West Baden Springs, Indiana

Note*you can enlarge these photos by clicking on them and then they will enlarge again to read the fine print of the angel pictures*

I got to get my annual fix of West Baden Springs on Tuesday. It was a beautiful day~blue sky, no coat needed. A leisurely drive from Aunt Margie's house. It takes my breath away every time. We go every year~I need to go more often~we toured the hotel again and walked the grounds. Trees were just waking up from their winter slumber~birds were singing their spring song~hawks were gliding in pairs and landing on their nests. The sunlight was perfect for picture taking~just enough people visiting to make it festive but still just few enough to make it feel like we were the only ones. I had to take a photo of one of the restrooms~cloth hand towels, fresh parrot tulips in gorgeous jars and beaded purses and shoes framed in gilded shadow boxes. The pillared pavilion had the smell of the sulfur spring when you stepped inside. The Jesuit cemetery is peaceful and is up a winding stone stair~all of the headstones are engraved with the birth and ingress and death of each priest~all the first names ended in a US such as Josephus, Hermannus, Paulus etc. There is a building at the bottom of the cemetery..it says Billiards- Bowling-Pavilion and it is reputed that a lot of gangsters at the turn of the century used to hang out and hide out here. The building is empty ~supposedly but our photos showed otherwise...looked like spiritual activity to me. Are the priests perhaps playing billiards? There was a secret about West Baden Springs that I had never known before. On the top of the dome~a room 700 ft. above the dome that can only be entered by a ladder from the exterior of the dome ~houses paintings of cherubs painted in the style of 15th and 16th century Italian painters. It is thought they were painted there as a spiritual blessing on the hotel. I could just be happy lying on the top of that dome forever!