Fabulous French Lick.

My family spent the weekend in our neighbor state.

We visited the great state of Indiana... in a magical place called French Lick.

Before you go making fun of the name, check out the hotels.

This is our Lily in the atrium of the West Baden hotel.. nope it's not Paris, but rural Southeastern Indiana.

 

 And here is the back of Lily meandering through the lobby of the lesser of the two hotels, the one where we stayed with our dear friends and tribe of children.

Yes... those are gilded murals painted on the ceiling. 

Did you know that NBA great Larry Bird is from French Lick?

On occasion, Mr. Bird was called The Hick from French Lick-

(though probably never to his face)

and only because it rhymed. 

Whatever.

I'm fairly certain that those meanie name callers didn't hail from a town with gilded ceilings and domed, columned atriums. 

Had they visited such Indiana majesty, I think that they would have totally taken back that "hick" comment.

Skipping 'round the old spring house...
French Lick became a vacation destination in the mid 1800's when modern medicine meant spending quality time "taking the waters" of the sulphur springs that were discovered there.The mineral water was bottled and sold as a health drink called Pluto Water, meant to cure a variety of ailments including psychosis, scarlet fever, depression, acne, and of course...  

CONSTIPATION!

 One of the great things about youth is that you don't really know or care what a laxative is. This innocence of our dear sweet, and very regular, youth, made it much easier to get the kids to pose smiling under the giant and historic laxative sign. 

(snicker, snicker...)

 

While Jamie didn't mind posing under the laxative sign, the highlight of his weekend was the evening showing of his now favorite film, Jaws in the hotel pool area.

(Jamie is holding a few rubber sharks to play with in the pool- he rarely travels without a rubber shark or two) 

Rosie's weekend highlight was finding a pony to ride and an honest to goodness Ray-Ban wearing cowboy to lead her around for a little while.
Rosie's perfect morning defined.
It was a truly lovely weekend and my team felt that we made a wonderful discovery...
 a fabulous hotel made historically famous by laxative water and then better by the addition of Jaws and ponies.