Hamilton County Tour: Bike Rides and Great Food!

Today's post and podcast work together...enjoy them both!

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Ready for part 2 of our Hamilton County adventure? 

After Colts Training Camp, we rented bikes and rode the Monon Trail. Ryan has a bike, but I don't, and we were worried that even if we were able to find one to borrow for me, the bikes wouldn't be safe in the back of our truck while we went to training camp. So we decided to rent them. Hamilton County has a bike rental program, and one of the rental locations happened to be Grand Park...where we were for the Colts! We had already paid to park our car there, so we just decided to start there!

We had a rough start to our ride, because we weren't exactly sure where to hop on the Monon Trail from the bike rental location. (We were also trying to dodge the traffic of people leaving training camp.)We finally found our way to the trail and just as I started to exhale in relief, the trail CLOSED!! They are in the middle of building a much-needed overpass for the trail to go over a very busy intersection, but it's not done yet, so we had to ride in the road and through gravel patches and across several lanes of traffic before we could catch up to the trail again. Brought back not-so-great memories of when I broke my leg as a kid. (Busy highway...gravel...cast...crutches...)

The trail itself was beautiful, and we had a GORGEOUS day to ride.

When we got into Carmel, we stopped for lunch at Bub's Café, which happened to be right on the trail. We could park our bikes in the yard and sit outside to keep an eye on them while we ate.

 Ryan's lunch was called a shnaffle. (I have no idea if I spelled that right...I couldn't find it on the online menu.) It was a full waffle with a breaded tenderloin on top of it. Unique choice, but he said it was really good, and he would get it again!

I don't know why, but pancakes sounded SO GOOD to me. I got a single pancake and look at this thing!! (It had pecans and cranberries in it.)

After lunch, we got back on the trail and kept riding! We went about ten miles one way before turning back, and if you listen to the podcast, you'll hear the adventures of Bekah and the overpasses. 

By the end, I was struggling!

But we made it back in one piece! Then we couldn't get the bikes to lock, and it took almost 20 minutes to get through the hold queue for help. That was kind of exhausting. 

We were definitely ready for coffee. 

I had picked out The Well, which is a coffee shop in Fishers. 

Because this county is pretty trendy, we didn't have to worry about finding a coffee shop. We just had to figure out which one to visit. I picked this one because of its mission to help others. (They use profits to help provide clean water around the world.)

We decided to step out of our coffee comfort zones on this one. I had "The Sass," which was a coffee infused root beer that tasted like a root beer float. I was nervous, but it was really good! Ryan had "The Cuban," which was espresso with steamed sweetened condensed milk. He liked his too!

We were big fans of the coffee, the nice staff, the mission of the coffee house, and the décor!

And before we headed back home, we stopped at Nothing Bundt Cakes, which I happened to notice while we were looking for a parking place. I've always wanted to try their cakes! I've read about them on Pinterest, but I thought all their locations were out west, so I hadn't tried them. We each got a little cupcake-sized bundt cake to bring home for later, and we thought it was the cutest little shop.

We had a great time officially touring Hamilton County!

Hamilton County Tour: Colts Training Camp

Well, after having months and months of sporadic county tours - sometimes going six or more months between them - we managed to see two counties in the space of one month! WHAT?!?!?!

This past weekend, we knocked Hamilton County off our list. This was county brimming with both possibilities and challenges for us. It had much possibility because it's the county directly north of the county containing Indianapolis, so it has so much to do. The whole county is basically an Indianapolis suburb. It's been developing in wonderful, full-of-life ways in the last few years. There are so many things to do, how could we possibly pick, right?

But it was challenging, because it's really only about 45 minutes from us, so we have gone there many, many times throughout our marriage. We've gone on many dates and seen much of what it has to offer. So how could we pick something meaningful that was also new?

Well, we did it!

In case you were wondering...this county was named after Alexander Hamilton. And if you weren't wondering, that little tidbit was just a freebie.

I've been trying to think back over our marriage to think of all the places we've been to in Hamilton County that we've already told you about! One of the cute little towns in this county is Cicero, and that's where we go see fireworks every 4th of July. (Here's a link to this year's recap.) The fireworks are over a beautiful lake. (There are a couple of lakes and reservoirs in this county that make it a popular lakefront/water sport area.)

Another city in this county that we visit often is Carmel. (Isn't that a delicious-sounding city?) We spent quite a bit of time there in our date inspired by the letter N. That day, we got cinnamon rolls from Lisa's Pie Shop, shopped and had lunch at Clay Terrace, and had dinner at Bub's Burgers. (To be fair, Lisa's Pie Shop is in Atlanta, Indiana, not Carmel, but it's still the same county.)

Ryan took me to a cooking class at Sur la Table a few years ago on Valentine's Day, and that was in Carmel as well. That, by the way, was a very fun date that we really enjoyed!

Last winter, we went to the Christkindlmarkt down in Carmel, and it was outside some of the beautiful buildings in their downtown district.

So this time, we decided to try a couple of things we'd never done in Hamilton County before!

First up? Colts Training Camp!

Back when Ryan and I were dating, we made our own bucket list of dreams, and one of the things Ryan put on the list was attending Colts Training Camp. He had been once with a couple of his friends, but he wanted to take me. Back in those days, the Colts trained at Anderson University, which is in an entirely different county. Now they train at this huge athletic facility in Westfield, called Grand Park. We'd never been there before, so this was a first!

I had no idea what to expect, and I must say that it was nothing like what I imagined it would be...but in good ways!

I should say, for any of you who are from around here and are thinking of going in the future, the camp itself is free to attend, but you do have to pay $5.00 to park. (That's no big deal, but we hadn't seen that listed on the website. Perhaps we are very blind, but I'll throw that out in case you're on a budget!) You do also have to have a ticket to get in, but you can get them from their website, and like I said, the tickets are free.

We arrived about 8 in the morning and we found the field where they had all kinds of fun games and photo opps. It's mostly for the kids, but there were a fair number of adults playing the games too! (You could catch footballs or do other drills, for example.)

We did have fun with the photo opps!

Then we made our way over to the practice fields. Since I didn't know how this whole thing worked, I thought they were going to play a mock game, but the whole morning was set up with different drills and scenarios that stayed on a very tight and strictly-adhered-to schedule. I cannot even tell you how happy that made me! I love a schedule!!

(There were two fields beside each other, and they used both throughout the practice. Some fans ran back and forth between the bleachers, but we just stayed put and watched back and forth.)

They had an autograph session after the practice, but we didn't stay for that. We were trying to beat the traffic to our next adventure.

It was really fun - even for a not-real-football-fan like me. But I did get to see my own personal favorite quarterback. (I happen to be a Jacoby Brissett fan, and he was practicing that day, so I was happy!)

So there you have it! The first part of our Hamilton County tour!

The Shafferland Shuffle

It's been a full and fun week here in Shafferland! We're a wee bit sun-kissed today, but we've enjoyed our days and have much to tell you!

* We already told you about our full day last Sunday, but to recap, we participated in a skit at our church, which terrified me to no end and delighted Ryan to no end. After church, we scurried to see our bonus nephews' baptism in a most beautiful pond. We thoroughly enjoyed our day!

* We still had Phoebe for most of Monday, so she and I hung out on the porch for a while and watched cars go by. :) We took her back home that evening and then headed out to my parents' house to help them with some yard work. Ryan and my dad took down a tree that was leaning toward their garage. Before we came home, we met up with our friend Amber for some ice cream!

* Braeya was happy to be back to running the house herself on Tuesday, so she followed me around just about everywhere. I switched up my workouts again this week, so by Tuesday night at the end of workout time, everything hurt. But it was too pretty a night to not go for a walk at the end of the night.

* I worked on some computer projects on Wednesday - backing up old blog posts. I had a long workout that night and ended up resting for a bit on the porch waiting for Ryan to get home from his run. Porch sitting continues to be a house favorite! Ryan had a coupon for Dairy Queen, so we got a little dessert treat after dinner!

* It finally rained on Thursday! Not for long, but it did rain. How crazy is it that it rained every single day all spring, and now we're so dry the ground is cracking open!?!? (Ryan was actually out running when the rain broke loose. Whoopsie!) I spent the day in the kitchen, baking desserts to take to other people, and that night was the Colts' pre-season opener. Ryan was so tired, he slept through most of the game, but I made sure to document that the game did, in fact, happen!

* Friday night we had the chance to go meet our newest nephew, born just a few days ago. He's a snuggler, for sure! (Although he's also very alert and his face in the picture with me just cracks me up!) Ryan and I took dinner over for his brother and the whole family, and then we stayed and played games with the older kids, ate dinner with them, and sneaked in as many baby snuggles as we could!

* We did a full day of county-touring yesterday. Hamilton County was the winner this time, and we'll have to tell you all about it later, but among other things, it included a visit to Colts Training Camp and a bike ride on the Monon trail! I was far more worn out by this adventure than Ryan was, but we both had a great day!

The Saturday Six

One.

I happened upon the Stone Gable blog through Pinterest, somehow, and I've enjoyed reading her posts over the past few weeks. This week, though, she gave a beautiful house tour and talked about how their house came to be. I love a good house story, so this was a fun read!

Two.

I spent some time in the kitchen this week, and I'm always on the lookout for some new baking tips. So when I happened upon this article with secret tips from a sous chef, I had to check it out. A few of these intrigued me!

Three.

I don't remember stumbling upon this blogger before, but she has some fun clothing ideas. My favorite posts are the ones where she shows you multiple ways to wear one item. Sometimes I need help with the obvious.

Four.

A  cookie box??? I love this! I'm starting to think there might be merit in doing birthday gifts all at one time each month - cookie boxes for the win.

Five.

Because I read this blog pretty regularly, I had seen the full posts on a lot of these room makeovers, but this full house tour of how this blogger made over a rental house to give it her own personality is impressive indeed. If you're a renter, you might find some good ideas in here!

Six.

If you're starting a new planner (with the start of a new school year) or just need a new organization system in your current planner, take a look at this post. I hadn't seen it until this week, but this is pretty much the same system I use for the two of us! In my planner, pink/red means the item pertains to me, orange means Ryan, and teal means both of us together. I note all birthdays and anniversaries in green and write holidays in black.