Run, drive, jump, putt and play, while learning how to stay happy, healthy and safe at the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience. The new 7.5-acre attraction opens Saturday, March 17 at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. It features 14 interactive elements that demonstrate the physical, mental and social rewards of being active.
Indoor Fun
And it’s fun, too! Indoors, try the goal-blocker hockey challenge, create sport-inspired art, or be a sportscaster — and send home your game analysis video. Visit the Indiana Pacers and Fever Basketball Experience, and beat the shot clock, pass to player targets, and take free throws. Next, row with a crew team, gain balance on the floor beam, or practice speed and safety at the Church Brothers Collision Repair Motorsports Garage.
Outdoor Fun
Have even more racing adventures outside, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Pedal Car Racetrack, where pedal cars race the oval, or the drag strip. Practice pitching and hitting at Wiese Field; dribble, pass and go for the goal at the Subway Soccer Experience; and volley with a friend, or perfect forehand and backhand against the practice wall at The Seymour and Rheta Holt Tennis Center.
There’s also mini golf, a track and fitness trail, and a chance to learn the proper way to grip a football, dodge opponents for a touchdown and kick a field goal at the Indianapolis Colts Experience. Additionally, kids (and their parents) can take it all in by climbing to the top of The Children’s Museum Guild’s Fantasy Tree House of Sports, explore its hollows, and exit down the slide.
Time to Eat!
All this healthy activity will work up an appetite, and it’s easy to eat healthy at The Loft at Trader’s Point Creamery. Located on the north side of Indianapolis, the working farm and dairy raises grass fed cows and invites visitors to tour, reconnect with nature, and enjoy authentic farm-to-table dining. Choose from a variety of flavorful cheeses made on site, pasta that’s fresh, hand-cut, and delicious, and some of the best beef diners will ever taste. People seeking a healthier lifestyle often ask, “What did your dinner have for dinner?” and the chef at the Loft knows the answers.
Nostalgic Experiences
Such authentic farm-fresh dining evokes a sense of the past, and Indianapolis offers even more nostalgia at Action Duckpin Bowl. Located on the fourth floor of the Fountain Square Theatre Building, Duckpin Bowl has eight lanes, a vintage billiard table and a cafe. Duck Pin bowlers use a heavy ball about the size of a softball to knock down the pins, and get three frames, instead of two to make their strikes or spares in a retro setting glowing with neon and curved chrome.
For an even more nostalgic, and unique, experience spend the night at the Crowne Plaza at Union Station. The building’s art deco accents are complemented by lifelike figures of 1940s era passengers. Statues of a shoeshine boy, nun, women passengers in shirtwaist dresses, and men with fedoras decorate the lobby and second floor, where figures of boys hopping on a train are hopping on an actual train. Guests can stay in genuine Pullman cars that have been totally renovated into modern hotel rooms. Inside, the cars have all the latest innovations and comforts, but outside the cars rest on train tracks, have iron handrails, steel stairs, movable handbrakes, and couplings joining the cars. And, as the Crowne Plaza’s website adds, “The muffled rumblings of trains regularly passing through adds to the ambiance of staying in our hotel.”
GO!
CHILDREN’S MUSEUM INDIANAPOLIS
3000 North Meridian St.
317-334-400
THE LOFT AT TRADER’S POINT CREAMERY
9101 Moore Road, Zionsville
traderspointcreamery.com/theloft-restaurant
DUCK PIN BOWLING AT FOUNTAIN SQUARE THEATRE BUILDING
1105 Prospect Street
fountainsquareindy.com/action-atomic-duckpin-bowling
CROWNE PLAZA INDIANAPOLIS
123 West Louisiana St.
ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/indianapolis/inddt/hoteldetail