Originally Posted:
Monday, September 10, 2007
9:37:00 PM CDT
Feeling Happy
Of all the luau parties we’ve hosted over the past few years, this is the one that was supposed to go off without a hitch. Ya see, this was the year for the hybrid luau/Medicare birthday celebration for my mom and all of her friends. Kelly arranged for live music, we had big sparklers to wave while singing Happy Birthday, and Mom’s friends and their (grown up) kids from Houston, Dallas, Indianapolis and St. Louis were coming in for the party. We’ve been on pins and needles all week waiting for the rain storms to pass through and the weather to clear up by Saturday but when Saturday morning rolled around and the skies seemed to be in a state of confusion by alternating between sun, clouds, light rain and then clear sunny skies again. The chances were high for thunderstorms in the late afternoon/evening but with every ray of sunshine that made its way through a break in the clouds we grasped at hope that the party would still go on in our backyard as planned. However, the raindrops of mid-morning had the last say and we had to move on to Plan B…or Plan Babs as we like to call it.
Mom’s friend Babbs generously offered her basement as a backup location when the drab weather report for the week came out. We crossed our fingers that we would not need to impose on Babbs and her family, but that’s what it came down to and, you know what?, everything worked out perfectly! Thanks to Mom’s friends from Texas, Beth and Warren, and Babbs, Dan, and their son, Brad, we whipped the basement into luau party shape in less than three hours and everything was back on track. After a day of wishy-washy weather, it finally POURED down raining at 5:30 pm. Ha! The rain didn’t get us!! Thank goodness for Plan B! The party went off without a hitch.
I’ll need to get pictures from Warren, who turned into our roving photographer, to round out the luau images. My camera was MIA for a while and I didn’t get to get a picture of everyone.
Exhausted from the weekend’s events, we got up on Sunday morning and hit the road to French Lick, Indiana for an overnight trip to the resort and casino. I was pretty excited about going to French Lick Springs Resort because I had never been and the restoration to West Baden Springs Hotel had just recently been completed with the opening of the new casino addition in November 2006. French Lick Springs and West Baden Hotel were built in 1901 and 1902 respectively. They were both popular among the glamorous Hollywood crowd in the heyday of the early century. Al Capone liked to come to the resort to bath in the famous “Pluto” water which was said to have healing powers. French Lick Springs bottled the water as a “cure all” but it turned out to be a laxative more than anything due to the high concentration of sulfur, magnesium and other minerals. It stunk to high heaven, but people didn’t care because it really worked. Their slogan was, “When nature won’t, Pluto will.” Ewwwww!
West Baden’s self-supporting freestanding dome was an engineering marvel for its time. Until 1965 when Houston’s Astrodome was built, West Baden’s was the largest dome of its kind. It held the distinction of being the largest dome in the world from 1902-1913. West Baden sat in ruins for a number of years (it was literally at the stage of collapsing) until the 1990s when the hotel was purchased and restoration began. It just recently opened back up and it’s just splendid! The restoration work is incredible. There is not a tremendous amount to do in French Lick (golf, spa, casino), but since it’s only 1.5 hours away from Evansville, it’s a great option for a weekend get-away if you just need a change of scenery.
I got back to Bowling Green late this afternoon and thought I needed a nap. The Senior Set wore me out this weekend!!
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