I'm going on vacation and want to not have the blinking red LED reminding me that I have BES email. Is there any way to do this? I want to keep the data on so I can use the Google Maps 'nat though.

Im not sure this will work, as I have no knowledge of BES but try
go to profile-advanced, then whiever profile you're likely to have and edit, then go to the messages [email address from BES] and click, and then go to repeat notification and change to none

Go into your Profiles > Advanced, select which profile you're planning on using, press the menu key and select edit. Scroll down to your Desktop email and select it. Change Repeat Notifications to None.