The Indy 500

One of the other big draws for visiting Indiana- besides our amazing hotel, was that Taylor's dad wanted to go to the Indianapolis 500.  We have 3 little boys who have loved the Cars and Turbo movies.  How could we say no?

With just a little driving and a little walking we were there.

Okay so more than just a little walking, but with close to 300,000 people all going the same place at the same time, we were pleased to find easy in/out parking with just a 10 minute walk.

And then we were there.  Taylor's dad wanted 3 things- to be close to the start/finish line, in the shade, and listen to the commentators.  Our seats were perfect and with temperatures in the high 80's we were grateful to not be in the sun for 3 hours even if we didn't see all the passing on the turns.

It was neat to be close to the start so we could watch all the pre-race prep.

And the scoreboards were really useful because this is a LONG race!

Here's the first lap/slow drive around.

And really the only time I could get good shots of the cars because after this they were FLYING!

And suddenly they're all off!

And here we all are, turning left, turning right, watching in amazement.  Taylor's dad hooked everyone up with headphones that not only blocked out the ridiculously loud engines, but we could switch radio channels and listen to different commentaries and news and also listen in on each individual car's pit crew which was pretty entertaining.

Isla was very cute in her too big headphones...

But not really that excited to keep them on since they were so big.  In the end we just stuffed foam earplugs in her ears and she passed out and slept through most of the race.

There's Barb and Clint- dressed "appropriately" as they said.  If you're going to a redneck event, you absolutely need a ripped, sleeveless, jeans vest with the flag and eagle on the back.

And Taylor's parents who we really love hanging out with.

Miles was my buddy for the whole thing and entertained me with his very honest comments "this race is epic" and "this is REALLY loud!".

I guess I should have expected that 3 little boys (okay and one bigger boy) would be completely fascinated while the 2 year old girl would be bored out of her mind.  Luckily we brought along an ipod.

The time did pass quickly just because of all the things to see and all the radio listening choices.

I've never even watched a car race on TV before so everything was a new experience and it turned out that we got to see a really excited race.  There wasn't a crash or even a caution flag for over 150 laps which is apparently a record.  So we enjoyed just watching what is normally the boring parts of the race and then all the entertaining crashes and the ensuing change in leaders started and we had an exciting finish.

Luckily no one got really injured in the crashes so I didn't feel bad being fascinated by how fast the clean up crew gets out there, wraps the entire car and debri in a big tarp and gets it out of the way.

Watching the pit stops in front of up was amazing too- just like the Cars movies.

See, all 3 pit stops and the Target car is ready to go...

Wrapped, and off the track.

Ok so this isn't the car that one- that was the DHL car, but this was the only woman driver and the only pink car of course.  Isla wasn't impressed with it being pink- maybe because it was 100 feet away.  The race was really entertaining and while I doubt I'll ever care to go to one again, we had a great time and learned a lot and are grateful for the experience- and for kids that are pretty much happy to go along with anything.