Indy Feis

Once again putting this in sections so you can read the bits you want and ignore the rest.

THE TRIP THERE

Indianapolis is a straight shot from St. Louis on Interstate 70. We left in the early afternoon on Friday, and arrived during rush hour (the time zone changes once you enter Indiana). I crocheted collars, the kids worked on their Twelfth Night scripts.

THE HOTEL

The BEST HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS EVER! Check it out!. Really, click on the bit that says "select photo category" and choose features, and take a look at that pool ... it's a salt water pool with a waterfall/fountain. Nice size, hardly anyone using it. Wow, it was SO NICE that we're considering going back and just hanging out there. Plus, our room had 2 king size beds (which meant it was impossible to practice dance, but, hey, everyone got a great night's sleep). Plus, of course, the free breakfast in the morning.

We ate at the Ruby Tuesday's south on 31, which I'm noting here since Rick has no memory that that's where we ate in 2009. So, you know, when the discussion comes up again in 2011 we can just look up this entry

THE FEIS

This is our 3rd time at the Indianapolis Feis, and, you what? It's a nice feis, pleasant, etc. etc., and just sort of ... boring. No one threw up, had costume malfunctions, threw a tantrum, lost a shoe, or otherwise livened up the day. It was just ... pleasant. And therefor dull. I didn't even bother taking photos of wigs for Ami.

The one teeny bit of excitement is that they decided to run the Treble Reels in the middle of the day this year, so they announced that everyone should go to the appropriate stages; except really, they shouldn't have, and a couple of our school's dancers ending up missing Slip Jig. The volunteers figured out how to have those kids dance their Slip Jigs after lunch, then. That was a hassle for the people involved. Our family wasn't involved in Treble Reel, which I was glad of, under the circumstances. So we had a really blase day of hanging around the appropriate stage waiting for our dances. Aunt Elaine came by after lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon with us.

The feis provides plenty of room for camping, so we took a blanket and soccer chairs. Oh, and it finally struck me why this is one feis they aren't constantly telling people to back away from the judges table -- they cordon off the judges table so no one gets near it. Clever idea. Side view:




(Action shot of Judy McCafferty preparing to judge some beginners. I've decided that when you know the judges by name when you see them you've probably been doing this too long; except everyone remembers Ms McCafferty because they like her, so maybe it's okay.)

Another post about the general set up of the feis here. We bought lunch from the same concession stand as last year -- $7 for a large sandwich plus chip, big enough for 2 people to split.

I took photos of the results boards for Novice/Open, since the feis hasn't posted these results anywhere I could find in the past couple of years. These are of limited use if you don't have the competitor numbers, of course. The competitor list is currently available(June 2010) as a pdf file here. Click on the pictures to make them bigger and more legible. These aren't in order, and sorry about the ladder in one of them, but people kept wandering in front of me, so I was happy to just get photos at all.









THE TRIP HOME

Actually, we didn't come home until Sunday. We spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa, watching Hairspray on DVD (we saw it live at the Fox a couple of years ago, but never saw the movie). It looked like some absolutely wicked weather was coming along Interstate 70 from St. Louis straight to Indianapolis on Saturday night -- it will be interesting to hear how the trip went for those who came straight home. Our trip was more of the same crocheting and line memorization, with pleasant weather.