Any time of year is a good time to take one of the Historic Indiana Ghost Walks and Tours but, if you're looking for an especially cool way to celebrate the spooky season next week, be sure to check out their schedule. We've taken the Chilling Chatham Arch- Lockerbie tour and we really enjoyed it. We hope to take some of their other tours soon.

Summer Solstice Celebration in Times Square

The main reason for our New York trip this past weekend was the Summer Solstice Celebration in Times Square on Saturday. Mrs. WYA! saw pictures of people doing yoga in the middle of Times Square last year and knew that she had to be a part of that. If you love New York City and/or yoga, this event is incredible. We were on a little triangular strip between Broadway and 7th Avenue with busy traffic and double decker buses with tourists taking pictures of us. During class, we got cues like "lift your sitting bones up towards the Jumbotron" and "turn your toes towards MTV". We would take our gaze to the sky with skyscrapers framing the way. It was indescribably cool and we would recommend it for anyone. There are different classes throughout the day of June 21st every year and they are at all different levels of difficulty. To top it all off, it is free. Just a little event to keep in mind if you've been meaning to schedule a New York City vacation.

If you do go to New York for any reason, make time for a tour with foodsofny.com. We went on the 3 hour Greenwich Village/SoHo food tasting and cultural walking tour with our wonderful guide Raheem and we enjoyed it immensely. You get some history, recommendations on truly quality restaurants, and very generous samples from a wide variety of places. We tasted everything from the lightest gnocchi that we've ever had to halva which is an amazing tahini paste treat that we are going to have to find a recipe for as soon as possible. There are many other tours listed on their website too. Do this at the beginning of your trip so that you can go back and have full meals at the suggested restaurants. Please don't go to New York City and eat at Olive Garden.

Crown Hill

Happy Memorial Day! Sure, there is grilling to be done, pools to visit, golf to be played, and a fun to be had but we like to take some time to visit Crown Hill Cemetery around this time of year. If you think that you have no reason to visit Crown Hill just because you have no family buried there, you are missing a lot. First of all, it is gorgeous. The grounds are so lush (and sprawling) and you very well might see a deer there. Secondly, it is very humbling to walk through the Field of Valor and the Confederate Mound (where they have a Civil War Memorial Service today starting at 12:45PM). Don't think that a visit here is morbid though. The third reason to visit is the craftsmanship of the monuments. Many of the sculptures are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Lastly, there are guaranteed celebrity sightings and how many places in Indianapolis can claim that? Well, guaranteed to see their final resting places anyway. A stop at John Dillinger's grave is a must. You might also want to see Booth Tarkington's, Col. Eli Lilly's, and Lyman S. Ayres (yep, L.S. Ayres). At the very top, past Robert Irsay's (where we like to think that he can see the new stadium) you must go to James Whitcomb Riley's monument if for no other reason than to experience the view.

We went to the Cottage Home Tour a couple of years ago and highly recommend it. It is going on today and Sunday. We loved discovering a neighborhood that we didn't even really realize was there. Everyone was so warm to us too. We didn't make the move there but they sure tempted us. Kudos to people who move into these older neighborhoods and give them love.

Get some spirit

We here in Central Indiana are so lucky to have Michael and Nicole Kobrowski's Unseen Press and Historic Indiana Ghost Walks and Tours. With the weather finally getting warmer, it is a great time to check out one of their tours. They are always in our thoughts in October, but there is no reason to wait to hear about "Chilling Chatham Arch- Lockerbie" or "Nefarious Noblesville". We took the Chatham Arch- Lockerbie tour a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. We learned a lot and ever since, as we pass buildings that we covered in the tour, we wave to the ghosts that we learned about. There are walking tours and bus tours and their schedule through August is on their re-vamped website. Whether you believe in spirits or not, these are fun and educational tours. Newcomers, long time residents, or people looking for something to take out of town guests to should all check out one of these great tours.