Super Bowl Village

Super Bowl numerals on Monument Circle

Today we headed downtown to take a look at the Super Bowl Village and the related activities that have been set up in preparation for the World Championship of All Football—and to get in a good walk, which, for various reasons, we have not had the chance to do for awhile. To prepare for all of the traffic downtown, of both the pedestrian and vehicular varieties, I took no special precautions whatsoever. I took the same route—straight out Michigan Street from our house, and then turn north on Park Avenue and park the car, for free, anywhere along the sidewalk between Michigan Street and Mass Ave.

From there, it’s a bit of a hike down to where the Super Bowl Village is set up along Georgia Street between whatever this week’s name is for where the Pacers play on the east end and the Manningdome on the west end; but we were in the mood for a good walk, so it wasn’t a trouble. There are also a number of concert stages, the giant Super Bowl numerals up on Monument Circle, and—of course—the zip line. We bypassed the NFL Experience that is set up inside the convention center, because that would have cost $70 for the three of us to get into.

32 NFL teams, 32 specially-painted IndyCars

Those faint black lines at the top center are the four zip lines over Capitol Avenue. The convention center is on the left.

In addition to all of the NFL-related activities going on—which mostly involved just walking around and people-watching—there were food trucks lined up for most of the afternoon along one quarter of Monument Circle (and a tiny sliver of Market Street), which is another good reason to come downtown for Super Bowl activities. I’ve mostly just read about all of the food trucks that have started to appear in Indianapolis, and I always have to work on Fridays, which means that I have not yet had a chance to get to one of the food truck frenzies for First Friday (heh) in the parking lot of the Murat. The only food truck fare I had had before today was West Coast Tacos and the NY Slice, and I tried both of those at the Irvington Halloween Festival (though not in the same year).

Today we tried food from the Scratch truck; and lest you think noshing on food purchased from a vehicle powered by a generator is daft, here’s some of what they had on the menu today: The Scratch Burger, with a third pound of ground beef, arugula, gorgonzola, and bacon marmalade; Green Chile Mac and Cheese, with roasted poblano peppers, red bell peppers, red onions, sweet corn, and pepper jack cheese; and Texas-style chili (no beans) topped with cheese and onions. And those were just the things we tried. Check out the magic internets for the rest of the menu that they will be serving all throughout the Super Bowl period.

Amy and Jackson took turns tackling each other on some replica field turf that had been installed over part of Capitol Avenue, below the zip line; and while they were doing that, I watched people sailing down the zip line—including one guy who held onto the harness in such a way that his head was actually pointed toward the ground while he zipped. (The actual turf that they were playing on was surprisingly photogenic.) I would have liked to try the zip line, but I had no interest in waiting in a line that I had heard took up to six hours to get through.