West Baden

 So as I mentioned in my last post , we visited lots of places in Southern Indiana on our Anniversary trip.  One of those places was West Baden.  West Baden Springs was a hotel back in the day.  After it changed hands a number of times it fell empty and into disrepair.  You can read the entire picture here.

 Thankfully it was restored to it's former glory and it is such a gorgeous place to visit.  So neat.  I can only imagine what it would have been like back in the day.  And so many celebrities came here, it's just incredible.  A huge group of investors came together to make the renovation possible (Donald Trump's group among them).  It is breath taking. Of course none of this will be as neat as being there and experiencing it but here are some photos for you.

 Going down the entrance lane

 The Piazza of the hotel

 All of the rooms are around this huge dome.  The sound and the feeling of the place is so still.  When it was built it was dubbed the 8th wonder of the world.  The planters in this picture: you can't tell from this picture but they were as tall as Nick.  He's 6'3" in case you were wondering :)

 Details...

 The middle of the dome

 View from upstairs...so neat! You just have to go :)

 lights

 We ate lunch under the dome at the restuarant...my lunch compainion.  Good thing I like him because the service was so slow, lunch took FOREVER!!!

 After lunch we went outside to the grounds...

 I took these mainly for the kids but I love the small details...Frogs spitting, kids!

 Turtles spitting back...

 Here I am.  I was inside a springs building.  It was popular due to the mineral springs that people could soak in for medicinal purposes.  One of the owners had all of the spring tubs filled with concrete.  It's really sad.  It said on a plaque that each tile that had been there had been about $100 and they were just poof, destroyed.  I can't even imagine how awesome it would have looked back then.  I think there were 4 spring houses, all fiilled.

 Towering flowers...

 Another Springs bath location, now just a slab of concrete in there.

 This was the original entrance to the hotel.  I'd follow that boy in the pink shirt anywhere :)

 Here he is waiting for me to join him on our green couch of love :)  By the way, do you like his new kicks?  Finally convinced him to buy Sperry's and he L.O.V.E.S. them!  See?  I use my powers for good!

 Our view from the green couch of love...

 Here I am...hi world!  Hi blogging friends! Seriously, so comfortable.  We both kind of fell asleep.  Yep, tenth anniversary vacations you go away to sleep...it's all very scandalous here.

 Bye hotel :(    Well after the West Baden and before we moved on we decided to visit the other hotel in the area that is owned by the same people, the French Lick Hotel...

 Here's the foyer of the hotel...very nice.  Very different from West Baden but amazing.  The Indiana Democratic Convention was going on at this hotel...we didn't stay at this one and that kind of shortened our stay.  People standing around arguing...they should have had wigs on or something in this setting :)

 Ceiling..

 Chandelier...

 The upstairs hall...  I kept telling Nick in this hotel that I felt like I was on the Titanic or something

 More ceiling :)

 The hotels are owned by the same umbrella...pool time in the indoor pool...

 And the outdoor pool...

 To get to the bowling alley we had to go through this hallway which was pretty neat.  They had to carve everything out of limestone and this hall they just left as limestone.  Wit's looking at the pictures on the wall that explain how they had to do the excavating with hand shovels.

Last picture's a little dark but I had to take it for Emma...on our way to the car there were these HUGE windows.  Like in Cinderella!  So I had to take a picture for Emma...otherwise she might not have believed me, yo'!

So that was our trip to West Baden. You should really go!  It is out in the middle of no where and rooms are pricey but worth it for a new adventure :)