Exploring Lafayette

This past Monday and Tuesday was Mckay's fall break from school. We had 4 potential days off to take a little trip or go somewhere fun. That didn't work out though. We had to be in our ward for church on Sunday because I was playing in a musical number. Mckay had a midterm on Wednesday, the day right after fall break that he had to study for and felt very unprepared for. And he couldn't have studied for it last week because he had midterms on Thursday and Friday. I'm trying to figure out why they scheduled fall break in the middle of midterm. That doesn't seem very smart. I thought that Purdue was supposed to be full of smart engineers. Anyway, we didn't really get to do much for the fall break, but Mckay said that he could spare Monday and take a break from studying so we could do something fun. We decided to stick close to home and see some sites in Lafayette. We are still relatively new here and there are a lot of pretty cool things we haven't seen yet.

We got an idea from a Lafayette/West Lafayette visitors guide. There is a lot of outdoor art downtown, and there was a little map showing some of the more interesting places.

It's not a really detailed accurate map, so it was kind of like a scavenger hunt to find the art.

These "people" are made entirely out of old farm equipment and objects.

We saw some cool art and some mediocre art. I think the best part was just walking around downtown and discovering the cool things there. We found a cute little antique store and looked around there for a bit. We went to the train/bus station and learned about the travel and trade along the Wabash River and the Wabash & Erie canal.

We stopped at a park for a bit.

Dallin really liked swinging while Mckay pushed him.

We went to this really cool store called JL Records. It's a HUGE music store that sells CDs, records, DVDs, and VHS tapes.

They seriously have any album you could think of, from current pop to oldies and everything in between, rock and even really obscure bands you've never heard of. We found Lady Gaga on a vinyl record. Who knew they even made that? And it's owned by this hippie guy with long hair and a beard. It was a really cool place.

To top off our little adventure, we got some pizza at a little Italian restaurant we've never been to. Then we walked back to where our car was parked, probably about a mile away. It was a really fun day. We walked a lot and got some good exercise, we saw some really cool places and got to know our city better. I think the best part was just spending a day relaxing and enjoying being together as a family. Mckay is always so busy with school and it was nice to have a break and spend time with him.