Eric and I went on a little vacation to French Lick, Indiana for a little second honeymoon! We got married in September in Mackinac/Mackinaw and spent a couple of days on the city side and a couple days on the island but since I had a wedding the weekend after our wedding, we weren't able to stay for too long. We decided to jet off and explore French Lick since neither of us have been there before (except to photograph weddings) and thought it would be the perfect location for a second honeymoon this winter.
Apparently once the holidays end, it's French Lick's dead season so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves, which was awesome! There were other people staying at the resorts but it was nice to have lots of room to do everything we wanted and it not be packed. We stayed at West Baden Springs and loved the hotel! French Lick Resorts have a truly resort vibe. Although they aren't all inclusive, you have things like a concierge, free valet, and a shuttle/train that takes you to both French Lick Hotel and West Baden Springs and the French Lick Casino but also to anywhere in town. You literally never have to leave the resort or drive if you don't want to!
Now on to what we did! This blog is filled with 98% phone images and just a couple of camera photos. I really enjoyed myself so I left my camera in the room most of the time!
We arrived to West Baden Springs on Friday and were greeted with a rose in our room and a nice card. I didn't get any photos of our room but it was huge and very nice. The bathroom of the room was sooo nice and literally almost as big as the actual room!
Once we got checked in and settled into our room, we went over to French Lick Hotel to grab some pizza and breadsticks from Pluto Pizzeria to take back our room. The pizza was very good and huge so we had pieces to munch on for the rest of the trip!
The next day, we slept in a bit and explored the atrium and did some shopping in the hotel.
We then went across the street to the Bagel Bistro for some bagel sandwiches. We are huge bagel sandwich fans and this place did not disappoint!
One thing you may not know is that Eric's favorite animal is the giraffe. AND I found out not too long ago that he's never saw one in person! Not at a zoo or anything! It's been on my list to take him to see a giraffe and I told him once Ollie is gone and we can go overseas that I would take him to a hotel where giraffes stick their heads in the window.
However, this morning I was looking up things on my phone and ran across Wilstem Wildlife Park and guess what? They had a giraffe encounter you could buy and it's only a 18 minute drive! I was able to book the giraffe encounter for that day and surprised Eric when he woke up with the news! I'm normally not a fan of zoos and wildlife parks like these since they aren't the best for animals, but this one did seem to be run fairly well. Wilstem has several animal encounters that you can book from sloths to bathing an elephant.
Once we were done eating our bagels, we jetted off to Wilstem Wildlife Park for our giraffe encounter!
We were able to meet two giraffes, Marchello and Bert. It was a private encounter so it was just us, two giraffes, and their caretaker. Eric was so excited! We started off getting to feed the giraffes and their caretaker told us lots of fun facts and answered all of our questions.
They loved eating all the carrots!
At the end of the encounter, we were able to take photos with Bert looking over our shoulder.
It was a lot of fun and Marchello and Bert were the best!
After the giraffe encounter we went back to the hotel to relax a bit and spend some time with Ollie. We also went to French Lick Winery for a tasting (they have wine and spirit tastings) and ended up buying all of the wine! It was so good! We highly recommend the white wine (we bought 3 bottle of this), it was soooo delicious!
After the winery, we came back and did a little watercoloring in the atrium. Eric is the watercolor artist so I just tried my best. haha
We then went to a yummy dinner at Sinclair's and then went back to the room and ordered Ollie a special meal (the hotel does special dog meals!) and we ordered some dessert from room service.
The next day we woke up early and headed over to French Lick Hotel to have their breakfast buffet.
We also walked around and went to the Pluto Spring Well which is one of the sulfur springs that is still in existence at French Lick.
Afterwards we did more shopping at French Lick and stopped by the casino to check it out. Eric played a couple of slots and ended up winning quite a bit with his first slot machine pull!
We headed back to the hotel to hang out with Ollie and give him the Fursace bone we found him at one of the gift shops.
We booked a sulfur bath at French Lick Resort for that afternoon and I was so excited for this! Sulfur baths are known to improve your skin and have a lot of health benefits. French Lick is known for its sulfur springs and it's water has been sold all over the world! Now only two springs remain.
We decided to take the train over to French Lick Resort this time and it was fun!
The spa itself is very nice. There is a nice relaxation area that you go to first that also has a dry steam room. There are two relaxation areas, steam rooms, and locker/shower rooms at the spa- one for females and one for males- so Eric and I were separated for this. The Pluto Baths (the sulfur baths) are also an individual experience so Eric and I were in separate rooms for that too. People have been taking these baths since the 1800's! One thing to note is that you need to remove all jewelry. Sulfur will ruin metals and stones!
I was prepared for the fact that the Pluto Bath was going to stink! I mean, sulfur smells like rotten eggs and a lot of French Lick has this smell due to the sulfur springs. However, both Eric and I didn't think the bath smelled that bad! Yes, there is a smell, but it was mild and not gag inducing!
The Pluto Bath is heated up to 105 degrees (the same temperature as a hot tub) and the bath lasted 20 minutes. There are levers on the bath so you can adjust your bath with hot and cold water as needed. I was doing well but at the 15 minute mark, I did have to let in some cold water. The bath itself was very relaxing. I'm not a bath person but it was neat to take this detox bath.
I wasn't brave enough to take a drink of the sulfur water (people swear by doing this for more health benefits) but the bath did make my skin feel so soft for days afterwards. I would 100% do this again if I'm at French Lick again!
After the Pluto Bath we took the train back to West Baden Springs and had dinner and drinks at Ballards in the atrium. We enjoyed the rest of the night in the hotel and relaxed.
The next morning we went to breakfast at Cafe Sinclair's in the hotel and then we were on our way home.
Ollie was very happy to be in the car and on the way back home to see the cats.