Lucas Oil Stadium, Home of the Colts

A few weeks ago at a friend’s wedding, I was asked by an engaged couple what wedding planning advice I had.  Frankly, I was stumped (although I was able to stumble through a few generic answers).  I think it was partially because for my wedding I basically handed the reins over to my mom to pick out everything besides the dude, but it’s mostly because I’ve never really been to a wedding and been all that critical.  You have a pretty consistent template, and all the details in between have never been catered to me, so why does it matter what I think?  As long as the bride and groom are happy, I’d consider it a successful wedding (if you are catering to me, though, free champagne).

With all that being said, when I found out there was a couple getting married on the field before the Broncos-Colts Thursday Night Football game we were going to, I had to raise my eyebrows a touch.  Seriously, I’m not judging them on the location, because I would have considered it had I had the means and connections, but couldn’t they have picked a better game?  Yikes.  Jokes on me, though, since the Colts gave them tickets to the Super Bowl as a wedding gift.  It would have been a for sure yes from me, regardless of the game, if I’d known there were Super Bowl tickets involved.
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Now that I think of it, maybe that should have been my advice to the engaged couple.  Get married at an NFL stadium right before a game.  You might get Super Bowl tickets.

The Seats

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  Sometimes you see a great game, sometimes you see a terrible one.  I knew going into this game that it was going to be terrible, and it didn’t disappoint.  And by that I mean it was extremely disappointing.  The Broncos were in town to play the Colts, and both teams were bottom-feeders of the NFL with backup QB’s at the helm.  Still, though, it was our first Thursday Night Football game, and I was excited to check out the palace that Peyton Manning built.

Being a garbage game, I probably could have gone cheaper on this game’s seats.  But the focus of this trip was football, and gosh darnit if we weren’t going to have good seats for our first TNF game.  Plus, being Raiders fans, we despise the Broncos and were ready to join in with the Colts fans like we were one of their own.  Joel even had a Colts jersey.  To be honest, this whole trip really validated his propensity for buying random jerseys and apparel, regardless of the team, when it’s on sale.  I think it brings him good luck.  But more on that later.

We went with the usual- lower bowl end zone seats, albeit at the top of the section, because again- bad, terrible, stinky teams.  Seriously, are the Colts even trying to put together a respectable team?

We made it to the stadium nice and early, and I’m really glad we did.  Our first stop was at the Peyton statue outside.  It was darker than you’d like for a picture, but I’ll still take it.  Our next stop was the main concourse of the stadium, which was, in a word, spectacular.  Lights.  Colors.  Strong Indianapolis 500 theme.  The city really seems to play up that part of their ongoing history.  As we wandered around the stadium, we found that different areas had other themes, such as the stretch that was painted football field green and sponsored by a bank.  There were not one but two spots where bands were performing and plenty of stands to stop and check out.  The two I remember were a photo booth, where I gave my email and they took a free picture, which they promised to email to me.  I’d completely given up on ever receiving it when it showed up in my mailbox 4 months later.  The other stop was the Verizon Wireless area.  There, they were doing a “raffle” if you blindly signed up for whatever they wanted you to sign up for.  I lose all inhibition on trips it seems, so we of course both signed up, especially because they didn’t require a credit card number.  Once we did so, we pressed a button on the iPad that was a roulette of prizes.  I am mistrusting of randomness generated by technology and have probably said this in front of Siri and she told all her friends, so naturally I lost.  However, Joel, aka luckiest man alive, had “Replica Helmet” pop up during his spin.  We both initially thought that meant a mini helmet, but I started to have suspicions when the guy running the station was shocked and said he had to call to the back to get it out.  Sure enough, it was full-sized.  Unfortunately, though, it has this weird plastic thing in it that prevents you from putting it on your head (or packing clothes in it when you’re trying to figure out how the heck to get it home).  But still cool.
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We probably should have just left after that.  They game was, predictably, horrendous.  Sloppy, low-scoring, and the only good player was our old friend, Brock Osweiler, who came in as a back-up to the back-up who got hurt.  This guy is seriously like a bad cold we can’t get rid of.  Bad enough that we had to watch him again, but we had to watch him lead the Broncos to a win.  But alas, I had a good time with Joel, had good seats, and wore a super cute football themed shirt I was excited to break out.  Many thanks to Live Love Gameday.

The Eats

We, admittedly, spend most of our trips making sports-themed stops, and that includes where we eat.  Sports bars are affordable, filled with delicious food, and generally a short trek from stadiums.  However, I enjoy having one night during our long trips where we get dressed up (Joel rather begrudgingly) and go to a fancy-ish restaurant.  I’d searched all the cities we were visiting to see which had a fancy dinner with a great view and landed on The Skyline Club in Indianapolis.  This used to be a spot closed from the public but had recently opened their doors to non-members.  I got an early reservation so we could be there while the sun set and have plenty of time to get to the game, so we were the only ones eating when we first got there.  In my experience with places like this, we’re going to get treated below average when we first show up.  We’re young (and I look younger) and I’m sure experience has taught the waiters that people our age aren’t great guests, both in terms of behavior and tips.  Usually, they warm up by mid-dinner when they realize that we’re not total ragamuffins, and by the end they feel bad and usually try to make up for their earlier bad behavior.  This was the case here, as our waiter went from mildly annoyed to warmly joking and offering to take our picture over the three courses.  The food wasn’t the greatest I’d ever had, but it was still good, and the view was great.  Overall, we enjoyed our experience and would go back- and Joel even agrees with me on this!

Earlier in the day, we hit up a popular breakfast spot called The Yolk.  I’d researched a few spots, but when I saw “cinnamon roll French toast” on their menu, I needed it and needed it now.  It did not disappoint, resulting in a very solid food baby.  Joel had a chicken sandwich (he’s not a big breakfast eater), which he also enjoyed.  They were busy, but the wait staff was all fantastic and it was definitely worth the wait!

Other Deets

Besides the Indy 500, Indianapolis is also known as the home of the NCAA offices.  They have an associated museum, and since it was a little chilly to do anything outside, we decided to go check it out.  We had pretty low expectations, but we were pleasantly surprised by the fun we had.  There are trivia stations for all the NCAA sports- we crushed some (volleyball, football, basketball) and epically failed others (fencing, skiing, sailing).  After that, there are some interactive simulation stations, a basketball court to get up shots, and lots of other cool exhibits.  There were also some murals of great NCAA moments, including Pat Summitt winning one of her national championships, which struck a chord with me.  Pat’s a legend who left a legacy that will never die, but it’s hard for me to come to terms with the time we missed out on.  Selfishly, I’ll always be left wanting more of those steely blue eyes patrolling the sidelines and beating Geno Auriemma.  We finished up our stop by watching a video explaining the origins of college football, which was set in motion thanks in large part to Theodore Roosevelt.  Who’d have thunk?

Entry was fairly cheap, as was parking, and we spent far longer there than I’d anticipated.  It was a great time that I would recommend to any sports fans!
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And so ended the Indianapolis leg of our trip.  We were off to the last leg up in the great state of Michigan!