Adult Only Weekend

So a couple of weekends ago the Husband and I took a weekend trip to Cincinnati and we were joined by some good friends of ours.  This weekend was for adults only or was it?  There were times where I think we acted like teenagers or like we were in our early twenties but it was all in good fun.  For example the Husband attacked my friend with play dinosaurs, then there was the cave where we tried to lose our husbands.

In all seriousness though we had a great time.  This was our first trip that we took with another couple, not including my parents.  Although, I think I was called a funpire at one point in time during the trip, don't worry it was in jest.

It was nice to get away with another couple our age, with no worries and to be able to just relax and have a good time. We would definitely go away with them again!

Cincinnati is such a wonderful city and there is so much to do there.  We took our first trip to an IKEA store (the Husband enjoyed the carts, he thought that he was supposed to drift with them),  visited Jungle Jim's (this store is on steroids or something) and went to some of the museums.

All in all it was a great weekend!  If your looking for a great weekend get away then I suggest visiting Cincinnati.  There is so much to do there, I know the Husband and I will return sometime in the future!

Weekend Recovery, Please Apply Here

Whew!  I think that I am still recovering from the weekend.  I believe that I need a weekend of relaxation after the busy weekend that we had.

First I am going to start off by saying I had an awesome weekend, even though I am still recovering.

I started Saturday off by picking up my mom at her house and driving over to my grandmother’s retirement community.  You see it was family day at her retirement community.  Now often, in a loving way I refer to my husband as a five year old.  That afternoon was my day to act like a child, I mean after all I do not have kids to do some of these things with so why not do them on my own.  I guess I should explain.  For family day there were many activities going on, some of which I did not get a chance to partake in.  My highlight of the afternoon was the balloon lady who was making different balloon items like Elmo, Cookie Monster, flowers, ect.  My choice, yes I wanted something, was a flower corsage.  And a flower wrist corsage I got and I wore it proudly on my wrist.  My next favorite thing was the photo booth they had there, once I discovered the photo booth I promptly took pictures with both my mother and my grandmother.  Yes, I did stick my tongue out in some of the pictures and I might have given them bunny ears too!   

Fun times were had by all, including my aunt, uncle, cousin, cousin’s wife and their two little ones.  Then around 2:00 p.m. it was time to leave, I needed to take mom home so I could get home and get ready for our next event.

On my way home the Husband called and said he had a surprise for me. He had booked a hotel room downtown Indianapolis at the Omni Sevrin .  Sweet!  I could get ready at the hotel and then we could walk over to the Gleaner’s Food Bank Fall Harvest Gala.  

When I got home we quickly packed a bag and we were on our way downtown.  We checked in and got ready.  Man, does the Husband look good in a suit!

Every year one of my good friends purchases a table at this event.  Gleaner’s Food Bank is a wonderful resource for those that need food in the state of Indiana.  Not only do they support food pantries, but they are also very involved in having food pantries in the schools and a backsack program for students.  Words really cannot describe how awesome they are and how awesome their volunteers are.

We had a wonderful time there and it was so nice to catch up with my friend, as it had been awhile since I had seen her.  We really appreciated her inviting us to attend with her. 

Then it was time to go back to the hotel.  Did I mention the fact that my shoes were KILLING me?  I was not sure how much farther I was going to be able to walk.  So the Husband, being the awesome man that he is, walked back to our hotel, waited to get the car out of valet and drove over to get me.  I love this man!  Afterwards, we decided to change, me in to some more comfortable shoes and we took a walk over to Buffalo Wild Wings.  The Husband was like, there are all of these places downtown and you choose to go to Buffalo Wild Wings.  <Shrug> what can I say, I really wanted some popcorn shrimp and it was 11:30 p.m.

The next morning, Sunday, we decided on checking out later to avoid all of the Colts game traffic.  So we were able to relax for a bit.  It really is a beautiful hotel!

After that, it was not home bound we were headed.  Nope, we were headed over to mom and dad’s to pick them up to go and use our Groupon to get some pizza, tokens and to miniature golf at Ben & Ari’s in Fishers.  We all had a great time; you would have thought that we were a bunch of teenagers.  Mom ended up winning by one point, Dad and I tied and the Husband lost.  He kept saying that he won because he had the highest score.  Ha!  I actually think his golf lessons hurt his miniature golf game.

So do you see now why I said I need a weekend after the weekend? 

The Night The Lights Went Out...

So a couple of weeks ago the Husband decided that he wanted to get away for a night.  He didn't want to go far, he just wanted a night away.

So he planned a last minute get away for a Saturday night and decided that we would go to Merrillville, IN. Since we are still disgusted with Holiday Inn (see a previous post) we decided to use our points to stay at the Residence Inn, which had great reviews and was recently renovated at the beginning of this year. Of course his selection of the area and hotel had nothing to do with the fact that Portillo's is across the street.

So we took off on Saturday morning for our nice relaxing and romantic weekend.

We stopped in Lafayette on the way up.  First stop was Rural King, which we do not have near us anymore, since we have moved and this is the place that they sell the jeans at, that the Husband wears to work.  Lucky for us, it was buy two pairs, get one free.  We had to dig for his sizes to find the 2nd and then the 3rd pair but alas we were successful.  Our second stop was at Four Guns, a gun shop.  I had purchased a Deal Chicken for my husband to use there, on accessories, ect.  Honestly, I was kind of disappointed in the store, they did not have a lot of inventory.  So it is not somewhere you want to make a special trip to but he was able to use his coupon.  Third and final stop was at Game Stop, are you getting the picture yet that the Husband is spoiled?  Notice none of these stops were for me?  You would think that HE was an only child and not the other way around, where I am the only child.  I digress, so he had a couple of old games to trade in and you got more money towards a game for the weekend, plus he had received a coupon for his birthday.  I kept telling him that this was not an authorized purchase (smiling as I type this).  He said it was his birthday.  Dude your birthday was like three weeks ago! Anyways, he purchased a game and we were on our way.  Final destination, Merrillville, IN.

So we had arrived and upon check-in there were flowers waiting for me.  Isn't the Husband so sweet, maybe I should take back the spoiled comment.  Nah!  We went up to the room to relax for awhile.  Which by the way the room was super nice!  Upgrades/renovations they made were wonderful.

So around 4:30 p.m. we were getting ready to head over to Portillio's to grab some food to bring back to the room, then we thought that we might go for a swim and if it cooled off maybe miniature golfing.  THAT IS WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OUT.  A big storm and I mean big rolled through and we lost power, in fact much of Merrillville and Northern Indiana were without power.

Of course this happens to us.  We plan a night away and the power goes out!  It is always an adventure with us.  However, I was optimistic, maybe the power would be back on shortly, no reason to worry.  So we went downstairs to hang out, talk to some other guests and the hotel staff.  We finally decided to see if we could go and eat dinner somewhere, as we suspected that Portillo's had lost power as well.  We spoke with the manager and asked if we decided to leave would our points be refunded.  He said no problem, just let us know.

So off we went. We drove over to Portillio's and of course they were the only place without power right there.  Go figure!  One of the employees was outside though and told us that the Portillio's in Crestwood, IL had power and it was only about 45 min. away.  We thought why not?  Let's drive on over to Illinois.  $1.50 later we were over the border and had located Portillios, we enjoyed our dinner and then decided to head to Hammond, IN to Cabella's, again for the Husband, since he, nor I had been there before.  It was a neat store but I think Bass Pro is better.

Back at the hotel, the power was still off, it was around 10:00 p.m.  The manager called us over and told us that we could stay the night and he would refund our points.  I thought that was super nice of him since the storm was not his fault.  We will stay there again for sure!!!

The next morning the power had come back on.  We checked out and headed to Michigan City, to the outlets there.  I sure do love it there.  I like Edinburgh as well, in Columbus, IN.  I kind of like the Coach store better in Edinburgh but overall I like Michigan City better.  We will not discuss how much was spent there and do not fret ladies, of course I treated myself to a new Coach purse!  Now who is the spoiled one? Let's just say we were both happy with our purchases for the day.  The weather was also nice, so it was a great day to walk around.

It was time to leave.  Goodbye outlets, until next time.  We were headed back home and of course we had to stop in Merrillville on our way back home to eat at Portillo's again!  On our way back there, in Hobart, IN I made the mistake of pointing out a candy factory.  The Husband made a quick u-turn.  Was that legal?  And pulled in to the lot.  I had no idea that place was even there.  In case you are interested the name of it is Albanese and they have a HUGE candy store.  I made the mistake of walking away from the Husband when I was looking for some candy for my parents and he had a handful of chocolate candy, ect.  when I found him.  As we were checking out, I heard a mother telling her son only two items.  Next time I am going to tell this to the Husband.  <Sigh>

So it may not have been the romantic night we originally planned on but it was still romantic and it was an adventure, that is for sure!  It is one of those stories we will be telling in our old age, about the night the lights went out...So we are planning a new adventure somewhere else, to use our hotel points at.  Keep watching for that adventure and hopefully the lights will not go out!