Growing up in Indianapolis, I've to appreciate all of the places and activities the city has to offer. From locally-owned restaurants to parks, gardens and museums, Indianapolis is a city that I'm proud to have lived in for the past 20 years. Since I moved back to campus after spending the summer in Indianapolis, I find myself missing these facets of my hometown. Here are 15 places you love in Indiana's capitol.
1. Mass Avenue
This trendy art district offers unique restaurants, shops that sell all of the 3-1-7 merchandise, local theaters and even a place where ice cream is made with liquid nitrogen right before your eyes.
2. La Piedad Mexican Restaurant
Located in Broad Ripple, this is possibly the best locally-owned Mexican restaurant out there. You know you've made it when you eat there so often that staff starts to recognize you. I can't tell you how many memories I've made here over arroz con pollo and the best queso in Indianapolis.
3. The Monon Trail
If it's nice outside, you'll find the biking, walking, jogging and rollerblading residents of Indianapolis on the Monon Trail. Since it stretches as far south as downtown and as far north as Carmel, there's no limit to where you can go. The trail is especially beautiful in the fall.
4. Victory Field
Indianapolis's minor league baseball team, the Indianapolis Indians, play downtown at Victory Field. The stadium offers a place to watch baseball, talk to your friends and watch people compete for gift cards in between innings. Not to mention the sky-high, soft-serve ice cream cones.
5. Holliday Park
As a kid, you loved this place for the playground, the nature center and that huge spinning marble in water thing. Now you love it for the concerts, the hiking trails and that huge spinning marble in water thing.
6. Monument Circle
The literal center of the city where you watch the tree lighting and search for the female soldier at the Soldiers and Sailors monument at Christmas time.
7. BRICS
Also in Broad Ripple, Broad Ripple Ice Cream Station is the best place year-round to order a waffle cone of "one-scoop" of Broad Ripple Blackberry (that is easily three or four actual scoops).
8. Old National Centre
Even though Bankers Life and Klipsch are Indy's prime concert venues for huge artists, chances are you've stood for hours to see your favorite up-and-coming artist at the Egyptian Room in the Old National Centre downtown.
9. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis is known for the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indy 500. Chances are you visited the speedway on an elementary school field trip. And if you're like me, you've gone back to watch practices, qualifying and been to your share of races too (whether you were in the stands or in the snake pit).
10. Holcomb Gardens
Butler University's campus is unparalleled in its beauty. One of the best part is definitely the Holcomb Gardens, where you love to have picnics in during the summer and take artsy pictures.
11. The Canal
Paddle-boating on the canal downtown or walking along the under the brides and testing the echo are essential Indianapolis experiences.
12. The Keystone Fashion Mall
You hit up this mall at Keystone at the Crossing for Urban Outfitters, Sephora and the Keystone Art Cinema that plays independent films.
13. SnoZone
This tiny establishment in Broad Ripple serves up the best snow cones, and you've always wondered if adding a gumball or ice cream to the bottom would be tasty or gross.
14. The Indianapolis Museum of Art
Even though the admission is always fluctuating between free and $18, you love visiting the IMA and taking pictures in front of the LOVE statue.
15. Your home.
If you grew up here, it's where your family and friends live, where you made all of your favorite childhood memories and where you grew into the person you are today. If you recently moved to Indianapolis, it inevitably will become your beloved home because this city is truly extraordinary.
