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Highlights

Indianapolis

Saturday June 14 -

After getting only about three hours of sleep, I was up plenty early for my ride to the airport.  This was especially annoying as my flight was at the very reasonable time of 9:05AM.  Seattle to Dayton, this time by way of St. Louis.  Surprisingly, there was decent legroom on my American Airlines flight, even when the person in front of my put her seat all the way back.  A strong tailwind got us to St. Louis early, and my arrival and connecting gates were directly across from one another.  In this day and age, air travel doesn't get much better than that.  We got to Dayton on time, I picked up my car and my suitcase and then headed west on I-70 for the drive to Indianapolis.

I knew what my plans for nightlife were, so I found out some nearby hotel names.  While the area near Meridian just north of I-65 in downtown Indianapolis was easy to drive around in and looked about as safe as cities can be, I had to make a few loops through the area before I came to the realization that all of my targeted hotels were gone.  So it was back on the interstate to find an interchange with available lodging - I ended up about seven miles east of downtown, but it really didn't matter given how easy the driving was.

Nightlife at the Unicorn Club and back at the hotel by one.

Sunday June 15 -

In the fifteen years that I lived in the Dayton area, I must have passed through the Indianapolis metropolitan area at least two dozen times as I headed west to visit relatives in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois or as I headed off on some road trip.  And not once did I ever stop to check out the city itself.  I had done several Columbus over-nighters and more than a few Louisville getaway weekends, but for some reason Indianapolis never made the list.

If first impressions mean anything, that was a mistake.  Although it was relatively quiet because it was Sunday, it was clear that the folks of Indianapolis use their downtown for shopping, dining, nightlife, movies and living.  It certainly is not as vibrant as Seattle, to be sure, but Indianapolis sure beats Louisville and Columbus when it comes to vital downtowns.

My first stop was once the home of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, and the only native born Hoosier to hold that office.

Meridian is the main north-south road through the heart of the city.  After finishing up at the Harrison house, I headed over to Meridian and then south into downtown Indianapolis.  I parked near the Scottish Rite Cathedral.  I'd explore downtown Indianapolis by foot.

I don't know if it because Indianapolis is home to the National Headquarters of the American Legion, but a line of city blocks, including the one that is home to the American Legion, combine into a large park-like area that features a number of monuments to the major wars of the 20th century and those who died in them - the Indiana War Memorial Plaza Historic District.  American Legion Mall features a plaza and monuments to specific wars, each with quotes from men who fought them.  The Veteran's Memorial Plaza features a fountain with an obelisk and sculptures at its center.  The Indiana War Memorial is a building that honors the valor and sacrifice of the soldiers who came from Indiana.  According to a sign there, the American Institute of Architecture has declared it to be "the most significant piece of architecture in Indiana."  A fourth block, University Park, features another fountain, a sculpture of Benjamin Harrison and a marker at the site of the first high school in Indianapolis. 

Heading south just a bit further, I hit a traffic circle where Meridian meets Market.  In the heart of the traffic circle was another impressive fountain/tower, this one the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a monument to those Hoosiers who fought and died in the Civil War.

I continued south through the Wholesale District, a section of the downtown with a surprising amount of shopping, restaurants and nightlife.  Especially after seeing Columbus and Louisville in recent years, I guess I was expecting to find another empty downtown.  But downtown Indianapolis appears to have a lot more going for it that those two cities' downtowns combined.

Parts of the impressive Union Station building have been incorporated into a hotel and meeting center.  The nearby RCA Dome looked somewhat less impressive in real life than it does on TV.

From there I headed to the state capitol for my usual walk-around and some photos.  It is a more or less typical state capitol - nothing about it really jumped out at me.

From there I headed east to check out the City Market and Lockerbie Market, but both were closed.  I got some lunch at a local restaurant and then took a short walk to Lockerbie Square before heading back to my car.

An old canal runs through the west end of downtown Indianapolis, so I thought I'd check that out at the site of the memorial to the USS Indianapolis.  The ship was the last major U.S. surface vessel to be lost during WWII.  It was sunk just days after delivering the first atomic bomb to Tinian as the U.S. readied its plans to drop the bomb on Japan.

At the memorial site, the canal area had been nicely cleaned up and turned into a park-like area with walking trails following the water.  There were even some people out in a paddlewheel boat.  The route was lined with condos, probably expensive ones, all within just a few blocks of the heart of the city.

No trip to Indianapolis would be complete without a visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home to the Indianapolis 500.  So I completed my visit there, although because I'm not a racing fan I decided to skip the museum/hall of fame there.

And that was it.  I hit the road, actually a couple hours later than I had figured I would.  No stopping in the Dayton area for some sunny day photos there en route to Columbus as I had originally planned.

I did make a stop at the Stuckey's on the Indiana-Ohio border.  Unlike Indianapolis, that had been a routine stop in the old days, so I figured I'd hit it this time, too, to get a jump on my birthday celebration.  No cake this year, I figured, so I had a banana split, a long-ago birthday tradition.

From there it was non-stop to Columbus and the Hyatt at the convention center.  A nice facility, but like the Hyatt I stayed at in Chicago for the KDD 2005 conference, my room didn't have a desk/table and appropriate chair.  Columbus isn't a big vacation destination.  This Hyatt serves people who come to the city for conferences and conventions.  Fortunately there was a dresser for my clothes - unlike the Chicago Hyatt.  There was even a stand for the coffee maker that I could put near the bed and use as (a rather high) table.  That's apparently about as much as I can hope for out of Hyatt, I guess.

One nice thing about the conference hotel was that it was just a couple blocks from Tradewinds, my favorite Columbus spot for nightlife, and right at the south end of the Short North district.  I checked out Short North this evening.  The gentrification I noticed here back in 2006 has continued, further bleeding away whatever was left of its character (developers are doing that to Eastlake and Broadway in Seattle, too), although there is a nice mix of restaurants there.  I even thought that my favorite diner - a classic diner at that - was gone.  But at least for that one I would find out after I got home that I stopped a couple blocks short of reaching it.

Nightlife at Tradewinds.  But not too late.  It's a big day tomorrow.

Conference Activities

Monday June 16 -

Happy 47th birthday to me.  Big whoop.

The conference began today.  Followed by a demos and poster sessions this evening.  I'll stick with my tradition of not boring any readers with the details.

I did share the news of my birthday with a couple friends.  We went out for dinner and conversation together, and had a lot of fun.  Back at the hotel shortly after 9PM.  No nightlife, though.  Tradewinds is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and I brought some work with me to do.

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Tuesday June 17 -

Another conference day.  Tonight was the conference banquet, which for some reason was held at the Columbus Zoo, a healthy bus ride away from the conference venue.  And with the number of buses available, halves of the group departed and returned an hour apart of one another.  The president's talk - they usually go for humor - was one of the best ever, which made up for the so-so dinner and the hour spent wandering around the dark zoo while waiting for the buses.

For several years, a group would get together after the banquet to head out on the town.  But as the banquets started being held at places we had to be bused to, as some folks began missing the conferences, and perhaps as some folks have aged past that, that tradition seems to have died.

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Wednesday June 18 -

The last full day of the conference.  Followed by dinner with my colleagues.  I did check out Tradewinds, but there were only four customers in the place, so I played Boxxi for a bit and then headed back to the hotel.  I had to get up early anyway.

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Thursday June 19 -

I don't think that I got more than a couple hours of sleep last night.  Just a lot of tossing and turning.  But it wouldn't seem to affect me at all today.

I didn't find any of today's conference workshops to be all that appealing, so I headed down to Dayton for the day to catch up with my colleagues there.  I also got an e-mail note suggesting that I'd be heading to Florida on business in a couple weeks.  Then I got some dinner and headed back to Columbus for tomorrow's workshop.  Tradewinds, again, this time with a better crowd.

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Friday June 20 -

I finished off the conference with a workshop today.  I also took in the 39th annual National Quilting Association's quilt show that was being held at the convention center - my mom and sister are quilters and have their own related business, so I figured I'd check out the show for them and get some photos of the winners and anything that I thought they might find interesting.

A free evening, and with no real reason to get up early tomorrow, I enjoyed a later nightlife at Tradewinds than I've had all week.  However, it doesn't look like it has recovered much from the smallish crowds I found here a couple years ago.

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Ohio Weekend

Saturday June 21 -

My original plans had me exploring parts of northeast Ohio today.  But with a forecast of developing thunderstorms this afternoon and the popping up of travel plans for the week after I get back home, I ended up spending much of the day in my hotel room catching up on some work.  However, it wasn't all work and no play, as I did get out for a couple walks around town during the day.

My second walk was through downtown Columbus.  Given how much change I discovered there during my 2006 visit, I wondered if it had declined even more.  My first target was the original Wendy's restaurant for a late lunch.  But it had closed since my last visit - an Ohio Historical Site marker was put up in front of it.  Then over to the City Center Mall that had shocked me with its decline last time I was here.  I was surprised to find that it was still open, to be honest, but most of the stores were completely gone.  I did find a few isolated open stores, among them a Radio Shack and Waldenbooks that both looked completely normal and well-stocked from the inside, and there were a few restaurants that probably survive on the weekday lunch crowd, but that was about it.  I spoke with one of the bookstore clerks who told me that the city purchased the property and has plans for it, but those plans have not yet been announced.  Beyond the mall, what I noticed most was the number of office buildings and empty storefronts with For Lease and For Sales signs on them.  Even the building that housed the Chamber of Commerce has a For Sale sign on it.  

To anyone passing through downtown Columbus, the area appears neat and clean, with wide streets, a pretty river valley, plenty of parking, and lots of open space (usually used as even more parking).  It's sad what's going on under that surface.

Without lunch, I figured on an early dinner.  But my first few choices already had 30-minute waits for tables shortly after five (I suspect that is an Ohio thing), so I cut through the Short North area figuring I'd get dinner back at the hotel restaurant.  As I was doing that, the leading edge of the weather system that had been building up all day hit, blasting the area with strong winds, which I knew would soon be followed by heavy rain.  So I ducked into Martini Italian Bistro, just across the street from the convention center connected to my hotel.  And there I had lasagna dinner, salad, bread and dessert that was about as close to a perfect meal that I would hope to find anywhere.  Excellent food, outstanding service, and just long enough that most of the rain had passed by the time I was done.

Work, packing and a last night at Tradewinds tonight.  Although the crowd was late in building up, by midnight it looked and felt like the Tradewinds that brought me to Columbus all those times in the years before my move to Seattle.  I enjoyed myself so much that I ended up sticking around until they stopped the music at 2:15AM.  As this was probably my last hurrah at the place, I'm glad it ended on such a high note.

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Sunday June 22 -

Up early, McDonalds for breakfast, and then on to Dayton.  Well, Springboro, to be more precise.  I've been wanting to do a sunny day photo exploration of Springboro for a few years now, but the weather on my Dayton trips hasn't cooperated all that much.  The city dates back to the early 1800s.  It began as a Quaker community, and it was a major stop along the Underground Railroad as the Quakers and other abolitionists in town helped slaves escape to the north.  The historic district includes a number of original homes from that period, many with descriptive markers, and some having provided refuge for escaped slaves.  The tourist office in the middle of the district was open, so I was able to pick up a nice brochure that provided more information on the homes in the historic district.

After lunch at the K&W, I headed over to Springboro cemetery to see if I could find the graves of the city's founders - I recognized a handful of names from the older streets, but I didn't find the graves I was looking for.  I'd find out later that they were buried in a small cemetery near the historic district.

Then it was on to the Null House, the oldest on-site log cabin in Warren County, dating back to the late 1700s.  In the seven years I lived in Springboro, I had never made it over to the cabin, now in the middle of a residential/golf neighborhood.

My last planned stop was along my old street, but by now the clouds had come in and the skies were threatening rain.  So I hit the grocery store and then headed for my hotel to check in for four nights.  

After the rain stopped, I headed for downtown Dayton, my other targeted photo stop.  Although I had a nice walk through the downtown area and I got a lot of pictures, the sun never came out and so many of the photos turned out rather drab.  I think I'll have to try again.

Thirsty, I figured I'd check out the 5:30PM crowd at the Stage Door.  All, um, three of them.  Oh well.  It did give me a chance to get some water and hit the bathroom.

Chicken Louie's for dinner.  Cluck, cluck, cluck, mmmmm!

Back to the hotel for the evening.  I thought about maybe going down to the Dock in Cincinnati, another old stomping ground, but some online reviews suggested that it had gone downhill.  Between those and my being a lot more tired than I had first realized, I ended up skipping it, staying in my room to get some work done.

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The Work Week

Monday June 23 -

A work day with a few meetings.  Late dinner.  More work in the evening.

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Tuesday June 24 -

Another work day.  Early dinner.  More work in the evening.  And then I headed downtown to check out MJ's Cafe.  So-so crowd, but not much going on.

Wednesday June 25 -

A last day at work, with everyone on pins and needles waiting for tomorrow's organizational changes announcements.  We did do a group lunch, and the day passed pretty quickly.  Dinner with a friend of mine; his partner missed dinner due to his own work schedule but joined us for conversation later in the evening.  Then back to the hotel to pack and go to bed.  No nightlife tonight given my 8:40AM flight.

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Heading Home

Thursday June 26 -

And now the flight home, this time by way of Dallas.  I had another plane for the Dayton-Dallas trip that had enough legroom, but the Dallas-Seattle flight was pretty cramped.  Fortunately there was no one sitting next to me and the person in front of me never tried to put her seat back.  Same airlines, different planes.  This certainly isn't my imagination.

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Souvenirs

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