd that he would greet every stranger on the street. Then I came to Indy and realized that's just what everyone does! It's awesome.

Anyways, our first night in Indy we got in very late (almost midnight) so we just went straight to sleep. Billy's dad was nice enough to pick us up from the airport that late...thank you Mr. Griffin!

Tuesday, Billy had some work on Military Traveler to do and I promptly got completely enthralled with "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes suspense/murder novels, which now that I write that out makes me seem a little deranged. I've probably watched too many episodes of Law and Order! That night, we went to the Fishers Town Center for an outdoor concert. It was just a cover band that usually does weddings, but the weather was absolutely perfect and we had lots of fun playing cards and hanging out with Billy's dad, stepmom, and younger sister, Mia.

Hansel came too (check Billy's shoulder)!

Billy and Mia

The entire Griffin fam!

Wednesday, Billy and I set off on our own to see the Indianapolis Zoo. This was, of course, my idea since it involved several hours of looking at animals. The Indy Zoo is much smaller than the National Zoo, but it's really nice and very interactive! We got to pet sharks, feed a giraffe, were only inches from a tiger (behind glass, see picture below) and saw a ton of very cool animals. The Indy Zoo is building an "O-Line" like the one in DC that the (soon to arrive) orangutans can climb around on. It's much longer than the National Zoo one, so it will be exciting to see (when I inevitably convince Billy to go back next year!). 

 

Billy, Hansel, and the flamingos

Wednesday night, Mia was at a friend's house, so we had a "grown ups" dinner with Billy's dad and stepmom. Billy made his famous asparagus and his dad pulled out the corn hole boards. Yummy food and great company! I got to hear some hilarious stories about road trips from Billy's childhood, including the time he was approached by a police officer at age 10 in a Vegas casino, which his dad (jokingly) refers to as his biggest failure as a parent.