Oh for the love of the Hotel Gods....who took away the continental breakfast?

With TGs husbands recent deployment(God keep him safe)she has decided to come back to the Hoosier state for the duration. Since she's coming here from...where?...oh that's right Hawaii I only feel slightly sorry for her ladies and gents because it's a whopping 43 degrees here right now and my recently Floridian self is about to curl into my mink and hibernate for the winter while her Hawaiian self is coming here on purpose.

Any who we decided to have a few ladies weekends out in true southern bombshell style. I'm talkin 5 Diamond rated hotels and football games girls! The only things that really matter....I'm just kidding...really....about the hotels that is.

So here is my thing about hotels. I'm a picky picky priss when it comes to staying in a bed other then my own(my own is perfect dontcha know). TG is in a realm far far beyond picky. Since she is the ultimate online bidder on those travel sites she can afford to be that way. She saved something crazy like 68% on our hotel stays while we were there. A real southern bombshell knows how to get the Caddy for the price of the Pinto if you know what I mean and TG has made an art of the bargain! Me being the granddaughter of the crazy southern gran has stayed in her share of Super Hell's and Motel 666's during the long treks between Indiana and Alabama so while I love those fancy places I can make the best of the dive(easily snuck into pools for example). Also being a budgeting kind of gal I expect a lot for my hard earned(or gifted) cash. I still want the Louis Vuitton but I'm going to buy it pre-loved and save a fortune plus the added benefit of not looking like nouveau riche otherwise known as the neeavah reeech...until now that is. So back to hotels as far as they go I am just dying to know why the majority of the very fancy and very pricy hotels we stayed at offered no Continental breakfast. Call me cheap if you must but at $300+ per night I think we have payed for some reconstituted eggs and do it yourself Belgian waffles with the occasional mushy banana thrown in. I mean really if the Holiday Inn Express/Hampton/Baymont clan can throw it in why can't the others?

Now the following Inn was the exception. If you ever go to Charleston you MUST stay at the Vendue Inn. Bid on it, sell your first born if you have too then relish every second of your stay because it is A-mazing. If you are into the super modern, sharp angled kinda place you might overlook the provincial appearance of this genteel establishment but if you are a southern gal...this is the next best thing to the plantation. I am talking about first rate service where they say "miss/madam" and don't do the tres tacky calling of the guest by their first name thing. Daily turn down service(Charleston Chew on your pillow anyone), wine and Hors d'oeuvre cocktail hour, and cookies and milk before bed. Not to mention the icing on the cake *complementary* made to order hot breakfast. Prices range from $175-$355, with the master bidder we paid around $190 a night for the $325 suite. They have cute little bellboys in cute little outfits. They park your car and bring it around for you when you need it. When you bring back that 32 inch pizza from Giovanni's at 3am they will wrap it and put it in the fridge for you. The single not so fun thing was the lack of a pool and seeing as you are only 20 min from the ocean I quickly got over this fact. Also there was a rooftop bar...I'm just saying us gals love our cocktails. This is also a historic building and they give you a very nice and perfectly short(unlike this post) tour and history of the building when you check in. I am a bad phone photo operator so this is just a taste please go see their website for real adult photos.

Oh yes those are the magical 70% down 30% feather pillows,and my oh my yes that is a real antique four poster canopy bed. The only reproductions were the dressers.

The bathroom was nothing to sneeze at either. Real oil painting on the wall, modern fixtures(rain head shower) and luxury toiletries. Fantastic robes if you forget yours.

We stopped and ate at the required slider hot spot White Castle..it's not Krystal's or Powers if your from the Fort Wayne area but it's still dang good.

Next it was time to check in at the Omni Severin in Indianapolis. This was a very nice hotel. We stayed at it for the close proximity to the stadium but honestly for $350 a night I would have rather stayed at the Hilton or the Ramada, walked an extra block and enjoyed the extra amenities because unfortunately the Omni offers very few. It's $27+ to park your car there per day(and no there is not other parking..it's parking garages only downtown) No breakfast....or candies....but they do have apples in the lobby...I'm not sure if they are available to be eaten but seeing as how the snickers in the room was $6 I'm sure they "will be billed to your room upon checkout". The in room coffee was Wolfgang Pucks...or Wolfgang Yucks as I will now call it. Give me Starbucks or Folgers or Cafe du Monde anything but this acidic sludge. The old, not quaint, old pool closes at 10pm or earlier if they feel like locking the door.

Pretty room though. Nice bedding, decent toiletries(surprisingly refreshed daily) and fantastic view from our room. My favorite thing about this hotel was the staff. All smiley and happy and helpful. No attitudes here and even the maids were friendly and great.

This was another of my favorite features of this hotel, what a beautiful chandelier...I just adore a good chandelier and nice drapes.

So if you keep up with Yankee teams then you know the Colts lost by a smidge to those wily steelers. It was heartbreaking with the season they have been having but I'm betting they are going to whip Tampa hind end next week. They had the National Guard and volunteers unroll this field sized flag during the national anthem when the girl sang "Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave" they made it wave. I was close to tears.

On the way back we did the necessary big chicken thing. Really...it's mandatory, if you drive back from Indy you simply must pull over and take a picture with the big chicken. If you don't do it your car will pull itself over to it like some kind of strange magnetic field.

Umm I'm wondering why my jeans look acid washed because I'm pretty sure I have never owned acid washed anything(excluding my throat after that Wolfgang yucky)