Exploring Downtown Carmel

This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana.  If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE,  HERE, HERE, HERE,  HERE, and HERE!

One early morning while visiting our children in Carmel, Indiana last fall, our daughter wanted more time to sleep in with the baby.  Well, being the early risers that we are, we decided to take our early rising granddaughter for a morning walk in downtown Carmel and allow our daughter to get more sleep.

At the time, my children lived very close to the Monon Trail.    "The Monon Trail is a rails-to-trails paved path spanning through Central Indiana, connecting to downtown Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. The Monon Trail starts in Hamilton County, Indiana at the 96th Street trailhead in Carmel and stretches more than 20 miles north through Westfield and Grand Park to the town of Sheridan." (source) 

It was only a few short city blocks till we reached this gorgeous tree lined trail.

There were so many cute homes with meticulously groomed yards on this trail.  I would love to live in any one of them, though I can't even imagine the price!

Don't you just love all the little white picket fences in front of all these houses?  Which one is your favorite?

Carmel Indiana is an affluent town with a a stunning downtown or "Arts and Design District" as they like to call it.

The Arts & Design District is located in the heart of the old downtown Carmel and is home to art galleries, interior designers, show rooms, specialty shops, and restaurants.

The one thing that impressed me the most about Carmel was their beautiful roundabouts.  This city is known for their roundabouts.  Mention Carmel, and someone will inevitably say "Oh, do they have a lot of roundabouts."  But what I found fascinating was not the large number of roundabouts, but how incredibly beautiful they all were.  Every roundabout was a work of art in itself with a gorgeous fountain or floral display.  I seriously could do an entire post on all the gorgeous roundabouts I saw.

Here is my sweet Alethea standing in front an old home that seemed no bigger than a child's play house.  It is now an art gallery.

The house had the cutest gardens on either side of it.

This little girl statue was on the other side of the garden.  She is the same size as Alethea!  My granddaughter got such a kick out of it!  

They also have gorgeous condos for sale in downtown Carmel, the prices of them are unbelievable!

We found this pretty little courtyard in one of the residential areas.  

Downtown Carmel is filled with life-like statues.  We had so much fun discovering and interacting with them.  Alethea thought it was hysterical and quickly joined in on the fun herself, as you will see in the photos coming up. 

This Talbots shopping lady was one of my favorites!

Hubby got a kick out of the police officer.

Here's a close up of the police officer so you can see how life-like the statures are.  Truly amazing isn't it?

My funny husband came up with more and more ways to take fun photos with the statues.

This garden fairy was another personal favorite of mine.

Alethea started to get so creative herself interacting with the statues.  She just watched her grandpa and how he was acting and she learned really fast.  She just loved it, and giggled, and giggled.

I love the mix of modern with the old in downtown Carmel.  I thought this corner building was so beautiful, and you can really see how tiny the little house is in comparison to this large building.

My son inherited his father's sense of humor and joined in with our game of creating funny statue photos.

The old library turned into a restaurant.

Another one of my personal favorites, Alethea really liked this statue too....oh, oh!

Can't have a downtown without a coffee/chocolate store!

Isn't this the cutest photo ever?

This is a pretty area where shoppers can stop and enjoy a break or a meal outdoors.  Stroll down a little ways and there's a playground for the children (see this post).  

I thought this was the perfect statue of an Arts & Design District.

Gotta love this old time barber shop.

Still having fun with all the statues!

And finally, we found a shop that sold dollhouses and miniatures.  All the stores were closed when we were there, as it was quite early in the morning, but we enjoyed window shopping!

 I hope you enjoyed touring downtown Carmel with me and that you will be able to visit this sweet town yourself sometime.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Playgrounds and Parks In Carmel, Indiana

This week's travel post is part two of a series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana.  If you missed last week's travel post where we visited Coxhall Gardens, you can find it HERE.

This past summer we spent a week with our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana.  We spent a good part of our week visiting an assortment of parks that the little ones would enjoy, but the adults found them just as much fun as the kids!

One of the best parks we went to was Central Park.  It is a 159 acre park that has six miles of trails that wind through native prairies, wetlands, and woodlands. It also has a fantastic futuristic playground called Westermeir Commons. This playground is nestled into a hill with 25,000 square feet of play space. It is wheelchair friendly so children with all abilities can enjoy it.  A colorful, soft outdoor safety carpet covers the entire play space.  

Below Alethea and I are playing "Airplane".  She loved running up and down the small hills.

The Commons area also offers a picnic area, outdoor classroom space, restrooms, an open meadow, a lagoon, and a boardwalk.

Like I said earlier, us big kids enjoyed playing on this playground as much as the little ones.  Below is my son flying in circles on one of the playgrounds equipment.

There is also a splash pad adjacent to the playground.  The splash pad is designed to match the nature surrounding it.  There are spray features and geysers resembling cattails, flowers, and animals.

After we played a bit, we headed out to check out the lagoon.  A beautiful, wide paved trail meanders through a meadow and alongside the lagoon.

A boardwalk takes you over the lagoon so you can get a closer look at all the waterfowl and cattails.

It is so fun to be walking on top of the water on the boardwalk.  We thought the bridge looked so pretty and interesting, we continue our hike to see what lay ahead.

This pretty photo was taken from the top of the bridge.

My family:  Ashley in the front, with her hubby and dad pushing Atticus in the stroller.  My son Jordan is standing on top of the bridge and Alethea is with him, but is too short to be seen.

Underneath the bridge...what a photographers dream, eh?  I have so many photos of Alethea following her Uncle Jordan from behind.  Such a cutie pie!

Another "park" we went to isn't a park at all, but just a fun spot in downtown Carmel.  It was our first night in Carmel and after a long eight hour drive we deciding to spend our evening taking a walk.  Downtown Carmel is only a short walk from my children's old apartment.  Here there are lots of posh restaurants and shops, but also plenty to entertain the kids too.  My husband and son enjoyed a game of ping pong while Alethea looked on.

Atticus enjoyed playing on the playground equipment.  What a handsome boy he is turning out to be!

My husband and I are not ones to sit on a park bench and watch the kids play.  We always get right in and join them!  I think the grandkids really enjoy having Grandma & Grandpa play on the equipment with them.

Alethea loves to climb and here she is right at the top!  I love the safety netting.

And finally, just a quick photo of Grandpa with his grandson.  This adorable picture was taken at my son-in-laws school.  Jason gave us a tour of his office and his school, and we stopped a bit to let the kids play on some equipment while we were there.

 Playgrounds have sure changed a lot since I was a kid.  "In my day" a playground consisted of a singular metal slide, some swings like the ones pictured above, monkey bars with concrete underneath, a seesaw, and maybe one of those spinning circular things if you were lucky.  Yet, I remember we loved it!  We never saw ourselves as disadvantaged and I don't remember anyone getting seriously hurt.  My have times changed!  I can't even imagine growing up with the playgrounds kids have today.  I wonder if they realize how spoiled they are?  😀

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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