A Weekend in Lafayette/West Lafayette, Indiana

We just got back from a mini vacation in Lafayette and West Lafayette, Indiana. Kevin had to go for work, so Carson and I decided to tag along. Kevin had meetings Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, so we got up and left Thursday morning. We headed home on Saturday in the late afternoon, so we were home around 9:00 on Saturday night. It was a quick trip, but it was fun! It was good to get away and have some fun before we head into a few weeks of work travel for Kevin or me... and before we head into fall and Carson's start at preschool.

We did lots of fun things. Carson and I explored on foot (well I was on foot, Carson rode in the Bob) while Kevin worked. We walked many miles a day, up hills and down. That was something I was surprised to see about Lafayette and West Lafayette... its quite hilly. Good sized hills with decent grades. Makes for a more interesting landscape and a good workout when you are walking it! :)

We spent a lot of time walking around the downtowns. Lafayette and West Lafayette are separated by the Wabash River, but they are surprisingly integrated. It was nice. Its a very pedestrian and bike friendly place with lots of bike/walking trails. They have a nice pedestrian bridge across the river that allows easy (and safe) connection between the two downtowns. And they have a lot of very nice parks.

Carson and I spent a lot of time exploring the different parks. We made a mile and a half (one way) trek to Columbian Park on Friday morning. They have a small zoo there, some fishing ponds with fountains in them, a waterpark, and a really nice playground. We spent some time checking out the zoo. It was super clean and tidy, with no zoo smell at all. But like I said, it was small. Many of the animals were sleeping, but we did see some wallabies, otters, tortoises, a bald eagle, prairie dogs, monkeys, butterflies in the butterfly house, and lots of farm animals. And they had some fun fountains. Carson especially liked the one he called a "crystal ball ort." :)

After the zoo, we spent some time at the playground. Carson met some new friends, Jake and Omar, and had a lot of fun with them. He kept hoping we'd run into them again at another playground. We visited several other parks and playgrounds. All of them were very fun! But Carson says the spiderweb playground at Columbian Park was his favorite.

We also spent some time checking out some local art galleries, shopping in some of the downtown shops, checking out some cool downtown architecture, and finding lots of fountains (or as Carson refers to them... sprinkler fountains).

We spent a good deal of time checking out Purdue's campus, too. What a great campus! It reminded me a lot of MSU. Its huge, maybe even bigger than MSU's campus. One thing that stood out at Purdue - it is full of greeks! Their greek houses are all enormous! Whereas at MSU, only a few I'd really consider enormous. And the greeks at Purdue are right on campus. I thought it was fun. The campus is beautiful - lots of great architecture, fountains, a bell tower, mature trees, nice places to walk, great college facilities... I guess all of that is what reminded me of MSU. We walked through several different buildings, including the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering. Carson really enjoyed walking through that one - with an Apollo 1 replica in the atrium and lots of really cool labs to check out.

We also spent a lot of time swimming at the hotel pool, of course.

We went to the local children's museum - Imagination Station. They were having a special event with lots of cool trucks, tractors, and equipment to check out. Everything from a milk truck to a Caterpillar excavator to a crane to fire trucks and ambulances to an Army HumVee to a street sweeper to a garbage truck... and lots in between! I'm not sure who had more fun - Kevin or Carson. :)

We got to ride one of the Lafayette City Buses around the block, too.  Carson thought that was so cool because he'd been fascinated by the 3 windmills that we saw from our hotel window every day.  Those 3 windmills produce the power for the hybrid buses and Carson knew this, so was super excited to ride the bus.  :)  He also thought it was pretty cool to see the bus bend in the middle when we turned corners. 

We spent so much time outside with the equipment and trucks that we didn't have a lot of time to spend in the actual museum. But we did find a TRW sponsored exhibit that had a steering component... Carson thought it was pretty cool to finally see exactly what his Daddy works with everyday. :)

Carson also really enjoyed the anatomy exhibit. He pretty much made a beeline for it. He really loves learning the human anatomy. He just soaks it all right up.

We stopped in the town of Delphi on our way home on Saturday to visit Canal Park. We took a ride on a model canal boat down part of the Erie-Wabash Canal, which was pretty neat. We had lunch after our boat ride - and were surprised to find they had real, lacto-fermented sauerkraut, cortido, and kim chi!

We also spent some time playing at the park - which consisted of an old canal boat turned playscape. They had a nice museum and old-school village to tour, as well. It was a cute little place and a perfect stop on our way home.