A Weekend Away...

As promised, I bring you pictures from our little weekend "getaway," though it was not really what I would call much of a getaway since it was two days and we went to a city about 20 minutes north of where we live, but anyway...

So Friday, after work, we headed to our special restaurant, Carrabbas, to celebrate our "two year" anniversary.  Dinner was awesome, as was expected, and dessert made the meal even that much better.  I absolutely love tiramisu, so of course, there was no question we would order that.  It's nice to go back to the same place where we first met two years later and reflect on how much has changed since that date and how far we've come.  After a nice dinner, we headed downtown and checked in our hotel for the weekend. 

The next day, we got up and headed to the White River Canal located downtown to do a little exercising.  It was so muggy and hot out, though, so as soon as we reached the canal for T to run and me to walk, we knew it would be a tough workout.  And my asthma did not disappoint...definitely had a hard time with that walk.  But the scenery is so pretty down there, and it's a nice change of pace from our normal path.  We finished and headed back to the hotel to eat breakfast, change and head out for the day.

The first thing on our list of places to see was to visit Easley Winery for a tasting.  Ever since we went down to French Lick a few weeks ago, T and I have made it a goal of ours to eventually hit all of the wineries in Indiana.  We have quite a few to go, but we got to check this one off of our list.  We thought it would be a good idea to walk there from our hotel since both places were downtown.  Um, yeah, famous last words.  I knew where the winery was for the most part, and it's technically downtown, but it's quite a haul to get there.  I'm not sure how many miles we walked in the 90 degree heat to get there, but needless to say, I think both of us were about to pass out from heat exhaustion by the time we made it.  Luckily, the place was air conditioned, so we enjoyed a tasting of the wine there and made a new friend in a guy who was there from Oregon, Lee, who I guess was giving some speech at the convention center, though we could not confirm or deny this.  He was fun company, though, so I could care less what he does for a living.  We enjoyed the tasting so much, and the thought of going back into the heat was not tempting, so we decided to get a glass of wine and just relax a bit before heading back to the oven outside.  We also bought a bottle to take home, of course.

It was delicious!  And the bottle we bought is called Monument Red, which is really good, too.  If you live in the Indianapolis area, I would definitely recommend stopping by the Easley Winery.

The famous shot of Nain with her glass of wine.  (All family photos seem to be of me holding some alcoholic beverage, and no, I am NOT an alcoholic...it's my family that drinks a lot.  ha)

Afterwards, we headed to the cultural district area of downtown, Massachusetts Avenue, to check out the shops and to get a bite to eat (you know, to soak up the booze?)  We stopped and got some sandwiches at a little place called Hoaglins, which was delicious, and good, too, because the place was air conditioned, and we needed the break.  After lunch, we continued our walk back towards the center of downtown so I could take a few pictures along the way.  Photography is a hobby of mine, though my camera kind of sucks, and I particularly like taking pictures of city structures.  Most of our pictures in our house were taken either by T or me...hey, it's a cheap way to decorate!

The Chase building:

The downtown Monument:

The State House:

And I had to get a picture of this...apparently they had some car show around the Monument circle, but it was all of 1990s Mazdas and Camaros etc.  I guess the douchebag convention was in town, though I didn't get the memo on that, so I had to document our sitings of douches in their element:

Another shot of the Chase building and the Monument:

We hit up the Circle Center mall to cool off and do a little shopping...so exciting, too, because I got a really cute skirt and shirt outfit to wear this weekend with some really awesome shades for only $29 for all of it.  I love New York & Company!  Later that day, we had dinner reservations at PF Changs, thanks to T's Mother who bought us a gift card there for Christmas.  (It only took us exactly 6 months to get around to using it, but hey, every bit helps!)  After dinner, we walked back up to the Monument to get some ice cream and just people watch.  Man, the people you see out and about on a Saturday night...it's something else.  You get the biker guys who all park their  "hogs" outside the Monument, and then you get tourists taking pictures, families enjoying ice cream on the Monument, street performers, and then just the freaks.  You know, the guys who take their families to the Monument and walk around the city barefoot, and you can see that the soles of their feet are completely black?  Yeah, those kinds of people.  Anyway, it was entertaining to say the least.

I'm not sure T wanted his picture taken.  Either that or he was deeply disturbed by something he just saw:

And then, I include this picture because I just took it for the heck of it, and I really like the way it turned out.  This is the church they have on the Circle...it's not really big, but it's just this quaint Episcopalian church, and I just thought it was a pretty shot.

And of course, the obligatory "T and Nain" pose.  We have so many pictures of us doing this, but I felt the evening needed to be documented appropriately.

Later, we headed back towards our hotel and stopped at the Claddagh Pub for a few drinks and to enjoy some Irish music.  It was definitely a way to get us in the spirit for our honeymoon in less than 3 months.  Can't wait!  We had a fabulous time this weekend, and as always, I had my wonderful company with me.  Until next time...