The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

It has been a little while since posting, but I was away for a little over a week! We recently went on a road trip circling through Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

Our first stop was in a city that is probably my new #1 favorite stop outside of Kentucky- Indianapolis! I love this town. It has always had a nice, cozy feel to it.

On our recent trip, we stayed downtown. I love the fact that you can walk from your hotel room to the central mall area without going outside. I love being outside, but the whole being inside thing is really nice if there is bad weather or if it is cold. I would compare downtown Indy to Lexington in the way that many hotels, malls and shops are connected. Indianapolis has a better system though. The walkways are clean, have good lighting, and they are easy to navigate.

We did have to drive out of the downtown to get to the Children's Museum. It was easy to find using basic directions given by hotel staff. There are signs too.

They are doing some construction at the museum, and this does interfere with parking, and going from the parking lot to the museum. Parking is free and easy in the next door garage, and staff were there directing traffic and pedestrians. Even with the construction parking and walking across the street to the actual museum are effortless tasks.

The museum was crowded and a ticket line was forming but several ticket windows were open and moving. Even with a crowd, it only took a couple of minutes to get tickets. The museum does have a planetarium show and a theater. Showings are free, but you do have to get the free tickets at another counter in the level under the main entrance area.

Counting the lower level, there are 5 stories here. You can take the elevator, or use the squared spiraling stairs. The stairs have a glass sculpture going from the main floor to the top level. On the lower level, there is a glass exhibit and you can look up at the bottom of the giant art piece. A round, rotating reclining bench allows you to look up at the bottom of the sculpture and take it all in. It is truly amazing, and writing about it cannot do justice to it.

The outside of the museum has a very nice, detailed set of dinosaur statues that appear to be busting out of the museum. The statues look very lively and realistic.

The museum's main floor has the ticket area, a huge gift shop and a cafeteria. The gift shop is huge and well stocked with items relating to the museum, and general museum gifts. As they currently have a Star Wars and a Lego exhibit, they had plenty of related toys and gifts. I bought my usual postcards and a patch.

We did have lunch in their cafeteria. We opted for the quick, easy and tasty burger baskets. For a museum lunch site, it was very affordable and the food was good. I would not go out of my way to eat here, but I would look forward to a lunch here on another visit for sure!

There is a really cool water clock designed by Bernard Gitton. You have to look at it for some time to figure it out. Like the glass sculpture, pictures don't show you how amazing it is. I am glad I picked up a postcard showing it, but standing next to it and looking up at it really gives you an appreciation for merging science and art.

The lower level (actually, any level here) would top many museums I have seen on its own. Their Dinosaur display area was worth the price of admission alone. At the main entrance to their "Dinosphere" is a reproduction of "Super Croc." There are several other cool dino skeletons and displays. There is a great balcony window a couple of floors up for photo opportunities of the area too. There is a mastodon skeleton, originally found in Indiana, there too.

Continuing on the lower level floor, there is a train that you can walk through, and some fun train lay outs.

At the moment, there is a cool Star Wars exhibit there. Loads of concept art, some costumes, and Jango Fett's helmet! Predictably (and unfortunately) an actual NASA space suit worn by Indianapolis' own David Wolf was mostly ignored by visitors.

We did attend a planetarium show about planets from the Star Wars films, and how similar planets may actually exist somewhere. This was fun, but I will probably try to catch a more traditional show next time.

I won't go floor by floor on the upper 3 levels, but an entire book could be written about this museum. Current temporary exhibits including a comic book/super hero display, with every super hero toy that I can remember on display. There was a nice lay out here too. Like everything in this museum, the flow of this display was very well done. One of the Bat-Man movie used cars was on display here too.

They had a great Lego Castle room. Legos are pure joy. Small Lego castles and a life size dragon and suit of armor were here, among many other Lego creations.

Other cool areas included a doll house display, a carousel, and a fun house area. There is a dinosaur art area.

The Power of Children area was well done too. There is an entire section about Anne Frank which is always touching. There was a section on Ryan White too, along with Rudy Bridges. This was the only area of the museum that did not go along with the generally fun theme. Using this area for such a display is bold, and the Children's Museum deserves a lot of credit for including these displays.

We spent several hours at the museum, and we were exhausted! I am really looking forward to getting back there soon.