V-Day at French Lick

For Valentine's weekend Mike and I thought it would be fun to take a road trip to French Lick, IN. French Lick was originally a French trading post built near a spring and salt lick. The town was founded in 1857. The sulfur springs were commercially exploited for medical benefits starting in 1840. By the later half of the 19th century, French Lick was famous in the United States as a spa town. In the early 20th century it also featured casinos attracting celebrities such as boxer Joe Louis, composer Irving Berlin and gangster Al Capone. That was Wikipedia by the way. French Lick was a short 2 1/2 hour drive from Indy so we thought it would be a fun weekend getaway. We got a room at the French Lick Resort which was very big and super nice. They had a casino in one part of the hotel and bowling, arcade games and an ice cream parlor on the other side. There was also a train that connected the hotel with another one close by. 

It started snowing while we were riding the train. It was so pretty! 

While we were exploring the other hotel we saw a chess board so we sat down and had a game. I'm pretty sure I won. I'm pretty smart... 

After chess we went to the casino and won a little bit of money. We left while we were ahead and went back to the room to go to sleep. In the middle of a perfectly peaceful slumber I wake up abruptly and hear a drilling noise. It sounded like a work crew was drilling into the wall right outside our door. I got up and looked at the clock and it said 4am! I peeked out of the peep hole and saw a luggage cart and a couple of guys standing at the room across the hall from us. The "drilling" had stopped and they were kind of just standing there looking into the room. They kept making a lot of noise so I opened the door and gave them the death stare. I should have said something, but I didn't. I never found out with the "drilling" noise was, but it was super loud! I couldn't fall back asleep after that either. So much for a tranquil night away. The next morning I went to check out while Mike put our luggage in the car (he doesn't stick around when need to talk to the manager). As I was checking out they asked how the stay was and I said "Well actually...." and told them the story. She offered to take $50 off our night's stay. Since it was Valentine's Day weekend the rooms were going for about $220 a night. I said that's kind, but I only got half a night's sleep so I would like to pay for half of the price of the hotel room. I was nice about it but very stern. She told me she could work that out. :) Totally worth waking up at 4am and not being able to go back to sleep. Mike was out front waiting for me and after I told him how much I got off our room he just kind of rolled his eyes and said, "I'm glad I wasn't with you, but I'm glad we didn't pay the full price." I would say it was a very successful weekend away.