A Day in Indianapolis

Monday morning we left our hotel on the northern side of Indianapolis and headed to the old historic part of downtown Indianapolis, so we could get our geek on again. We toured the home of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States.

Front of Benjamin Harrison's home

Side view

Front parlor used for entertaining guests, with a very cool piano in the corner.

Love the ceiling medallion! It's not original to the house, but was copied from one in the house that is original. We think the tour guide said that the chandelier has been in the house since it was built.

Very awesome square grand piano in the family room parlor.

This is a reginaphone music box. A large metal disc is placed inside and it plays music. We're hoping you'll be able to hear the music on the video below. We had to be very careful taking pictures, because we couldn't use flash. They keep the rooms a little dark, because light can ruin the old furniture, pictures, and decorations. 

Very cool kitchen!  The cupboard in the back is a Hoosier cupboard, which is a type of cupboard popular in the first decades of the 20th century. 

And the butler's pantry was awesome, too! We want one...and a butler to go with it.  Below are more pictures of the butler's pantry.

The house was three stories tall, not including that basement, but we didn't dare take any more pictures because we didn't know if the rooms would be dark enough to set off the automatic flashes on our cameras. But suffice it to say that it was a very cool house and a very good tour with lots of information about Benjamin Harrison and his family.

Then we drove by the Indianapolis Speedway just so we could say we saw it.

After that we drove by the new LDS temple in Carmel, Indiana. It isn't open yet - they're still planting and preparing the grounds. The open house is scheduled for July.

Carmel, Indiana, LDS Temple

We left Indianapolis Tuesday Morning and headed to Morgantown, West Virginia, where we stayed last night.

Thank heavens that wipe out on the asphalt at the convenience store/gas station where we stopped to get gas in Ohio only resulted in scraped and bruised knees and ego and not in any broken bones! I'm okay!

We're now in Arlington, Virginia. Tomorrow should be a fun/educational day for us as well.