Yes, I know... it has been a while.  But I'm back!  And ready to talk about the latest trip I took.  My significant other and I just cannot seem to get enough of traveling, whether it is a vacation, weekend road trip, or a trip for work or school.  It's an addiction for us!  Too long in the same city and we go a little crazy.  So this weekend, on one of the few weekends that we have free for the next few months or so, we decided to head out of town.  Where to?  Well, we considered Chicago, since it is close by and we can always find something new to do in the Windy City.  But when a Living Social deal popped up in our inboxes that same day, we knew we had found our destination - Lexington, Kentucky, a city neither of us had been to before. Living Social actually ended up selling out of the deal that we purchased, and we were lucky to be able to use it this weekend.  It was a two-night stay at a bed and breakfast in Versailles, Kentucky, as well as 20% off dinner there, six chocolate-covered strawberries (yum!), and two free tours along the Bourbon Trail.  Turns out, the free "included" tours are actually just... free, regardless of if you purchase the deal or not. Kind of some false advertising there, but oh well.  We actually had purchased one of these deals before, ending up with us staying at a hotel on Pensacola Beach, which is another tale in itself.  (A good blog post topic, I will have to remember that one!)  Needless to say, I did *plenty* of research before we bit the bullet and bought the deal.  The B&B we stayed at, Montgomery Inn, has actually gotten pretty good reviews on the travel sites that I frequent.  So we decided to head down and check it out - our first bed and breakfast experience. We had to wait until Friday night about 9 or so to leave, as Ricky, my S.O., was working that night.  So we headed down to Lexington and arrived about midnight.  Montgomery Inn was not too hard to find, located in the middle of a neighborhood.  We passed the streets we needed a couple of times, but that was our fault, not Google Maps.  The innkeeper, Pam, had left us instructions to our chosen suite (the Oriental) and the key in the door.  We walked in and were impressed with what we saw.  Everything was clean and nice and perfectly suited for a weekend of relaxation.  We had a king-size bed with sheets with a high thread count, an LCD TV and DVD player, and a fridge and microwave.  And in the fridge... the chocolate-covered strawberries we'd been promised.  We were too tired to enjoy too much of it that night, but we were pretty impressed.  Everything looked like it was perfect for just the weekend we needed. We spent some time out and about in the Lexington area on Saturday (I will blog more about that later) and returned for dinner at Montgomery Inn that night.  We had a nice dinner, cooked by Pam, and served by her family.  They are all very nice and friendly and more than accommodating (although Pam seemed a bit overwhelmed, likely from all of the phone calls she has been getting about this Living Social deal) and the dinner was delicious.  I want more of that chocolate cake, but it's not on my diet!  After dinner, we retreated to our room to enjoy the jacuzzi and chocolate-covered strawberries along with some wine.  I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to fill a tub without making the water too hot.  But it was enjoyable anyway, and the strawberries and wine made for a perfect end to the evening (as well as breakfast on Sunday morning, since we got up too late to enjoy breakfast in the dining room!). I would highly recommend the Montgomery Inn if you are in the Lexington area.  If you live in Indy or around here, hitting the Bourbon Trail makes for a great weekend away and Montgomery Inn is the perfect addition to a road trip like this.  If you're there, tell Pam we said hi!  

Ok, well, I know you guys are all sick of hearing about Vegas by now.  I blogged about it before I went, have had two blog posts after, and I still didn't get the entire trip written about yet!  So, instead of dragging it out even more, I am just going to sum it up here and tell you what I recommend for the next time you are in Vegas. We did have a fun trip.  It was my second trip to Las Vegas, and my second trip that didn't go as planned.  But that's okay!  It taught me something about visiting Vegas... it's best to let go of expectations.  So that is my first recommendation for when you are in Vegas: 1) Let go of expectations. Inevitably, when you are in Vegas, SOMETHING will not go as planned.  I mean, I guess that's true of almost any trip anywhere, but it seems especially true of Vegas, at least in my experience.  Whether a restaurant turns out to not be what you expected, you don't get into the clubs that you were planning to go to, your rental car gets a flat tire, or you get blisters on your feet from walking up and down the strip, it's likely something just won't go right.  So be okay with that, and be flexible, and your trip will go much smoother. Speaking of getting blisters on your feet from walking the strip... I mention that because, well, I did.  Our first day there I wore sandals that were not made for that much walking, and my feet hurt the rest of the trip.  So that leads me to my next recommendation: 2) Wear comfortable shoes. The Vegas Strip is... HUGE.  According to Wikipedia, it's actually 4.2 miles long.  Something we learned from our last trip to Vegas is that the closer you are to the Strip, the better, because that is where most of the action is.  But even if you are staying in a hotel smack dab in the middle of it like we were, that's still a LOT of walking.  So make sure you keep those feet happy, or you will be miserable. Now here's one I'm throwing in just for a tip of something to do if you can.  But I think it's a great idea for anyone visiting Vegas.  Even though you should probably stay on the Strip, definitely visit the old strip if you get a chance.  The Fremont Street Experience is just something you have to see, and you will find much better deals there.  One night there, I got a Corona and a couple of donuts for less than $5!  You can't beat a deal like that.  It hit the spot while wandering around the casinos at night. 3) Visit the old strip. It's simply a must-see. I really could go on and on with some tips and things I've learned even in just my two short trips to Las Vegas.  But that gives you something to start with.  Honestly, I think Vegas is really something to just experience on your own.  There is so much there, and everyone likes and dislikes different things.  It is simply a site to behold and must be experienced for yourself.  But remember, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!

Time to tell the story of the rest of our trip to Vegas!  I only got through the first night, and we were there for three.  Well, since we got back to the hotel late on Friday night, of course we slept in on Saturday.  My boyfriend, Ricky, and I are big fans of sleeping in.  We do it every weekend.  It's a nice break from having to get up early all week to make it to our 9-to-5 jobs. We couldn't seem to get a hold of our fellow Vegas people Saturday morning (Ricky's cousin Chris joined us, and our friend Alicia lives in Vegas and was hanging out with us periodically), so we decided to hunt down a buffet for lunch on our own.  As always, I had done some research before traveling and had heard good things about The Buffet at the Wynn, so we headed down the strip towards there.  Of course, along the way, I had to stop and get the next charm for my bracelet.  I got my die!  It's perfect.  On to the Wynn... We got there right about the time they were switching between breakfast and lunch at The Buffet (yes, that is really what it's called).  We waited in line, paid our $40 for our meal, and headed to check out the spread.  They had a wide variety of food, but honestly not a lot of what I like.  There's a buffet here in Indianapolis called The Journey that is basically THE buffet in Indy.  You won't find a better buffet here locally.  It's pretty much like a Vegas-style buffet, with a ton of variety.  I love the options on the buffet at The Journey.  The Wynn just didn't capture me.  It wasn't a lot of what I like.  The Journey has sushi, pizza, Chinese food, a chocolate fountain, you name it.  The Wynn was just... eh.  We had a better buffet at Flavors at Harrah's the day we left that I enjoyed more. Next, we headed down to Mandalay Bay to check out the Minus5 Ice Bar.  We'd both heard about ice bars (I think Ricky had even been to one before) and wanted to check one out.  Minus5 seemed like a pretty decent place, and we'd even found a coupon for it before we left home.  Fifteen bucks for some time in the ice bar and a drink.  Awesome!  Not a bad deal at all.  So we headed over there, grabbed our parkas and gloves and headed into the cold.  What a neat place.  The whole room is made of ice, everything from the seats you sit on to the glasses you drink out of.  We both loved it, and it was a unique experience we'd invite everyone to try at least once if you're in Vegas.  Look for the coupons on the Mandalay Bay website. Also in Mandalay Bay, we'd made reservations at Red Square.  I had found this place online and really wanted to check it out.  I visited Russia in March (my first trip technically "overseas") and loved it and was happy to experience it a little bit again.  Plus, we wanted some Russian vodka!  They had some good specials going on.  One was if you got 4 drinks/shots of Russian Standard Platinum, you got a free ounce of caviar.  We definitely took advantage of that, and the caviar was great.  We also took advantage of their "pre-theatre" menu from 5-7 and got three courses for $40.  Not bad!  It was a great meal and a neat atmosphere. We checked out some fun places in Vegas... even more on Sunday!  Part 3 coming soon!

Well, we left for Las Vegas on Friday night after a full day of work.  I think that we made the right decision in flying with Southwest - we left on time and got into McCarran International Airport right on time.  Excited to check out all that Vegas has to offer, we headed to our hotel.  After a really long wait to check in, we made it up to our room on the ninth floor.  We had a great view... of the building next door.  But, our room was quite nice, with a pretty large bathroom.  We really ended up liking our stay at Harrah's - it was VERY convenient, being right smack dab in the middle of the strip, the room was very nice, and there was a convenience store right by the door that we stopped at quite often to buy beer and necessities before heading out on to the strip. We settled in, changed out of our traveling clothes, contacted the friends we were meeting up with, and then headed out to O'Shea's.  O'Shea's is a bar almost right next door to Harrah's, and it is the place to find all of the cheap gambling you might want.  I'd say it was just the right amount of trashy without being gross.  The biggest reason we went there was to play beer pong.  See, O'Shea's is actually the home of the World Series of Beer Pong.  Did you even know that existed?  Well, it does.  And we played beer pong right there on the very tables they use.  Actually, I had never played beer pong before, up until about a week before we left for Vegas.  Ricky (my boyfriend) taught me how to play - we had a training session on our kitchen floor, after buying some ping pong balls, cups, and Budweiser.  It's actually pretty fun, although I'm not that good at it yet. After grabbing a table and playing some beer pong, first on our own and then with some friends after they got there, we headed out on the town.  We checked out the Fremont Street Experience, home of the "old strip" in downtown Vegas.  There's basically a roof over the length of the old strip, and it's covered with tons of lights that light up every hour on the hour for a really fabulous light show.  I'm glad I got to check that out this time.  After Ricky found a $5 Jager Bomb and I snagged a $2 Corona and some donuts, we set out to see what other adventures we could find.  Ricky was excited to see the pawn shop from Pawn Stars, so we checked that out, even though they were closed.  We also both visited the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign for the first time and took some pictures of it.  And then, we decided to stop at the Double Down. The Double Down is probably the diviest (yes, I just made that word up, but it fits) of dive bars you will ever come across.  They proclaim themselves by a sign out front as "The Happiest Place on Earth".  I had researched a bit before we left (as I always do) and discovered that the Double Down is known for both it's bacon martinis and "ass juice".  And of course, we had to try both.  The bacon martini tasted like... well, bacon.  Not really what I look for in my martinis, and none of us really cared for it much - but it definitely fulfilled the promise of bacon.  And the ass juice, ironically enough, was pretty tasty.  Despite that, the Double Down wasn't really a place we wanted to hang out at for too long... five minutes was enough to say we'd been there.  Ricky had his own experience there that you'll have to ask him about if you get the chance.  If you're in Vegas, take the chance to visit the Double Down at least once.  It's worth visiting, if just once. More coming soon...

As someone that prides myself on being somewhat of a travel aficionado, I couldn't believe that I had never realized up until a few months ago that Southwest Airlines does not include their flights in most flight search engines.  If you want to book with Southwest, you must book through their website only; you will never see their flight prices otherwise.  Naively, I had assumed that all airlines were popping up in my search results when searching for flights, and that Southwest was just never one of the cheap ones.  When Ricky mentioned that we should book our trip to Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend with Southwest, it dawned on me - that's why I had never booked a flight with them for a long time... they just never showed up in my search results.  Well, now I know, and will be including Southwest when I search for flights to locations that they service. Once we started looking for Southwest flights to Vegas, we also found out that you could book your entire vacation package with Southwest as well.  Now, I've had some decent luck with booking entire packages through travel sites such as Kayak or Travelocity, so I thought it might be worth looking at Southwest Vacations.  And sure enough, we found a better hotel for a cheaper price that way.  So we decided to book through them.  However, we ran into a snag when Ricky tried to use a credit card that was registered under a different address than where we actually live now.  It wouldn't let him put in a different address to mail the tickets to.  Yup, that's right - they MAIL you tickets.  What the heck??  Who does that nowadays?  People still mail things?  So, we ended up having to call to get it straightened out and actually book our vacation over the phone.  The lady Ricky talked to sent him a confirmation email (which, being the one that manages all of our travel plans, he immediately forwarded on to me to keep track of) and promised us we would have our paper tickets in the mail soon. So, we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Weeks went by, no sign of the tickets.  We started worrying, hoping that they didn't get lost in the mail, as the customer service lady on the phone had informed us that we had to have these tickets.  If we showed up at the airport without them, we were screwed.  You see, Southwest Vacations is actually a completely separate entity from Southwest Airlines.  They aren't really affiliated.  Southwest Vacations is just a travel site that uses Southwest Airlines for all of their vacation packages.  Yeah, kind of weird, especially since they only send out these paper tickets.  This worried us - we are used to complete and total online booking.  That way, I never lose anything.  Tripit.com keeps track of everything for me - flights, hotel reservations, dinner reservations, you name it.  But that's another blog post.  These paper tickets were just not what we were used to.  So after waiting weeks and not seeing them, Ricky contacted someone at Southwest Vacations, only to be told that the tickets would be sent closer to the time of departure.  And sure enough, we did get them, and immediately breathed a huge sigh of relief. The day before our trip comes, and we go to check in online.  I looked and looked at these paper tickets for a confirmation number to put in to check in online, but couldn't find one on the ticket.  Mind you, these tickets had been printed on a dot matrix printer (no joke!) and had various meaningless (well, to me) numbers all of them.  They were just a mess - who knows what all that stuff means.  I finally did find the confirmation number on the letter we received with the tickets, but I do think it's worth mentioning that I also wasn't able to look up our reservation on southwest.com since we had booked via Southwest Airlines.  Without that paper letter telling me what the confirmation code was, we wouldn't have been able to check in online at all.  Which is kind of important with Southwest, as the earlier you check in, the sooner you board the plane and the better seat you are able to grab. We did check in, and we did make it there just fine and had no problems with our hotel or flight.  And, we got a great price.  So for that, I would recommend Southwest Vacations.  However, if you are like us and very used to doing everything online, you might want to see if you can find a good deal elsewhere, as it was kind of frustrating having to wait to receive our tickets in the mail and have to deal with paper ones that can easily get lost or left at home.  Hopefully Southwest Vacations will rethink this idea and switch to something electronic and easier in the future.  We will still consider using them again, but only if the price is right.

Ok, now maybe this is a strange post for a travel blog, but it really does apply.  Keep reading and you'll see... A few months ago I decided that I wanted to get a Pandora bracelet.  Now, if you haven't heard of these, they are basically these nice charm bracelets with bead-like charms that screw onto the bracelet so that they don't fall off.  Probably the most famous ones are made by a company from Denmark called Pandora.  The charms for Pandora bracelets are sold in either Pandora stores (which can be found all over the world) or upscale jewelry stores. Here's the thing, and how it relates to travel.  I'm kind of using this bracelet to chronicle different things in my life.  Each charm on my bracelet has a special meaning.  I just thought I'd explain the meanings here and the significance of this bracelet to me.  From left to right (or top to bottom) in the picture above, here's a little explanation of each charm and why/how I got it and the significance. Red heart (aka red hot love) charm: This one was a gift from Ricky this past Valentine's Day. Red/yellow striped glass bead: I bought this one in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Pandora store at the mall down the street from our hotel when I was there in March.  It's slanted stripes remind me of the domes on top of St. Basil's Cathedral. Swirly clip: Not actually a charm, just a clip that helps keep the beads in place.  Bought this and the other swirly clip not long after getting my bracelet. Money bag charm: This one was bought with winnings from playing poker with some guys from work. Purple/pink swirl glass bead: To me this one is a symbol of mine and Ricky's relationship.  His favorite color is pink and mine is purple, and we have bought a lot of "matching" things in pink and purple, so I thought this was a good representation of us. Purple heart charm: Like I said, my favorite color is purple, and this was my first charm on my bracelet.  I bought it because it stuck out to me and seemed like a good representation of myself. Wood bead: This one is in memory of my dad, who passed away two years ago.  He was a cabinet maker by profession and had his own business, so this one reminds me of him. Inner strength charm: I'm not entirely sure why this one is called the inner strength charm (that's what it is dubbed on Pandora's website), but I thought it was pretty and a fun representation of inner strength.  I bought it in Chicago when I took a trip up there alone this past January. Another swirly clip: Purchased shortly after getting my bracelet. My next planned purchase: a dice charm bought while we are in Vegas.  I plan on trying to get a new charm whenever I go on a major road trip or vacation, especially for international trips.  Stay tuned to see which one's next!

Starting this blog came at a great time, as I'm getting ready to embark on my next trip this weekend.  My boyfriend, Ricky, and I are taking our second trip to Las Vegas.  Our first trip there (well, first trip for me and first trip together - he has been there before) was in September of 2009 with our friend Ian.  That trip, while it was fun and a great experience, did not go quite as planned and definitely could have gone better.  It started with a five-hour flight delay and pretty much went downhill from there.  I had fun, and I think we all did - but we learned some lessons from that trip and are trying to plan this one so that it is more successful. We are flying Southwest Airlines, and hoping to not have a delay like last time.  I haven't flown Southwest since the very first time I flew, but Ricky has good things to say about them.  So we shall see.  We are staying on the strip at Harrah's, which sounds like a decent hotel and is in pretty much the very center of the strip, so we are hoping that will be a good experience as well.  Also, apparently Vegas is going to be overrun with amazing electronic dance music while we are there!  Memorial Day weekend seems to be THE weekend to be in Vegas if you are a DJ, as pretty much all of the world's top DJs are spinning there this weekend at different clubs.  We are hoping to visit Marquee for the first time, as it just opened in January and they have a stellar line-up for this weekend, including a white party on Sunday when Armin van Buuren will be performing there.  He is the world's #1 DJ and we have seen him twice before.  He's amazing.  Our last trip to Vegas we happened to be there at just the right time to see Paul Oakenfold perform at Rain, and it was fabulous.  So we are looking forward to a weekend with some great electronic music while we are there. I have some stuff to get done before we leave on Friday, but I am definitely looking forward to a wonderful holiday weekend!  And what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas... well, some of it anyway.