Things to Do in Plainfield
Recommended Things to Do by Groupon Customers
Plopped in downtown Indianapolis across from the Indiana Convention Center, Indiana/World Skating Academy fosters skills for winter sports on a pair of NHL-size rinks. I/WSA's coaches, whose instruction has helped produce regional, national, and world-class competitors, direct the facility's programs, including learn-to-skate courses designed for skaters with varying levels of experience. In addition to skating, the facility also offers private rink rentals as well as opportunities for speed skating, broomball, and adult hockey leagues. Off the ice, the academy offers less slippery activities, such as weight training, aerobics, jazz, and ballet. A rinkside deli open during public-skating hours keeps legs primed, and an onsite pro shop keeps equipment bags stuffed with the latest gear.
Buy multiple Groupons to accommodate your entourage, and follow the instructions on your Groupon to reserve your seats.
Royal Pin’s four bowling centers each boast 80 gleaming lanes, but their widely varied facilities offer far more than games of tenpins. The Woodland location, voted Best Bowling in Indianapolis by CityVoter, ups the ante with flat screens above the lanes and cushy couches where players recline while waiting their turn to take a ride through the pinsetter. Its adjacent mini-golf course, Pirates’ Cove, sends putters on a salty adventure with 18 Lilliputian fairways populated by streams, waterfalls, and a pirate ship. The Expo location switches it up with a gaming arcade and Laser Storm laser tag, where players battle for rights to moon territories.
At all four locations, cosmic-bowling nights create a psychedelic atmosphere with fog, music, and black lights. Darts fly and pool balls clack in their lounges, and the Royal Cafe fuels revelry with hamburgers and tenderloin sandwiches, as well as brews poured at a full-service bar. Besides their alleys, Royal Pin also manages the 5-acre Greatimes Family Fun Park, where kids zip around a go-cart track, bounce through a multilevel playland, or pilot bumper boats equipped with blaster squirt guns and highly sensitive grownup detectors.
In 1830, a group of history enthusiasts formed a club around a pledge to delve deep into their state’s history and record each decade’s goings-on. So were the humble beginnings of the Indiana Historical Society, now an expansive home for artifacts, images, and a library, all showcasing the state's rich past.
One of the facility's main attractions, the Indiana Experience sculpts the Indiana Historical Society's research into interactive exhibits and programs to forge personal connections between modern populations and their regional predecessors. Within, actors interpret the lives of historical figures and interact with three-dimensional re-creations of historic photographs in the You Are There series, staging periods such as in 1955: Ending Polio, when workers at the Eli Lilly and Company packing line rushed to get shipments of the polio vaccine out the door to help ailing people. Beginning March 26, visitors can also help with the recovery effort after the great flood of 1913, interacting with volunteers to help the flood sufferers and wandering the Wulf’s Hall Relief Station.
The William H. Smith Memorial Library also maintains a can't-miss archive of documents that explore Indiana's history, including films, sheet music, and commemorative coins and medals, as well as more than 1.7 million photographs. When hunger makes its way onto agendas, visitors can dine indoors at Stardust Terrace Café or outdoors on its canal-side patio, returning on select summer nights to gather along the water for special events such as the Concerts on the Canal series.
Uniting automobile manufacturers from across the world, the Indianapolis Auto Show provides them the opportunity to show off their latest models. In addition, carmakers bring their specialty vehicles for the perusal of true transportation aficionados. Engines demonstrate their power with foundation shaking roars on the 375,000 square foot floor of the Indian Convention Center.
