Job perk - holding the Lombardi Trophy

Restaurants:

Downtown:
Palomino
49 W Maryland St Ste 189
(317) 974-0400
This is one of my favorite restaurants. Their mushroom soup and Chop-Chop salad are always favorites and their prime rib is always wonderful. The drinks and drink specials are good and unusual, so if you can make it for happy hour, then try one of the many mojito flavors and try the crab dip.

St. Elmo Steak House/Harry and Izzy’s
127 S. Illinois St.
(317) 635-0636
St. Elmo’s is a classic steakhouse with their famous shrimp cocktail. Very spicy and a special secret recipe. Be prepared for its sinus clearing properties. The same shrimp cocktail is served at their “sister”? restaurant Harry and Izzy’s that is right next door.

Mo’s A Place For Steaks
(317) 624-0720
47 S Pennsylvania St Ste 303
This is another great steakhouse, but is better with a larger group as the sides are all shared, so you will want to have 4-6 people so that you can get the variety of the side dishes.

Bazbeaux Pizza
(317) 636-7662
334 Massachusetts Ave
Yummy, the lines at lunch get really long, but it is definitely one of the best places in town for cheap eats.

India Garden Restaurant
(317) 634-6060
207 N Delaware St
Great Indian food buffet for lunch and almost never crowded at dinner. They also have a Broad Ripple location which is excellent as well.

Barcelona Tapas
(317) 638-8272
201 N Delaware St
Right next to India Garden is this great Tapas restaurant. Very good tapas and you should definitely try the red and white sangrias. They usually have a special sangria as well.

Fountain Square:
A little off the beaten path are restaurants near the area called Fountain Square.

Siam Square
(317) 636-8424
936 Virginia Ave
Excellent Thai cuisine with fantastic spices. One of the only places that does justice to Thai “hot” if you ask nicely.

Santorini Greek Kitchen
(317) 917-1117
1417 Prospect St
If you want Greek food, this is place to get it. They also have an unusual wine list and there is no way that you will go away hungry. A lot of food and well, the proprietress is named Jeanette, so I have to love that.

Nightlife:
Nicky Blaine’s
(317) 638-5588
20 N Meridian St
If you want a cigar bar and a great martini. Go to Nicky Blaine’s, it is down in the basement so you may have to look twice if you are not sure where you are going. The waitresses and waiters are very knowledgeable and do great recommendations and pairings of cigars and martinis.

Ike and Jonesy’s
(317) 632-4553
17 Jackson Pl
This is a dive bar of all dive bars. If you want to dance to disco, 80s and 90s pop, then head there. The waitresses are excellent and take great care of you, so remember to tip them well.

Tastings
(317) 423-2400
50 W Washington St
Very cool concept where you grab a card and get tastes, shots or full glasses of wine. Great way to taste a bunch of wines. The appetizers are very good as well, if you don’t want to go somewhere else for dinner.

Hotels:
I have to give a shout out to my home away from home which was the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis. Granted they are probably completely sold out but say hi to the great bell and desk staff and if you get a chance grab breakfast at One South or dinner at the Eagle’s Nest for a great view of downtown.

Museums:

Soldiers and Sailors Monument

If you get a chance there is a Civil War Museum in the Soldier’s and Sailor’s Monument. It is well worth a visit if you have about an hour.

After having a tasty crepe at Jean-Philippe we met the girls at the pool.

Reading my Kindle and watching the fountain was a great way to spend the morning. I drank the full 1.5 liters of water that I bought read and when I wanted a cold shock, I headed into the freezing cold water too cool off.

Tornado art

About 2 PM, I needed to get out of the heat so, I tried to head back to the Flamingo, but got the Tram and Monorail mixed up so took a detour through Crystals before catching a short cab back to the Flamingo.

After the nap, I went to Serendipity 3 for dinner. The prices were a little bit of sticker shock, but then I saw how huge my BLT was!

Day 4 – I woke up with a very stuffy head and VERY red eyes, so I decided to stay in the AC in the morning and get the pedicure that I had been thinking about for weeks. Got an appointment in the salon and then talked to the girls and said I would meet them about 2 PM. Pedicure was lovely, basically sometimes you have to let the ladies do what they want…so OPI’s Siberian Nights with Teenage Dream layered on top is what I got. After the pedicure I headed to Pink’s Hot Dogs to get lunch.

Hot Dog and Onion Rings

Pink’s was fantastic. Highly recommend although it can be difficult to find if you actually go inside Planet Hollywood to look for it. Signage is much better outside and you can see its patio.

Then the agenda was back to the pool until about 5.  I went back to the hotel, rested, slept for my early AM flight in the morning back home in the real world.

PS – Once I got to the airport, I remembered that I had a sinus infection the last time I went to Vegas (a few years ago in September) and wore my glasses a lot when I came the first time (a year before that in October). So, after this trip I can pretty much confirm that I am allergic to sagebrush, which is why after 2 days in Vegas in the summer or fall will not be on my trip itinerary in the future. But at least it explains why I all I want to do in Vegas is sleep and can’t spend more than 4 hours outside before my eyes are bright red and puffy.

Then we head over to the Shops at the Venetian and check out the shoe sale.  There was a $229 pair of Manolo’s that I was tempted by, but managed to resist this time.  Headed to the busiest store which was Walgreen’s where you could get all of the tacky Vegas souvenirs that you wanted.

Someone "bfought" me a white tiger

Including misspelled ones.

For the afternoon we headed to the Flamingo pool, however after much searching and a dinner reservation at 5PM, it became a solo trip. The Flamingo pools definitely have a college vibe. Very active, loud music, dj and dancing contests.

At 5 we headed to Fix in the Bellagio. I laughed because of the 3 times I have been to Las Vegas, I have been to Fix.

Fix - prix fixe dessert

This is the picture of my dessert for the last time I was there.
Many of the ladies then left to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O”. Having been to that show before and wanting to save a few pennies, I opted for 2 hours of video poker that basically is about $35. Too many years playing Poker*Mon in the Compaq portable one, means I can spend a lot of time on Jacks or Better.

Next stop was a drink at Caramel waiting for Bank the nightclub to open. Once Bank opened, I made sure to get a round and tip well. Always a good trick for making sure that you get some attention at these crowded Vegas nightclubs. And we saw the champagne spectacle, basically champagne table service comes with a presentation where you are presented it with a blue diamond ice bucket sparklers.

At 2AM, I called it a night, which is way late for this married lady.

The itinerary included a lot of pool sitting, eating and just plain relaxing. I personally think I spent the most time of anyone asleep in Vegas.

Flew out on an early Saturday flight from @KCIAirport with the lovely Michelle. Security was crazy that morning and I had already boarded the plane (Thank you @SouthwestAir A-List) long before she even checked her bag. No bag check this time for me. I have the quart size baggie down to a science.

After being the 3rd to last person to board the plane, Michelle was on and we were ready to go.
Plane over the mountains

View from the Plane

TRAVEL TIP: Las Vegas is close to the Grand Canyon so look outside the plane and get a great view!

Look out the window - Big Hole in the Ground

We arrived safely in Vegas, quickly got bags and then got into this cab.

Taxi Advertising - Picture from Michelle

Rest of the day we checked in to the Flamingo, went through Paris Hotel and Casino, checked out the Sugar Factory and were tempted with the Couture pops; until they were $25
http://www.sugarfactory.com/index.php/yum/signature_series

Then I headed to the hotel for a nap, Michelle met up with our ladies at the Bellagio and some other friends in town.

We met up for dinner in a Mexican restaurant that had horrifying service, so we won’t discuss that. But with our entourage complete, we all headed to the mall and loved Sephora and the Bettie Page stores.

So, how did I do it?

Flights:
Used a reward ticket from Southwest Airlines for one leg and had to buy the next one. I have to say that I hate how they converted from the old to new frequent flier program, it sucks to have a bunch of “free” tickets that I can’t really use. Huge disadvantage not to be able to just use two and get whatever flight you wanted. 6:30 AM on Saturday flight to Vegas will be brutal and the 6:30 AM flight to get back to KC on Wednesday won’t be much fun either, but if I can do it for work, then I can do it for fun.

Hotel:
Then the search for a hotel. Love Vegas hotels, but they certainly aren’t conducive to using hotel points. Las Vegas Hilton is great, but pretty far away from the Bellagio and the other places the ladies are staying. The Bellagio is great for a planned vacation, but for spontaneous and not being able to use points, I needed to look for cheaper. And well, it’s Vegas, will we be sleeping?

So, the classic Flamingo hotel is the big winner of the hotel search. Close to everything, its a classic and it is affordable.

Flamingo Las Vegas

Now, just to get there…