Indianapolis Airport OR Putting the "Easily" in Easily Fascinated

I visited the Indianapolis Airport this weekend twice for various reasons.

So I figured: What the heck. Why not prove just how easily fascinated I actually am by doing a blog post about an airport.

Wish me luck.

 Truthfully, this airport is one of my favorite airports. It was built after the huge TSA overhaul a decade or so ago and was also built with plenty of room to grow.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We'll start slow, because that's how you have to approach this place. This is, quite honestly, my biggest critique of the airport. I'm sure there's very good reasons for it, but the 4-5 lane, perfectly straight mile leading up to the airport greets you cheerily with these puppies:

Which when you're running late for a flight is NOT how fast you want to go.

Keep in mind, the airport is still a good ways away.

Two-thirds through the 30mph section.
Fortunately, the airport has PLENTY of room to grow...

Slow approach aside, driving into the airport isn't bad at all. There's enough room to avoid creating traffic, it's always easy to find parking in the garage, and they have plenty of weird artistic installations to keep you occupied.

These red... things in the parking garage
slowly expand and contract like large bellows...

...The artist called them Breeze.
They must have different wind where he's from.

But still, they took the time to put artistic installations in the middle of the parking garage, so that's pretty cool.

Once inside they have moving walkways to the terminal. These have an audio AND visual presentation.

And if you're really tall, you can pretend you're playing Simon.

I give these a bit of a hard time, but they're quite neat.

What I really like, though, is the top floor.

Or should I say, "Blimp Hanger."

This airport has one of the best waiting areas to meet people I've ever seen.

Complete with John Dillinger's car.
Seriously!

There's a whole plaza before you even reach security, which means when you're waiting for someone you're not just shoved to one end of the baggage claim.

A LARGE plaza, might I add.

While the bar is probably better for fliers than those about to drive away, the Starbucks and food places are wonderful when picking someone up. Especially if their flight is late.

And since everything goes through the plaza, you know you're waiting in the right place.

Each concourse has one exit...

...and one entrance from the plaza.
You have to TRY to lose someone arriving here.

While you're waiting, you can gaze at the...things above you.

Possibly jellyfish...?

Like a Rorschach test in sculpture form, we've asked visitors several times to identify those things and spend some time trying to figure them out ourselves.

Then I found the Informative Plaque, describing them as:

"...futuristic spacecrafts, flocking birds, or moving schools of fish..."

Informative!
...sort of.

Weird things aside, the airport has LOTS of space, which can be pretty relaxing, to tell the truth.

And they tuck little odd sculptures in random places:

The baggage has two splendid murals...

...Sort of.

I'm not sure what they mean, but the 3D element is cool!

Part sculpture, part actual bench.

That stuff underneath? Part of the sculpture.
...I don't get it either.
 

THIS I get!
Shine a searchlight in front of it and you'd have a shadow puppet bird!

That last one looks like it's in a place of prominence, but it's tucked away at the end of the arrivals area, and I drove by it several times before it even registered as a sculpture.

My fascination with this place really comes down to this:

For various reasons, I've had to pick up/drop off/travel through a large variety of airport, including, but not limited to: LAX, O'Hare, Burbank, Long Beach, Orange County, Ontario, San Jose International, Sacramento, SFO, etc.

Indianapolis is my favorite airport to fly into, fly out of, or pick up/drop off people from. (I'm certain I messed up the prepositions in that sentence...)

Partially because they put time, effort, and care into even the most random corners.

This nicely picturesque "park" area is at the end of the baggage claim...
...And where people take their pets to do their business.

So thanks for a good airport, Indianapolis! I'm incredibly glad that going to the airport only makes me dread the 45-minute drive, not the airport itself.