America's Most Underrated City

It's that time of the year where Indianapolis takes center stage again - on ABC Sunday afternoon, to be specific. Forbes recently ran an article touting Indy as the most underrated, partly due to being the 35th largest city yet hangs with the elite, in terms of things like value, food, sports, steak, golf, and unique activities.  You might think it's weird to list both steak and food, plus golf and sports, but when you're ranked at the top of your class, you gotta give it its own press.

Sports: 

• #1 football stadium (LucasOil)
• #1 basketball stadium (Fieldhouse)
• #1 Superbowl experience (2012)
• #1 sporting event (Indy 500)
• #1 Final Four host (8 times)
• #1 NFL Combine host
• NBA All-Star 2021 2024 host
• BCS Championship 2022 host 
• Annual NCAA Championships for Swimming, Gymnastics, Track & Field. And best of all...

Golf

• Pete Dye courses (The Fort, The Brickyard, Maple Creek)
• PGA events (Crooked Stick)
• #2 city for public golf courses (Fishers)
• #1 rated public course (Eagle Creek) & only $25 w/ cart after 3pm. Speaking of value...

Value

• Top-10 hottest destination in 2018 (Conde Nast)
• Top-50 places to travel in 2017 (Travel and Leisure)
• Luxury hotels (Conrad, Alexander) cheaper than Nashville, Cincy, Minny, & KC
• #1 convention center 
• #1 airport in North America (ACI)
• mansion-like homes listed as the most affordable in the nation (sq/ft)
• #1 in downtown walkability, including covered skyway to hotels and...

Food

• Most Underrated Food City (Conde Nast)
• Top-7 most impressive city (Thrillist)
• Top-20 US Food city (Food & Wine)
• Top-15 Hottest Food Cities (Zagat)
• the Martha Hoover empire
• exploding brewery scene with award-winning craft beers (SunKing, DareDevil's LiftOff)
• the Kimbal Musk empire & farm-2-table movement, which may or may not include...

Steak

• Award-winning St. Elmo's
• Renowned: Prime 47, Char Blue, Red the Steakhouse
• Other Favorites: Shula’s, Ruth’s Chris, McCormick & Schmick’s, Morton’s, Capital Grille, Hyde Park Prime

Unique Activities

• Children's Museum, Medical History Museum and NCAA HQ
• Award-winning Indianapolis Zoo
• Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, Newfields (IMA), and Lilly House
• World's largest mini Marathon
• White River, Monon Trail, Pogues Run, Downtown Canal
• more war memorials than any other city outside DC, including the USS Indianapolis
• Eagle Creek, Geist Resevior

FANTASMA

If you're a stock investor, you've probably seen the FANG acronym being used. Google is now Alphabet so it needs a revision. Allow me to sprinkle some § flair on Jim Cramer's original by adding some other can't-pass-up tech stocks:

Facebook Amazon Netflix Tesla Apple Salesforce Microsoft Alphabet

So there you have it, FANTASMA. My new favorite word is actually a Spanish word for GHOST or PHANTOM.  Hmm, Indy happens to be home to a certain Pro Bowler who calls himself the Ghost. And he wears a spooky number that supposed to be unlucky. But the horseshoe hung upside-down represents luck and the guy feeding him the ball is named Luck! Just like (another "Indy")  ND up-state uses the clover, which when found as 4 petals (Four Horsemen? Horses again!) means luck! And a Leprechaun with his lucky charms and a pot of gold!! 

What does all this mean?
Duh. Bet on Colts to win the Superbowl. Almost all the pieces are there (still missing rOL and ILB) and we've got the GOAT (AV) and Ghost (TY). The Vegas odds are at +4000. Put $125 down to get $5k? That's the price of a single lower-level seat. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?

Indy among Most Impressive US Cities

Thrillist recently reached out to expert travelers and writers to find out which American cities are the best. Seeking to find the friendliest, cheapest, tastiest and most innovative spots led to where else: Indianapolis.

If you're staying downtown, at first glance you'll see a lot of chain restaurants. But if you look a little harder, you'll find a hotbed of culinary masterpieces. In 2017 Condé Nast Traveler named Indianapolis the most underrated food city in America, thanks in large part to Martha Hoover's empire.

No other city hosts an event like Indy does; whether it's the Superbowl, Indy 500, Final Fours, NBA All-Star game, NFL combines, B1G Championships or proudly serving millions at the convention center.

What if you're not just travelling here, but looking to move here to improve your life and/or career? Good news: Glassdoor ranks Indy #2 on the list of best American cities for jobs. Our northern suburbs Carmel and Fishers have both been ranked as "Best Place to Live" over a dozen times in the past couple years. What more do you need?

Eastern Conference All-Stars

I know it's only the first week of December but watching Victor Oladipo's got me excited enough I researched his chances of making the All-Star team. I may as well share my results what I came up with:

Guards	K.Irving D.DeRozan J.Wall V.Oladipo D.Wade
Bigs	L.James G.Antetokounmpo K.Love
	A.Davis (oops) K.Porzingis D.Cousins (oops) J.Embiid

Biggest threats: K. Middleton, B.Beal, and K.Walker unless they go with a big like Horford.

Carmel ranks as Best Place to Raise a Family

If there is any doubt what's the best (small) city in America, SmartAsset has joined the pool of publications aiming to ease that speculation. The only question left to debate: is it Fishers or Carmel?

The tech company used factors such as crime, jobs, and household income to determine where's the #1 place to live. With great-paying jobs, low unemployment rate, absurdly low crime rate - both property crime and violent crime - Carmel was able to pull ahead of all other U.S. cities less than 100,000 residents.
What's not mentioned is how all the roundabouts greatly improve the flow of traffic and reduce travel time. So whether you're visiting the #1 museum in America, attending the largest sporting event, flying out of the top-ranked airport, or watching a game at the best sports stadium, you're likely to get there quickly. 

Fishers named Best Place to Live

Once again, our local municipality of under 90k residents has been voted the #1 city in America. 

Fishers, a suburb of Indianapolis, offers a low cost of living alongside high community standards, great schools, a safe environment, and top-notch local services. 

The town is attracting residents and businesses from across the globe. What makes it unique is this huge emphasis on Fishers as a place with an entrepreneurial spirit. Moody’s Analytics projects 11.6% job growth in the city by 2021. Of course, some of that booming growth brings its own issues: traffic. However, they are constantly widening roads, putting in roundabouts, and making infrastructure improvements to ease some of the congestion.

The increased traffic is a small price to pay. “It’s a wonderful place to live. There’s certainly no shortage of things to do. It’s kind of anything anyone would want, aside from having a mountain range or beach in your backyard,” says one local resident. “A small part of me doesn’t want the secret of Fishers to get out.” I think the secret's out. 

Total Eclipse of the Sun

My girlfriend & I met up with my best friend (& his fam) at Deer Run campground in Golconda, Illinois before trekking our way down to Land Between the Lakes in Kentucky on Saturday. We watched an exhilarating laser-light show at Golden Pond Planetarium - listening to and watching a rendition of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".  Afterwards, we attended the Western Kentucky Amateur Astronomers' star party at the Observatory where dozens of enthusiasts brought their high-powered telescopes and pointed them at the night sky; we were able to see the moons and rings of Saturn! With our naked eye we could see Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and thousands of stars - and the Milky Way 'cloud' lit up like a dream.

On Sunday, we attended the "Little Green Men" festival in Kelly near Hopkinsville, KY. The town celebrates an event from 1955 in which it's reported that aliens visited a local farm. There were hayrides, carnival rides and booths - but I didn't get to buy a t-shirt commemorating the event, because they were sold out! However, I did cop a tee highlighting The Main Event...


On Monday (August 21st 2017) we went to Lake Glendale in Shawnee National Forest near our campsite. After some hiking, swimming, and relaxing in a hammock, we put our shades on and craned our necks for a couple hours to witness a once-in-a-lifetime event: a total solar eclipse. We were directly under the path of 100% totality, which meant in addition to the moon's shadow falling over us, the temperature dropped, the sky got dark, the crickets started chirping. At 1:23pm local time, we witnessed history:

Carmel (again) named best place to live

The past 10+ years have seen countless publications praise Indianapolis and it's northern suburbs, often times ranking at the top of many national lists. However, it's been a couple years since my last power rankings post, so you may have wondered how we still stacked up.

Those questions were put to rest with the latest survey conducted by Niche. Factors include: crime, schools, jobs, cost of living, and local amenities. Despite its reign at the top, I guess some still don't recognize the name. Maybe we should rename it something more catchy, like Roundabout City, USA.

Pura Vida

Wanna get away?
MRW SW flies to Costa Rica for $420: pack my bag, grab my passport, fly to Liberia, take a 40 min shuttle to Tamarindo, and check into the best-rated hostel.
A nice selection of surfboards await.

 Wake up to the sound of waves crashing and exotic bird calls as the sun rules the day: play volleyball, do some snorkeling and of course surfing. Most importantly, taking time to watch the sunset. Then shower, rally yourself, and party til four, and stare at the stars in the sky while sleeping in... and then doing it all over again.

 This is the one of the spots I was thrashin' some groovy waves, dude. Totally gnarly!

Caught some curl at Playa Tamarindo, Playa Langosta and Playa Avellana.

Also practiced some Hatha Yoga, Pilates, and Vinyasa Flow.
The Restoration & Renewal feels like getting massage.

 Hot and humid - and the weather was nice too!

 I found a slice of Indiana thanks to Mikey B - originally from South Bend but now living in Costa Rica. We streamed Pacers games at his place and swam in the pool.

I also enjoyed some zipline across hilltops, at Pura Adventura.

 One wonderful thing about Tamarindo: they mostly speak English everywhere you go. 

Very tourist friendly.

 Very, very friendly.

 Hey there! A lil' too friendly...

Pura Vida is the phrase everyone repeats here; it means Simple Life.  I see why.

More than 40 Hoosiers in the 2016 Rio Olympics

Tamika Catchings - Indiana Fever
Paul George - Indiana Pacers
David Boudia - Diving
Steele Johnson - Diving
Michael Hixon - Diving
Amy Cozad - Diving
Jessica Parratto - Diving
Lilly King - Swimming
Cody Miller - Swimming
Blake Pieroni - Swimming
Amanda Elmore - Rowing
Amanda Polk - Rowing
Courtney Hurley - Fencing
Kelly Hurley - Fencing
Lee Kiefer - Fencing
Mariel Zagunis - Fencing
Gerek Meinhardt - Fencing
Amber Cambell - Hammer Toss
Ashley Spencer - 400M
Molly Huddle - 10kM
Felisha Johnson - Shot Put
Kara Winger - Javelin
John Nunn - Racewalking
Chloe Dygert - Cycling
+ 17 more (with Indiana ties) competing for foreign countries 

LOCAL sports & politics; NATL headlines

Fellow Lawrence Central HS alum Kyle Guy has captured the hearts of thousands of basketball fans, a number that could swell to millions if he reaches the NBA (like dozens of other Indy hoopers). He almost has that many haters, too. Whether he's shushing the crowd or mocking their jeers - the kid's got swag; not to mention, athletic genes. Kyle's dad, Joe, was a standout WR at LC back in 1994. Lee Larkins, one of Kyle's first coaches, predicted he'd win Mr Basketball when Kyle was in 6th grade. JR Shelt inserted him into the starting lineup freshman year and didn't look back. Last season, he led the Bears to their best record since '96. Flashback to my glory days: LC went to semi-state in '98. Ultimately, he chose Virginia over IU because he 'connected' with Tony Bennett better than Tom Crean. That needs to be fixed.

Indiana Hoosiers picked up a JUCO transfer and just in time for Spring Creaning. Priller? Troy? I'm less surprised he chose to test the NBA than Thomas Bryant deciding to stay. Kudos, young man.

Indiana Pacers tied the playoff series at 2-2 and now head to Toronto for a best of three series. #PG13daTroof

Indianapolis Colts Draft this weekend has a lot of great OTs but Colts desperately need a stud Guard/Center combo, like Martin (ND) or Kelly (Bama). And Rush-DE/LB, as always. Who's the gem and will Grigson land him?

Indianapolis 500 is just around the corner and yours truly just did a commercial shoot today, with one of the Indycar drivers, by the last name Andretti... *ahem* Marco! Booyah, my life is dope.

This has been the weirdest Presidential campaign and now the spotlight is on Indiana. Shillary makes her first appearance in Indiana tomorrow while Donald Drumpf defies all logic and continues to lead the field of GOP candidates, now whittled down to 2. Ted Cruz picked up an endorsement from John Kasich just ahead of the Indiana primary. Then Donald counters with a surprise Bob Knight announcement. Boom Baby? #Bern1

*Bonus: Tommy Brady will now have to sit 4 games of 2016, and the Patriots still lose their 1st Rd Pick (again).

Pacers 2015 Draft Pick @ #11

• Last time they had a lotto pick: Paul George
• Last time they had the #11 pick: Reggie Miller

This one has all the excitement you could ask for...

• many think the Pacers go with the guy originally projected in the top10, but now may be slipping down others draft boards:  Willie 'Trill' C. Stein
• or the graduate, NCAA PoY, with 2 Final Fours, and he stretches the D (basically essential in today's game): Frank Kaminsky. 
• there's equal competition from other bigmen, like Myles Turner and Bobby Portis. 
• there's also 2 more* Indy-area drafted in the first round: Trey Lyles and RJ Hunter

Are the Pacers looking for a win-now guy or long-term/franchise guy? Scoring or Defense? Personality or Athleticism? Big or Small? Why not both?

• there are point-guards like Cameron Payne, and Domer grad Jerian Grant
• the player I'll be rooting for, after he stole my heart in the NCAA tournament this year: Samuel J. Dekker

* link does not include: Gary Harris, Gordon Hayward, E'Twaun Moore, Zach Randolph, Zellers, Plumlees and JJs

** Devin Booker's eyes freak me out