My Midwest Weekend or Debs, Gamers, and Airport Hotels

This weekend the bf and I went to Cincinnati (his home town) for his youngest sister's summer time debutante party.  I mentioned this was a summer time deb party, because there's also a winter party, which I attended as the bf's date in December.  You can read about it here, but all you need to know is it was pretty, pretty fancy.  This is me at the winter deb ball making my fancy face.  This look says, Don't get in my face when it's fancy or you'll get a martini in yours.

I am a total stranger to the world of high society so I have no idea how it works.  All I know is, if you're part of the inner circle you do a lot of hob-nobbing, boozing, and dancing.  I tried my best to participate in all of the above so I wouldn't stand out.  This time that involved dressing the part for the party's Soul Train theme.

Friday we partied and Saturday we watched movies with the bf's fam all day and ordered pizza.  I was so happy to be doing anything other than painting.  :) Sunday morning we hit the road early for the Indianapolis airport to drop off one of my bf's sisters for her flight home to Denver.  (We sometimes fly into Indianapolis and drive two hours to Cincinnati because service to Cincy is monopolized by a certain legacy carrier and is the most expensive airport to fly to domestically.) We had some time to kill before our evening flight so we decided to check out Indy.  The weather was beautiful so we attempted to visit the farmer's market, but unfortunately it's closed on Sunday.  From our parking spot at the farmer's market, we caught sight of a huge monument a few blocks away and decided to walk towards it.  It was surprisingly European to have a giant war memorial in the middle of downtown, and the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' monument has been standing tall (nearly 300 feet) in Monument Circle since 1901.

Our next agenda item was brunch.  I was in the mood for crab eggs benedict and champagne (Dallas friends- I was craving the Taverna experience, if you know what I mean), but our hunger got the best of us and we ended up at Rock Bottom Brewery.  It's a chain, and I hate to eat at chains in cities I've never visited before, but at least it's one that we don't have in Dallas.  Needless to say, it didn't quell my fancy brunch cravings.  The guacamole and blackened chicken salad were just OK.  When we left I was still craving champagne.

After our meal we walked through a mall and were mildly entertained by an unusually large crowd of gaming enthusiasts.  Fox tails and matching ears and steampunk-style outfits were de riguer in downtown Indy yesterday.  Apparently, Gen Con was going on this past weekend, and we ran into attendees from downtown to the airport.  I did a Google image search on Gen Con today and came across some pics that accurately represent what we saw downtown and at IND.  I was going to post some here, but there are too many good ones to choose from.  I recommend Googling it yourself if you want to waste another good half hour on the interwebs.

Our last stop in Indy was White River State Park, an impressive 250 acre urban green space on the other side of the capital building.

From there it was back to the airport to hang with the Gen Con peeps.  Because we were flying stand by on this trip, we rounded out our tour of the Midwest with an overnight stay in Kansas City at the airport Hilton.  I don't have much to say about Kansas City.  The Hilton was decent for the seven hours we spent there.

Well, it's after 5 o'clock so that means martini time.  I gotta keep practicing my fancy face for the next deb event.  Ta ta for now, as the debs say!  (Right?)  Over and out.