Earl and I have attended the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party in KC now for 3 years.  It surprises me that this is also one of the most popular posts on this blog.  Ugly sweaters are popular I guess.  Operation Breakthrough who is the charity beneficiary of the party should be very popular as well, but although we all love the wonderful sisters who run it, the party is still the best part.

Last year the Travel Channel came and did a segment for their show called Christmas Crazier and lo and behold, Earl and his ugly sweater show up in the first 2 seconds and we are in the background for many of the other shots.

So, Earl and I went around the world, but only had to stay home and go to one of our favorite charity events to get on the travel channel.  Sometimes there is no place like home.

For more pictures and to make sure you get your tickets before it sells out, make sure to go to:

http://www.kcsweaterparty.com/ or check out @kcsweaterparty on Twitter or Ugly Christmas Sweater Party on Facebook

Ugly Sweater Party 2010

Ugly Sweater Party 2011

ugly sweater party 2012

And if you want and awesome hat like I have in my picture, it is called a yamaclaus. Get one here: http://www.yamaclaus.bigcartel.com/product/yamaclaus

Trips to Mexico, being seen on the Travel Channel’s Christmas Crazier, being contributors to Jenny McIver’s book about Round the World trip planning as well as other business and personal travel as usual.   We also enjoyed going to a lot of Sporting KC soccer games, ballet performances and listening to my local favorite opera star, Joyce DiDonato.

For 2013, I have a cruise with my mom to Australia and New Zealand on Holland America in February.  We have a trip to our actual Marriott timeshare in Park City, Utah with my family for my grandmother’s 90th birthday in June and then I am sure some other weekend trips as I build my vacation back up in the fall.

I’ll be catching the blog up here this weekend.  Happy New Year!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 2,100 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 4 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Here are some views from the plane:

Over the Mountains

Sunrise over Houston

Over the Grand Canyon

Above the Clouds

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.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,200 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 4 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Here is my list of things to know if you have a flight snafu:

DELAYS

Find out the cause of the delay, Weather-related or Airline-caused:

Weather related: The airline is not obligated to pay for your hotel or provide any meals. However, they should put you on the next available flight automatically.
Airline-caused: If your delay causes you to miss a connection and force an overnight stay, they will give you a voucher for meals and will provide you with a hotel room. Be warned though, this is almost never the very local airport hotels and most require a shuttle to and from the airport.

• Tip 1: If you can change to a different airport, or be flexible in the re-route, definitely ask. If there are a lot of weather delays or a busy travel week, don’t expect for it to be the first flight out or the very next one. Often you can be put on standby for that earlier flight, and if it is an early in the morning flight, you will have better luck if you are there for that earlier flight.
• Tip 2: In both of these scenarios, check with the local airport hotels for “distressed traveler” rates, these are often half of some of the published “rack” rates.
• Tip 3: Call the airline reservations desk, or use the kiosks. These people do re-bookings as their full-time job, they are always faster and more efficient that a long line with a gate agent. Especially if it is in a smaller airport, where the gate agents are cross-trained to do just about everything.
• Tip 4: Be NICE Courtesy is always welcomed in these situations. A calm agent can be more efficient and will be able to think more clearly about creative options, just like you can when someone is not yelling at you.
• Tip 5: Take advantage of the other tools the airline gives you, you can often see your re-booking in an app or on the web-site. If you don’t know who do go to contact the airline via twitter, they can often make sure that your issue is directed to the right person and to someone that can actually help. Asking a flight attendant about checking bags or the processes in the baggage office is like asking a stock broker how an ATM works; they may know something about the topic, but that isn’t their job.
• Tip 6: If you checked luggage and didn’t get on the earliest flight to your destination, check the baggage office FIRST, it will often beat you home.

LOST LUGGAGE:

Know that most luggage is recovered.  The tracking and bar-coding of most luggage these days makes this less and less common.  If you luggage is lost or delayed:

• Tip 1: If you paid baggage fees, the agent should be able to refund those fees when you make the report.  Make sure to ask, baggage fees are still a relatively new concept and the agents may forget, since frequent travelers, special credit card holders, etc. don’t pay these fees.
• Tip 2: Ask for an amenity kit, some of the airports have kits with deodorant, contact lens solution, shampoo, etc. if your luggage is misplaced or delayed and it is too late to get some of these necessities.
• Tip 3: Ask questions about if they will give a $50 voucher, or what their particular airline policy is for temporarily misplaced vs. truly lost luggage.

Do you have other tips? Please share in the comments.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party started  as a gathering among friends, but is now a fabulous event that puts the fun in fundraiser. It is a great excuse to wear a hideous sweater and support Operation Breakthrough. It has sold out before the event every year and with the latest news that the Travel Channel will be filming (squee!!) this year will be the best ever.

Half of the fun is planning an outfit, last year my sweater lit up and Earl wore a t-shirt from Target with a “sweater vest pattern. But, we had nothing on some of the outfits. Check out the pictures from last year! http://www.kcsweaterparty.com/PhotoVideo/PhotoGallery.asp

Yep, and mine lit up...and wasn't the sweateriest

This year, I am classing it up a bit with feathers and lots of sparkly rhinestones. http://www.bostonproper.com/product/Fabulous-snowflake-sweater/835016/sc/132/c/56/pc/42.uts Earl will be rocking a trucker cap and Santa sweater that I found on Amazon.

Ugly Sweater t-shirt

So if you have an awesome sweater, a great sense of humor and an open Friday night on Dec 9th. Buy your tickets soon and join us. Buy your tickets at https://www.kcsweaterparty.com/Ticket/Ticket.asp?Reference=Tickets&~=

Also, follow them on twitter @kcsweaterparty for more updates and hope to see you there!  Lets make some nuns and kids happy by raising a lot of money!

PS – I am just attending, the volunteers and organizers work really hard to make this happen every year and deserve all of the credit.  I just like to talk about the cool things that happen in Kansas City on the blog.

Now back settled from our RTW trip, Earl and I are enjoying being home in Kansas and the fun and interesting things to do in Kansas City.

This weekend is the Gala for the Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey. Kansas City is the second home for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. The KC Friends of Alvin Ailey ensure that the unique dance that was perfected by Ailey lives on and is accessible. The Ailey Camps and other community programs allow dance to reach a lot of kids in Kansas City.

Can’t wait to attend the Gala, see the performance and the beautiful and brand new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (www.kauffmancenter.org) and then hang out with the dancers afterwards. The dress code is a creative black tie and I bought a fascinator, so it should be a fun time.

Will post an update and let you know how it goes. In the meantime, if you don’t make the gala, check out the dance troop in their KC performances.

Update:
Ailey Gala was great! Everyone loved the fascinator! One woman commented that I had “hattitude”. Hope more will join us next year.

Alvin Ailey Gala

30 Days
5 Continents
11 Countries
20 Flights
36339 Miles Flown (circumference of Earth is only 25000)
80.6 hours of flying (thankfully alot were at night)
7 Airlines
10 Different types of Aircraft
12 Modes of Transportation (including Elephants and Camels)
10 Hotels
160 miles walked
353665 steps taken
3497 pictures

1 Great Trip!!!

Packing for RTW - Irish Setter not included

So here is my packing list for my 30-day RTW (approximately clockwise from top left):

• 2 khakis – 1 convertible to cropped khakis
• navy cropped pants
• 2 t-shirts
• shorts
• black tranquilt dress/skirt (mine is from a previous season, but there are similar ones on the site) Bamboo is a great choice for RTW travel!
• gray leggings to go under the dress/skirt
• 6 bras
• 2 Under Armour All Season gear long sleeve shirts
• white gauze top
• black tranquilt hoodie
• gray Zella jacket
• Scottevest lightweight travel vest
• Webkinz – Irish setter and Hutto Hippo
• True Religion jeans
• Shoes
• Nike Free 2+ Running Shoes
• black Merrell Barefoot Pace
• Crocs kaela flats
• 6 pairs of socks
• guidebooks
• 15 pairs underwear
• 5 tank tops
• long-sleeve t-shirt and boxers for sleeping

So, during the trip there were some additions and deletions, especially close to the end of the trip when I got really tired of the same clothes.
Deletions:

• 3 pairs of socks that did not dry after washing in Bangkok
• Black t-shirt that I added in Bangkok, as it had started to pill after a single wearing
• Pair of khakis that were tight before left and thought would fit into by the end. (No such luck) – trashed in Sydney

Additions:

• teal scarf in Istanbul to use up Euros and to have for Egypt
• t-shirt from the Tiger Temple – Bangkok
• black t-shirt – Bangkok
• Swimsuit – Bangkok (2XL)
• Australia sweatshirt – cold wind for whale watching – Sydney (Nice catch Jessica)
• 2 pairs of socks – Sydney
• Raiatea Long-Sleeve Hooded T-Shirt – Hawaii
• Havianas flip flops – Hawaii

All of this fit in the Tumi international size carry-on

Laptop backpack packing list to come.