The excitement of Superbowl Sunday is reaching a fever pitch, not only in Downtown Indianapolis but in the outlying areas as well. Businesses are sprucing up their storefronts, menu’s are being revamped and the red carpet has been rolled out.  Indiana is ready to shine, and I have to say I am impressed.

From the Food Network show Ice Gurus

I couldn’t pass up taking a shot of this

Monument Circle

These planters are everywhere

Not that I doubted we could all pull this off, but I did, for a moment, have a few concerns.  Where would all of these people stay? Where would they eat? Could the the downtown area handle the swell of people and still accommodate the residents that were already here going about their business?
I have been in the Superbowl village area both before the big week and during and I have to say that it far exceeds my expectations.  Areas are clearly marked, there is plenty to do on any budget and plenty of areas to stay warm.  My husband enjoyed watching the live taping of ESPN’s Sportcenter and we also enjoyed several of the live music acts from several of the stages.

We were hoping to see a few more NFL players, but it was exciting enough for my kids to see the few we did.  We had a very easy time finding a place to park and were lucky enough to find a spot along Illinois where we could just feed the meter.  All in all, it was a great time and I highly recommend that if you can make a trip before the big game that you do so.

Right inside the NFL Experience

Thank you VERIZON and Kyle Communications for providing us with this fun night!

Noah getting ready to kick a field goal

A few things that didn’t occur to me to check before we headed to the NFL Experience was whether or not the zip line was sold out or not. It was, but we enjoyed watching everyone fly overhead as the crowd cheered them on.  Another was making sure we knew where we wanted to have dinner. Like most nights, the 4 of us all had different ideas on what we wanted.  We really didn’t want to waste any time sitting down to eat, so we decided to strike out in search of an Indy food truck to try.
My youngest is enthralled with food trucks.  Now, I don’t mean the hot dog carts you see around Monument Circle on a hot summers day, but the neat ones that have been cropping up in the last few years in the area.  He knows that I follow a few of them on Twitter so I will know when they are near Greenwood. Yes, we have been known to drive 25 minutes to find said truck just to partake in their transcendent tacos.  They are worth the drive.

Flying down the zipline!

So knowing that we were possibly going to find not one but many food trucks to choose from, he became a young man on a mission.  He had already made his mind up that he wanted to try a new one that served pizza by the slice and pepperoni rolls. If you know him then you know that once he gets his mind set on what he wants to eat it is hard to sway him otherwise.
We left the Village area in search of what I heard was 4 different trucks that were parked on the Circle. Once we got there, lo and behold, there were no trucks. We made the entire loop and not a one was there. I guess we were either too early or too late – the story of my life.  Well, this little boy couldn’t have been more sad. I know this sounds nuts, to be upset about not having your dinner off of a food truck, but to him this was huge! He is my First Mate Foodie and dining on al a carte food truck fare was what he was excited about.  Almost more than being in the midst of the SB46 hoopla itself!
I made a mental note to make him a batch of pepperoni pizza rolls the next night.  I knew what they had in them and I was fairly optimistic that I could re-create it.  The next day I laid out all of the ingredients and I let him join in on the fun. He was very happy with them but since his birthday is coming up I think I know just the place to take him for dinner, I will just check their location first!

He may not have had his food truck dinner dreams come true at our Superbowl experience, but he was more than happy to devour my second string supper!

I made him pepperoni pizza rolls and homemade marinara sauce. You can get the recipe for them here.