SPOTLIGHT BLOOMINGTON, IN
WORDS BY GLENN KAUFMANN
Escape to the funky and friendly streets of Bloomington, IN.
Indiana University
Indianapolis has all the pizzazz of a leading city—noteworthy restaurants, acclaimed museums and performance venues, extensive shopping and world-class sports. However, if you are looking for something extra during your visit to the Hoosier State, take heart, for heaven lies 50 miles south of Indianapolis International Airport in the hills of Bloomington, a lush green mélange of small-town stress reduction, outdoor recreation and Wi-fihubs.
Immortalized in the 1979 film Breaking Away, Bloomington is best-known as the home of Indiana University. And while the Little 500 bike race featured in the film does still take place each April, Bloomington has evolved into something much more than a simple college town, to become one of the Midwest’s cultural centers.
Start your tour of this intoxicating hamlet at Bloomington’s downtown square, which practically begs for you to stroll through its boutique shops, stopping at your leisure for coffee and a muffin at one of Scholars Inn’s curb-side tables (www.scholarsinn.com). Once you’ve polished off your latte, head across the square to the excellent bookshop Caveat Emptor for a journey through seemingly endless stacks of used and rare tomes (www.caveatemptorbooks.com).
Lotus Festival
A walk down East Kirkwood Avenue leads past cafés and music and clothing shops to the picturesque gates of the Indiana University campus. IU Bloomington (IUB) is the heart of town, and the beauty of the campus gate is no mere window dressing. Campus tours take you through terraced gardens and shaded glens, and past bubbling brooks. But Bloomington’s natural attractions aren’t just confined to campus.
There are three lakes within minutes of downtown. Lake Monroe’s 10,000 acres make it the largest lake in Indiana, and have the added benefit of bordering Hoosier National Forest and the Charles Deem Wilderness. In this wild country, bald eagle sightings are a regular occurrence and fall leaf-peeping draws nationwide recognition.
There are advantages to life in the farm belt, most notably at the table. The boutique vegetables flown into big city restaurants get delivered to Bloomington chefs in half the time and at a third of the price. As a result, Bloomington boasts a huge variety of restaurants from fine Italian fare at Grazie (www.grazieitalianeatery.com), to traditional Tibetan fare at Snow Lion (812- 336-0835), which is owned by the Dalai Lama’s nephew. Samira’s serves up exotic Afghani entrées (812-331-3761), but if you want to go that extra mile before catching a show at one of the many theater or music venues in town, Bloomington’s premiere dining experience is Restaurant Tallent, which offers a leisurely Slow Food menu of seasonally inspired fare (www.restauranttallent.com).
IUB boasts a world-renowned music school and a wide variety of cultural studies programs. The result is a community that takes its music, arts and culture seriously. Galleries such as the John Waldron Arts Center (www.artlives.org) offer a variety of sculpture, painting, pottery and crafts exhibitions. The IU Art Museum (www.iub.edu) offers a number of free series throughout the year. And music festivals, such as the Lotus World Music and Arts Festival on September 22-25 (www.lotusfest.org), attract musicians from around the globe.
IU Art Museum
Given its modest size and population of only 70,000 full-time residents, Bloomington boasts a surprising number of professional theatrical venues, including the IU Auditorium (www.iuauditorium.com), which hosts major national touring productions, musicians and comedians. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Bloomington Playwrights Project (www.newplays.org) stages primarily new productions and has helped develop talented writers such as Eric Pfeffinger, whose play Accidental Rapture later found critical acclaim with audiences in Chicago. Brown County Playhouse (www.iub.edu) in nearby Nashville offers a series of high quality revival productions.
A 2000 survey in Yahoo! Internet Life magazine ranked Indiana University as the fourth most “wired” campus in the country. Since that time, the need to connect has swept through the rest of the town, but not in the form of faceless cyber cafés. Rather, the city is riddled with free hubs and hotspots that let you log on at your convenience using your own laptop. Most guesthouses have Wi-ficonnections, provide free access to computers, or both.
The mix of small-town friendliness and openness, big city arts and culture, and high-tech accessibility will make your stay more than memorable. You’ll find yourself sharing the secret of Bloomington with only your most trusted friends and family.
You can get great deals on car rentals with AirTran Airways partner Hertz. Visit www.airtran.com for details.
© Kevin Atkins