2024 for me has been the year of the bleisure trip – I’ve been fortunate enough to take several business trips this year, and being tight on money now that those student loan payments have kicked back in post-pandemic (*sigh*), I’ve used my opportunities this year to add on vacation days to my business trips. Indianapolis was the first of those bleisure trips this year – and it was in January. It wouldn’t be my choice of month to travel to the midwest, and it turned out to be COLD (9 degrees on one of the days I was walking around sightseeing), but I made the most of it and found great things to do to stay warm!
Stay
In town for a conference, I stayed at the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. The hotel was located just steps from the Indiana State House, convention center, and Monument Circle in the heart of downtown.
See
Indiana State House
Steps from my hotel was the Indiana capitol, an 1888 domed classical building inspired by the nation’s capitol. The State House is open for free touring, and its interior rotunda is something to see with its beautiful stained glass dome.
Soldiers & Sailors Monument
Indianapolis is known as a city of monuments, being second only to Washington, D.C. in the number of war memorials it is home to. One of the most prominent is the Soldiers & Sailors Monument, a decorated obelisk sitting in the middle of Monument Circle in the center of Indianapolis. The circle was once intended to be the location of a governor’s mansion, but when no governor wanted to live at this location, it was decided after the civil war to erect a monument in honor of the soldiers who fought in the war.
Indiana War Memorial & Museum
A few blocks north of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument sits one of Indy’s other most iconic of monuments, the Indiana War Memorial & Museum. It’s a towering neoclassical building that features a free museum on Indiana’s involvement in the wars. The top level is breathtaking, with its Shrine Room dedicated to those who fought in World War I.
American Legion Mall
Just outside of the Indiana War Memorial is the American Legion Mall, two full city blocks of park space featuring the national headquarters for the American Legion, and a number of memorials dedicated to Indiana residents, or “hoosiers,” who fought in the various wars.
Lockerbie Square Historic District
About a fifteen minute walk east from the American Legion Mall area is a neighborhood called the Lockerbie Square Historic District. This was the first historic preservation district in Indianapolis, and features quiet residential streets of historic architecture. I did a free self-guided tour on my phone using the PocketSights app.
Eiteljorg Museum
On one of the colder, snowier days I was in Indy, I visited the Eiteljorg Museum, which features collections of art by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as depictions of the American West. The museum does a great job of expressing the stories and cultures of the nation’s Indigenous Peoples through works of art.
Canal Walk
Located next to the museum is the Central Canal of White River State Park. The canal has walking paths on either side and offers scenic views – it’s a nice stroll, even in the cold!
Indiana Theatre
This building, which is supposedly haunted, is a historic movie theater built in 1927 with an ornate white terra cotta facade. It is today home to the Indiana Repertory Theatre and you can see a show here, but if you’re into architecture it’s cool just to see it from the street. I was fortunate to attend an event for my conference that was held in the theatre’s Indiana Roof Ballroom, a large ballroom that resembles a public square with building facades on either side.
Eat & Imbibe
City Market
Upon arriving into town on my first day, I headed to City Market to grab some lunch. It’s nothing like my beloved Reading Terminal Market here in Philly, and only a handful of vendors were still open when I arrived for a late lunch, but I got a delicious burrito from a Mexican food vendor. As of March 2024, the market is temporarily closed for renovations.
Goose the Market
The second day I was in Indy, I took an Uber out to the Near Northside neighborhood to have lunch at Goose the Market, a gourmet deli serving up some of Indy’s best sandwiches. I got their Batali sandwich, a long roll with coppa, soppressata, capocollo, provolone, mayonnaise arrabbiata, romaine, pickled onions, and spicy giardiniera. Spicy, delicious, and well worth the Uber ride!
St. Elmo Steak House
2024 may be my year of bleisure, but it’s also my year of “treat yo’self,” since it’s also the year of a milestone bithday for me. And this was my justification for taking myself out to a fancy steak dinner for one at the bar of St. Elmo Steak House, one of Indy’s most famous establishments and oldest steakhouses, operating since 1902. While the steak is top-notch, St. Elmo is known for its shrimp cocktail, served with its famous house-made spicy cocktail sauce that will make your eyes water in a hurry – you’ve been forewarned!
Saint Joseph’s Brewery
After wandering around the Lockerbie Square Historic District in the cold, I stopped into this brewery located in an old church a few minutes away to warm up and enjoy some brews. I did a flight and then tried two additional beers. Here are the ones I tried:
- Popemeal Oat Stout – 5.1% rich, creamy and chocolatey oatmeal stout
- Raspberry Testament Triple – 8% smooth and juicy raspberry Belgian tripel
- Confessional IPA – 6.3% India Pale Ale with notes of grapefruit and melon
- Dawn Bringer – 6% New England IPA that was hoppy, hazy, and tropical
- Hops & Prayers Cryo Mosaic – 7.6% citrusy and floral American IPA brewed with cryo mosaic hops
- Dunkels & Dragons – 4.8% Munich-style dunkel with toasted malt flavor
Sun King Brewing
On my second day of exploring, I stopped over to Sun King Brewing’s taproom. Sun King is the second largest brewery in Indiana and you’ll find a lot of their beers on tap throughout Indy, but the taproom was great to hang out in on a chilly January afternoon. There were a lot of beers that sounded good, so I decided to do a flight so that I could try multiple. Here are the ones I tried:
- Scout Badge – 7.7% porter brewed with samoa cookies for flavors of chocolate, caramel, and coconut
- Krampus Claws – 5.7% brown ale with chocolate and coffee flavors
- Cherry Berry Cuvee – 6.9% sour fruited ale with cherry, strawberry, and raspberry notes
- Orange Vanilla Sunlight Cream Ale – 5.3% crisp and refreshing cream ale that tasted like an orange creamsicle
On my next trip to Indianapolis
Between the weather and coming down with an illness on this trip, there were a few things I had wanted to do while in Indianapolis that had to be tabled. One was touring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, arguably Indianapolis’ biggest draw. The Speedway was unfortunately not running tours during my visit due to the significant snowfall. The other thing I’ll try on my next trip is the Slippery Noodle, Indiana’s oldest continuously operated bar. I’m sure my work will take me back to Indy at some point, so next time!
C to Shining C 
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