usa: indiana: west baden springs and columbus

The next day was Saturday. We didn't have anything specific planned, but Dad was up for my idea of a day trip to West Baden Springs hotel. I'd never been there, but I knew he had, as had other family members. Every photo I'd of the place looked pretty amazing.

We stopped for lunch at a fast food place along the way, nothing exciting. As we drove I made note of the petrol prices, as they were considerably lower than what was available in Bloomington. (I hate the way people in Bloomington pay higher prices for rent, mortgage, petrol, etc... because we're a captive audience.)

Indiana is mostly made up of small towns, we drove through a number of them. Life in rural towns isn't great economically these days, and you can see that when you drive through. What I also noticed was that petrol prices were considerably cheaper than in Bloomington.

West Baden Springs hotel was built when you could take a train from Chicago all the way to southern Indiana. I'm pretty sure that isn't possible anymore. The town of West Baden Springs was originally developed by Germans (hence the name) and was known for natural springs.

The hotel itself is pretty amazing. The grounds are huge, no matter which approach you use. The atrium you walk into is stunning. The roof of the atrium is giant, and the whole thing is a skylight. The hotel was originally built at the beginning of the 20^th century, and after a while fell into disrepair. At some point Jesuits used it as a monastery, and darn them they capped off the springs. I think renovations started in the late 80s or 90s, something like that? The renovations were done really well, the place looks fantastic, and looks just the old photos from way back.

We walked through the atrium, unable to miss the GIANT skylight letting in a huge amount of natural light to the room. The engineering of the whole thing is really impressive. There are couches and chairs set in groups throughout the room, it's a great place to hang out with your friends and family.
We also walked through the hallway that encircles the atrium. We also checked out the porch, which had plenty of rocking chairs. If it hadn't felt like a sauna outside I would've been super keen to sit on one of the chairs and read for a couple hours.
The last area we explored was an area of landscaped gardens. Two of the old springs (also capped by the Jesuits when they 'owned' the property, argh,) were on the edge of these gardens. A pretty area, but too darn hot to dawdle in the sun.

Even though I'd brought water with me, and grabbed a couple bottles from a cooler, I was still feeling the heat. Instead of going to another sight in southern Indiana I told Dad I was ready to go home. We got home mid evening, so it was probably good that we didn't go anywhere else.

Of course, if we'd planned the day ahead of time and gotten moving a bit earlier, we could've done more. Oh well.
Three days later, I did a road trip with my sister.
Just like everyone else in my immediate family, my sister has lived abroad at least twice. Though she now lives in Bloomington, she and her husband (and now my nephew) still travel, but it's domestic travel. They've done an amazing job of finding places in and around Indiana, places I didn't know anything about before receiving a postcard from Hana.

We wanted to spend time together again, and decided to do it by going on a day long road trip, to a nearby city called Columbus, Indiana.
On the way there I asked her to stop so I could take a photo of myself with the city sign for Gnaw Bone. Yes, there is a town called Gnaw Bone in Indiana. Not surprisingly, it is not a giant metropolis.

I'd been to Columbus more times than I can count or remember, but every previous visit was while I was a competitive swimmer. I remember many an early morning driving through the quiet streets of Columbus, not really knowing the city at all.

There are two high schools in the city, I've swum at both of them. There is also a swim club that had a summer meet and a winter meet, adding to the number of Columbus visits every year. This time I wanted to see what Columbus is known for, it's architecture. Buildings all around the city are unique.

We started by going to the visitors center. I was excited when Hana told me the glass sculptures were made by Chihuly, because I've seen photos of those sculptures from around the country and they're always beautiful. It was a really nice visitors center.

From there we walked. I suppose that's all we did, but it was nice. The weather was reasonable, which made a huge difference.

I took a lot of photos, of course. I took one of the old armory. I took one of a church. I took several of various sculptures. I took several inside the play area inside a mall.
I took pictures of the bridge you are likely to cross if you're coming in from Bloomington. I took pictures of the courthouse, and the nearby veterans memorial.
I took more than a few pictures of my nephew as he took in the world around him.

I did not take a picture of lunch, as it wasn't anything to get excited about. After the main part of lunch (soup, salad, sandwich,) we stopped into an old time ice cream shop. It looked great, they've done a good job staying with the style of places back then. The ice cream was so so, I doubt I would go back for more.

After eating, we drove a little, to Mill Race Park. There is a nice walking trail around the park, and the best part is the covered bridge. Cars still drive through the covered bridge, so when I convinced Hana to take a photo with me, we had to keep an eye out for any traffic.

We probably would've walked through more of the park, but the weather wasn't so pleasant anymore, becoming more and more humid. It's not much fun to walk around when you feel like you're in a sauna.

After the park we felt like we were done for a while. I can always walk around any town for hours, but my nephew was done for the day, and we had one more stop to make.

There is a series of outlet stores in a town called Edinburgh, not far from Columbus. Hana likes one of them in particular, so we went shopping.

I found one thing I liked, but it looked awful on me, so my wallet was spared, hee hee.

My nephew was tired of course, but like most babies, did not want to go to sleep. He screamed for a while, then fell asleep, just as we knew he would.

I love spending time with my sister.