IMA Summer Nights

By now my regular readers know that weekly date nights are a regular part of my marriage.  I’ve been trying to log some of them on my blog lately, so that my local Indianapolis readers can get some future ideas for their own date nights.  This past Friday, Matt and I enjoyed the evening at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.  Museum admission is free, but we weren’t there to browse the museum.  We were there to partake in a weekly event the museum offers called Summer Nights.  Every Friday night throughout the summer months, the museum shows old movies on a big screen in an outdoor theatre.  The cost of the movie tickets is$10, and visitors are encouraged to pack picnics and enjoy the grounds before the movies begin.  Matt and I try to go see at least one film a summer at the IMA, and this year was no exception.

We arrived around 6:00 p.m. and purchased our tickets for $10 a piece.

After we purchased our tickets, we walked the gardens and enjoyed the beautiful, manicured grounds the museum has to offer.



When the doors to the outdoor theatre opened at 7:00, we grabbed our picnic, lawn chairs and blanket from the car and followed the line of people to our destination. The movie doesn’t start until dark, but the pros to getting there early is that you get a good seat. If you wait until the last minute, you can forget about having enough room to spread your blanket out and eat. The procrastinators are pretty much guaranteed to not get a good seat at all. The cons to getting there early is the two hour wait until the movie begins. If it’s really hot outside, this could be a bad thing. I always prefer to be early though, because it gives you time to eat and talk and just enjoy one another’s company. Plus you have the advantage of picking a seat in the shade when you are early;)

Usually I make food and pack it on our picnic, but Friday was one of those rushed days.  While I was out getting Matt’s favorite popcorn for the movie at Trader Joe’s, I saved myself some time and got the rest of the stuff for our picnic there as well.  A couple Cuban wraps, some pasta salad, cherries, cookies, popcorn and salt water taffy and I was good to go. Oh, and be sure to pack bug spray along with your picnic.  It is outside....in Indiana....in the summer....in a location surrounded by trees.....yep, bug spray is strongly encouraged.  Citronella candles are also allowed.

The next two hours were enjoyed eating our picnic and talking about all of things going on in our life without any interruptions…..and that’s why I love date nights;)

As it got closer to the showing of the film, I pulled out Matt’s favorite movie snacks: Trader Joe’s Kettle Corn (it's a must, he eats it by the bag), salt water taffy and fruit-filled butter cookies.

When it starts to get dark, the movie begins.  Summer Nights always shows older movies.  Some are in black and white from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.  Those are my favorite ones to go see.   Others are classic films from the 1960’s to the 1980’s.  Out of the movies that are being shown this year, my first choice would have been Bring Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn, but we are going to be on vacation when that one is shown.   My next choice was what we saw this weekend, Father of the Bride from 1951 with Liz Taylor.  It was really good.  I had never seen it before this weekend and was really pleased with it.  It had almost the exact same dialog as the remake from my childhood.   Even my husband, who usually isn’t fond of black and white films, laughed his way through this one.  If you’re looking for something fun to do on a summer Friday night in Indy, pack a picnic and try Summer Nights at the IMA.