beer fest in indianapolis!

I just got home from a short overnight trip to Indianapolis and i'm exhausted! i've only been there once before and it was during probably one of the worst snow storms in the past 5 years so i don't think i had the best opinion of this lovely city. it was a good time though being that it was only 2 hours away from Cinci and one of the cleanest cities i've ever been to! we originally went for a beer tasting convention with my aunt and uncle and it turned out to be a bar crawl all over the place! we first got there and i was absolutely starving so we stopped at what i thought was a food festival of some sort. it turned out to be a Mexican Festival. what that was exactly we weren't sure. but it turned out to be meat on a stick, overly crowded sidewalks and margaritas everywhere in the meeting of the town square. very interesting to say the least. i didn't eat there.

so we went over to old pointe tavern so that we could get some grease in us before beer tasting. this bar/restaurant was really cute inside with lots of original artwork on the walls and your classic bar foods. plus, we could smoke inside which is always a plus. (it's gross, i know) 

this was one of the beers we tried. Jon, whose last name is Floyd, I'm sure found it humorous :)

we left the tavern and went over to the beer tasting where we left with multiple 4packs of beers from sun king brewery this place was really neat on the inside. just a giant warehouse set up for beer making and touring. we got cans of their Osiris and i am now in love with it! we left the brewery to head over to one of the more interesting bar set ups i've ever been to. it was in the corner of an indoor farmers market.. where no other stores were running. odd but neat i suppose!! 

we went to numerous other bars, ate at Webber for dinner and watched a live band over at the Slippery Noodle the oldest bar in Indiana. Such a good weekend!! 

getting a little glossy eyed after all those beers! 

skydiving? no sweat!

one thing on my list of "stuff to do before labor day" was skydiving. this was a biggie. probably one of those things i put on the list anticipating it not actually ever being done, let alone before the summer ending. everyone i know says they want to skydive before they die, but i don't know how many people actually go through with it... well, we did. 

waking up this morning, i was an absolute panicked wreck but as we pulled up to the airport, i became shockingly calm. i was cautious as anyone would be, but not nearly as scared as i anticipated myself being. i thought i would chicken out. i thought the weather would turn cloudy. i was sure something would happen and i would leave the airport without having had my first skydiving experience. but it didn't. we got there at about 2 in the afternoon and were told we would be up in the air around 3. but one complication lead to another and our jump kept getting pushed back farther and farther. we snacked on chips and pop, listened to 90's music and watching the pro's pack their parachutes. 

up we went in the plane and there was no turning back. we went up 13000 feet into a clear blue sky only to plummet out into it. stepping up to the edge of the plane door, i knew there was no turning back now! i began laughing nervously and just saying "oh my god" over and over.  my instructor was awesome and very light hearted which kept me calm... once you're up that high, it doesn't even feel real. the ground looks like one big green grid with splotches of blue water. on the count of 3 we jumped out without a second to think twice about it. i'm so glad we did it. it was a once in a lifetime experience that i'm so glad i got to have. but doing it again? not sure yet :)

the perfect way to bring in September!!