It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is usually desperately needed . . . time away for just us. Our time "away" just happened to be very close to home, yet felt far from there.
When we realized earlier in the week that on Thursday all three kids would be gone for the entire day/night (Olivia at Teen Camp, Alex in Chicago on a shopping/out-to-lunch & dinner with friends, and Leighton golfing with G-pa & G-ma) we decided it would be a great time for us to do something. Several ideas were tossed out the window (day trip to Michigan, canoeing at a friends' lake, etc.), but the one that seemed the most feasible and accessible was biking on the Monon (www.indianatrails.org/Monon_Indy.htm).
We parked our van in Nora. It was a perfect weather morning, sunny with no humidity, in fact, the first leg of the trip was so shaded that I was actually cold.
Our first stop was Broad Ripple (www.discoverbroadripplevillage.com) for breakfast at Taste (www.tastecafeandmarketplace.com).
We spent almost two hours of uninterrupted talking and reconnecting.
After living in Indy for a combined 60+ years and never having biked downtown, we decided to go for it. Once the bike trail ended at 10th St. we had to do some 'creative biking' to get into the heart of the city. Rich's 16 years of working downtown came in very handy especially at Mass Ave. where the intersection shoots off at about six different angles and crosswalks the same. My fearless leader lead the way and got us to our destination.
I'm chuckling today as I think of us riding our bikes downtown on the sidewalks with all the business people walking to their lunches/meetings. There were many of them and few of us.
We ran into an old friend while riding around Monument Circle. She recommended that we go over to the canal for a walk. It had been several years since we had done that so we took her up on that suggestion. We locked up our bikes and took a nice, long walk along the canal. Once again, we we discovered little tidbits our city has to offer and realized once again what a great place to live.
It was after two o'clock and we needed to start the trek back north as we had 10 or so miles to ride, eat lunch, get home, shower, and get Leighton to the baseball field at 5:00 for his 5:30 game. I was not at all cold this time since most the ride back was not shaded, that and it was close to 90 degrees. We were very motivated to bike fast in order to get all the above accomplished. Lunching (indoors) at Brothers in Broad Ripple was so refreshing and cool. The food was great and we were also able to catch a little of the World Cup too!
We had a great day of connection, exercise, good food, beautiful weather and so much more. As I mentioned earlier, it doesn't happen often that it is just the two of us, but when it does - we try to make the most of it!
By the way, we did make it home, showered, and we were in our seats before the team hit the field. Sadly, baseball ended for the season; the Lookouts won the first game of the tournament, but were defeated last night.
What's on for today? Olivia comes home from camp in the next hour(!), swimming with friends this afternoon, Alex has her last travel soccer try-outs later, and then the baseball team party tonight. Humm. . . there is nothing on the calendar for tomorrow - except maybe a family bike ride. : )
