We hadn’t been to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum since our kids were young—and they’re now grown with children of their own. It was a great museum then, but its even better now. Four floors of exhibits include everything from dinosaurs to a 1917 carousel. And new added in 2017 is the 7.5 acre outdoor Sports Legends Experience, created for all ages, from preschoolers to adults.
Indiana museums
13 Fascinating Facts about Michigan City and the Old Lighthouse
Whenever we stumble across a lighthouse, I have to take a photo. There’s something romantic about lighthouses, perhaps the beacon of light welcoming sailors into a harbor or warning them of hazards. Maybe it’s the romanticizing of the keeper’s job, as backbreaking as it was. Or maybe it’s just that the splash of color—often red—against the blue of the sky and water makes a great scenic photo. Having taken the photo of the beacon that stands at the end of a pier in Michigan City, Indiana, we were surprised to find the light keeper’s house, the original Michigan City lighthouse. Refurbished, it’s now a museum run by the Michigan City Historical Society. We visited the museum earlier this year and came away with several fascinating facts about the lighthouse and the city during our self-guided tour. Here are 13 of them:
Studebaker Museum, South Bend: From Carriages to Automobiles
Few transportation companies successfully transitioned from manufacturing wagons and carriages to automobiles. Studebaker was one of the exceptions. In the early 1900s, the company moved from carriages to battery-powered cars. A few years later they transitioned to gasoline engines. The Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana, traces the history of the company from wagon to the last cars Studebaker manufactured, in the mid-1960s.