We left Friday evening and drove to SLC to stay with my Uncle. We had a pretty early flight on Saturday morning so we hated to get up super early for a 3 hour drive. Uncle Kim was a wonderful host! We meant to go to sleep at a decent time but we ended up visiting with Kim and Jayme until about midnight. It was so fun to see them and we are so grateful they let us stay.
Saturday morning, we went to the airport, boarded our flight and flew to Minneapolis. We only had about 20 minutes to get to our connecting flight and it was clear across the airport! We had just enough time to use the restroom, then it was time to go! We met a cute lady on the flight and we stayed busy chatting it up with her so our flight went super fast!
When we arrived in Indianapolis, there was a Lincoln Electric representative waiting for us. She gave us some information, waited for us to gather our luggage, and got us set up on a shuttle to the hotel. We had such a crazy busy morning, we hadn't had time to eat yet, so we were starving! But by the time we got to Indiana, it was almost 5:00 and dinner was at 6:30. We just toughed it out, but by the time we got to the restaurant, we were SO HUNGRY! It was YUMMY Italian food and they sat it up on a buffet. We were total pigs and scarfed so much food!! The restaurant was so cool. It sat on the bank of a beautiful lake and we were able to watch the sunset. It was gorgeous.
I took this picture with my phone, so it isn't the best, but trust me... it was amazing. Anyway, after we ate, we sat outside on the deck at the restaurant and made some friends.
It was mostly husband and wife couples on the trip so it was easy to chat it up. After dinner, we were taken back to the hotel in the shuttle buses. There was a sports bar/pub close by, so we went there with several couples and watched the Nuggets/Lakers game.We had to meet in the hotel lobby at 7:30 so we could leave for the race. We had a police escort waiting for us! It was crazy!
This was our cute little friend Sandy. We hung out with her and her husband all weekend. They were so much fun!! We totally loved them! There were two officers on motorcycles that stopped traffic and led the way for us. I am not 100% sure WHY we had an escort, but it sure was cool. We were in these big white vans with tinted windows, so it was fun to watch all of the people on the streets looking at us trying to figure out who was so important or famous to get such special treatment. Nobody famous.... Just us! 
Once we got to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, (IMS) we totally had rock star parking. We were right by the garages! We got to take an all access tour of the garages and pit areas, as well as walk onto the track and see the famous yard of bricks.
Brett was super excited to see anything related to Danica Patrick. These are tires from her pit stop on the track, and her car in the garage. 
Nearly as giddy as Brett, I was way excited to see anything that had to do with Helio Castraneves. He is such a little cutie pie! I was cheering for him the whole time! It actually turned out that our suite was sitting right by his pit stop! So every time he came in for a pit, we could see EVERYTHING! This is his car in the garage. 
It was so cool that Helio actually won the race! I am sure it was because I was cheering so loudly for him! This is just as we walked onto the track. 
We got to meet the driver of the super cute pink car. He came to our suite, signed autographs and answered questions. It was SO COOL! 
I really hate to bore you with all of my pictures, but if you would like to, you can click here and view the entire album on my Facebook page. You don't have to have Facebook to see them. It is a free public link. I have lots of great pictures there! Including some HILARIOUS pictures of weird people. It was PRIME people watching territory!
This was truly one of the most thrilling experiences of my entire life. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved it. It was cool that Brett and I got to share this great experience together. The only t hing that would have made it better was if Quayd could have been there with us. We both loved it and we are officially Indy Car Racing Fans!!!
