Tag Archives: Indiana

Finding the Christmas Spirit

  Sitting on Santa’s lap is not the only way to get into the Christmas spirit.  There are dozens of affordable travel opportunities that will help you get into the holiday mood, including: Indiana:  Gather the kids and head to Santa Claus, Indiana.  The town celebrates Christmas all year long, but during the month of December things really hit a fever pitch.  In addition to snapping photos of your kids with St. Nick, your entire clan can tour a Santa Claus museum, shop at Santa’s Candy Castle or enroll in Santa Claus training workshops to learn the find art of … Continue reading →

Indiana Genealogy Resources

The state motto for Indiana is “The Crossroads of America”. Did your ancestors travel through Indiana on their way to somewhere else? Perhaps you are searching for more information about ancestors who lived in Indiana. Check out some of these Indiana genealogy resources. Most of them are free to use. GeneaLinks has a page dedicated to Indiana Genealogy records. Put your ancestor’s name into the search engine. Choose the record type you want to look for: vital, birth, death, marriage, divorce, or “Genealogy”. There are also links that will let your search public records. GeneaLinks also has helpful information for … Continue reading →

Free Christmas Fun in Indianapolis

Who says you need to spend a bundle to have some holiday family fun? The economy is tanking and managers of Indianapolis-area attractions are responding by offering fabulous freebies during the 12 days leading up to Christmas. In what is being dubbed the “12 Free Days Of Indy Christmas” celebration, visitors will be gifted with free admission and other goodies at participating attractions. For example, on Saturday, December 13th, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum will be offering free admission to its collection of trophies and cars. On Sunday, December 14th, you can tour the President Benjamin Harrison … Continue reading →

Holiday Geography Fun for the Whole Family

Do you know where in Missouri the city of Noel is located? How much do you know about Santa Claus, Indiana or Bethlehem, Pennsylvania? Could you find them on a map? Noel, Santa Claus, and Bethlehem are just a few U.S. cities with Christmas-themed names. Heck, there’s even a Christmas, Florida. This time of year these merry locales see a surge of visitors, and locals do their best to make everyone feel welcome. Out-of-towners who make the trip are treated to spectacular holiday light displays and other seasonal attractions. If you are looking to spend some quality family time with … Continue reading →

Summer Family Road Trip—-Indiana and Georgia

If your family road trip takes you to Indiana or Atlanta this summer here are a few attractions you might want to make a pit stop at: INDIANA People are going bananas at Michigan City’s zoo… and now you can get in on the action too. As you might have guessed the hoopla centers around the zoo’s monkey exhibit. According to zoo officials, a spider monkey recently used a garden hose to scale the wall of a moat at the facility and took off for town. However, the agile animal’s escape was short-lived as he got caught at a nearby … Continue reading →

Sunday Travel Funnies: Granny Puts Pedal to the Metal and Pilots Ask for God’s Help to Land Safely

If you think senior citizens live life in the slow lane you haven’t met 96-year-old Edith Pittenger. The great-great-grandmother made history last week becoming the oldest driver to ever gun it around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pittenger, an Indiana native, took the trip around the famous racetrack in a two-seater Dallara with driver Arie Luyendyk Jr. and reached speeds of nearly 200 mph. No, she’s not trying to become the next Danica Patrick; rather the ride was part of the Indy Racing Experience–a Christmas gift Pittenger received from her children. The anything but slow senior started attending the Indianapolis 500 … Continue reading →

Summer Theme Park Review: Splashes and Screams

I must admit, even though I grew up frolicking on Hawaii’s powder soft sand beaches and surfing in the state’s cobalt blue waters, as a kid I would have given my right foot to visit a water park on the mainland. Luckily my parents obliged every few summers (and I didn’t have to lose an appendage) and to this day I still consider those trips some of the best moments of my childhood. Water parks have come a long way since I was a kid… and they keep getting bigger and better each year. Take a look at the wet … Continue reading →

Holiday Light Displays Minus the Evergreens

Not every city in the nation hosts a traditional Christmas tree lighting ceremony. In fact, some cities don’t light real evergreens at all. In place of multi-story Tannenbaums some city leaders have opted to string thousands of twinkling lights together to look like a forest of Christmas trees. While others simply use technology and a ton of wattage to add major sparkle to cold, black winter nights. If you live in the following cities consider taking a trip to view some of these unique holiday light displays: HOUSTON, TEXAS Once you’ve stuffed yourself with turkey and pumpkin pie you can … Continue reading →

Travel Tidbits–Museum Moves

Good news for those of you who missed out on the headline grabbing King Tut museum tour. The mega-popular exhibit, which features objects buried with Egypt’s King Tutankhamun is returning to the United States next year. It will include three stops, beginning in Dallas. I was fortunate to be one of the 4 million visitors to take in the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit during its two-year, four-city tour. I saw the exhibit in Chicago, but it also visited museums in Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, and Philadelphia before wrapping up a few weeks ago. The exhibit … Continue reading →

Indianapolis Fever

In less than 20 hours a field of 30 men and three women will start their engines and gun it around the track for the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500. Coincidentally, my family will be attending a wedding in Indiana next month and I have recently written several blogs about the area’s accommodations, outdoor activities, and other points of interest. In honor of the Indianapolis 500 I figured it was appropriate to add a few more must-see attractions to the list—both are new and have opened in just the past few days. Indianapolis Zoo—Oceans Exhibit According to zoo officials, … Continue reading →