Italian Fest

This weekend was the annual Italian Fest at Holy Rosary church in downtown Indianapolis. This annual event draws quite a crowd since it is one of the last true ethnic food festivals around.

Eric and I went both nights, the first night with friends, and the second night with family. The first night was about as close to perfect as you could get... great weather, crowds were still in check, and there weren't any lines for the food or the carnival rides. We only stayed for about an hour-and-a-half Friday night before heading back - kids have bedtimes, after all. But then after chilling and people watching from Eric's porch for about an hour, we walked back over to get some dessert. Of course we got some canolis - pretty sure they're handmade by people at Holy Rosary... They were awesome, regardless!

Saturday evening, we headed over with Eric's nephews and parents. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate as well for Saturday's festivities. No sooner did we get there and sit down did it start to drizzle. Eric and I went to get our food (Fried Ravioli - YUM!), and it started to come down harder. Oddly enough, this did not detour the crowd - it was much busier than Friday night! So we all finished eating and thought we'd wait it out in the tent we the rest of the festival goers. Eventually, Eric thought we should just head back to his house, and when we did, it stopped. Of course. But we did grab some dessert 'to go' and ate it at the house - this time some cheesecake to go with our canolis.

We hung out for about an hour and once we were sure the rain was done, we went back so AJ could ride some rides, at least. He and Eric went on the Tilt-a-Whirl... for a small carnival ride, that thing went fast!! AJ loved it, though. Eric determined he's too old for it anymore. LOL After that, we just played a couple of carnival games before heading back. Again - kids' bedtimes. I think we were all beat by this point, though.

All in all, it was a good time. Much better than last year, when one of the nights was cancelled completely due to rain. It's a shame there's not more of these still around. There's just something about them that makes them a great family place... even with all the beer and wine freely flowing. Leave it to the Catholics, I guess.