In less than 20 hours a field of 30 men and three women will start their engines and gun it around the track for the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500.
Coincidentally, my family will be attending a wedding in Indiana next month and I have recently written several blogs about the area’s accommodations, outdoor activities, and other points of interest. In honor of the Indianapolis 500 I figured it was appropriate to add a few more must-see attractions to the list—both are new and have opened in just the past few days.
Indianapolis Zoo—Oceans Exhibit
According to zoo officials, the sparkling new oceans exhibit at the Indianapolis Zoo is already attracting huge crowds–especially pint-sized visitors–who are interested in getting up close and personal with some of nature’s biggest threats.
The New Oceans Exhibit has the largest Dog Shark Tank in the country and it may be the only place in the world where you will allow your child to reach out and touch a shark. The sharks’ keepers say the more patient you are the greater your chances of touching one.
Zoo guests are instructed to use two fingers and gently touch the denizens of the deep behind the eyes if it approaches (zoo officials say this may take a while). If your child’s patience runs out he or she can visit the rest of the exhibits’ residents, which include penguins, sea lions, and dolphins. You and your family can explore the creatures’ underwater world from above during a daily performance or watch them swim beneath your feet from a glass floor that sits above their tank.
According to zoo officials one of the goals of having the sharks on display is to show visitors that the stealthy creatures are not all vicious killers.
The Evansville African American Museum
After nearly a decade of planning a new museum tracing the history of Evansville’s black residents opened to visitors today. (The museum will be open permanently beginning June 5th.)
The Evansville African American Museum is located in a building that has its own history. The structure is situated at the former Lincoln Gardens, a public housing development built by the Works Progress Administration during the 1930s. Inside you can take a virtual tour of the neighborhood as it was in the 1950s or view a living legends display. Other exhibits include a Wall of Fame, the Lincoln-Clark Douglas room (which is dedicated to Evansville’s all-black schools) and a gallery filled with items such as a replica of an original Great Depression-era Lincoln Gardens apartment.
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