Hotels, meetings, gambling and wineries...oh my!

As promised, I have some pictures from our little excursion Friday through Saturday to French Lick, Indiana.  This was actually a free trip for T and me, as I am the member of the Indiana State Bar Association Young Lawyers Council, and this was our annual fun meeting.  I took Friday off as a personal day, and T, and I headed down to Southern Indiana to check in by 4:00 p.m.  We stayed at the French Lick Springs Resort.I've been there once before with the state bar association, and the place is beautiful.  And huge, too.    So we got there a little after 4:00, and checked in.  This was what greeted us when we got there:

Pretty, right?  This place has been here for ages, and I should probably know the exact date and all, but...I don't.  They renovated it not too long ago, so the place has been revitalized since 2007 or so.  The place has this huge front porch with rocking chairs all over it, and when you get there, you get hit with a bunch of old people just staring at you, which is funny.  That, and when we got back from dinner that night, there was a band (banjo and all) playing on the porch.  Pretty cool...

Our room was a deluxe king, and the bed was HUGE.  The room was amazing, too.  Here's a nice shot of what greeted us after we checked in.  (Keep in mind, this whole thing was free, so we were pretty stoked)

We were on the fourth floor, and here is the view from our window:

So after we checked in, we met up with the other young lawyers for dinner at the French Lick Resort Golf Course.  We were supposed to eat dinner out on the restaurant's porch, but mother nature had other plans.  So we ended up eating in this tiny conference room down in their basement area, which wasn't as cool, but the food was good and was free, as were the drinks, so hey, can't go wrong with that?  A shuttle bus took us all back to the hotel after dinner, and we played a few games of bowling down in the hotel basement.  Now, disclaimer here.  I totally suck at bowling.  I mean really really badly.  I can barely make 100 with bumpers, let alone without them.  T is pretty good, so he puts me to shame.  We've only been bowling a handful of times since dating, and this is the reason why.  So I was very open with everyone about my sucking and tried to set expectations low.  I think I should have set them lower because I ended the first game with a score of 57.  Yep, 57.  I wish I could say I blamed the drinks, but I am pretty sure that wasn't the cause of my sucking.  Anyway, after that, we all hit the casino for a bit.  Part of our package deal stay there was we both received $5 in free money to gamble on the slots and a chance to spin the wheel for a prize.  I won a French Lick t-shirt (whoo!) and T won $10 in money to use at the slots.  This is me before I lost my $5:

This is T after he realized that we couldn't just cash in the $10 and take that but that we had to actually PLAY the $10 and see what we won.  We came away with $6.25, though, so that's not too shabby considering we didn't spend anything of our own, right?

So the next day, the council had a quick meeting in the morning, lunch, and then we headed out.  There is another hotel in the area, West Baden, which is similarly huge but even more breathtaking than the French Lick resort.  So we decided to check it out, too:

The inside of the place is this huge dome, and all of the hotel rooms have a window facing the inside dome and some with balconies.  Let me tell you, when you walk in there, you can't help but look up.  The place is so beautiful. 

The rooms here are just a little more expensive than French Lick, and I can see why. This picture doesn't do it justice, but this is a closer look at the dome.

They have couches everywhere, and this place would be a wonderful place to just sit and read a book all afternoon.  It was pretty peaceful, except for the wedding they were setting up for in the afternoon.  (Can you imagine having your wedding in this place?  Pricey, I'm sure, but that would be so awesome)  I found a chair that I felt suited me:

Doesn't it just look like a natural fit for me?  I did let T join me on it after awhile.  We were so comfortable sitting there, we didn't want to get up.

Now, before West Baden, we did go to the French Lick winery and did a tasting there and bought a few bottles to take home.  We then made the two hour trek back home, stopping by another winery, Mallow Run Winery in Bargersville, Indiana, on the way home.  It's really close to where we live, and we've been talking about going there for ages.  They had a folk band playing while we were there so we got a glass of wine and relaxed before returning home.  It was a great day...you know, before the tornado warning that hit later that evening and us hiding and the bathroom and all :-)  T and I have made it a goal of ours to eventually hit all of the wineries in Indiana.  That will be a feat, but I'm up to the task.  Hope you all enjoyed our pictures!