Wilmore Old Fashion Christmas in Kentucky!

Several years ago, some friends invited me out to Wilmore’s big Christmas party known as “Wilmore’s Old Fashioned Christmas”.  We had a great time, and I have wanted to go back for some time.

 Each year, however, I found myself busy on the first Saturday of December so I couldn’t go.  Well, this year I made sure that I was able to make it!

 Wilmore is a very attractive small town anyway, but when they go all out for Christmas, it really becomes something special.

 We didn’t get to see their parade or anything, as we did get there a little late, but we did get to walk among the crowd and visit the various businesses.

 We got to town a bit late too, and we had to search for a scarce parking spot.  We found one quickly.  AND, finding parking in Wilmore, even during this crowded event was not that big of a deal.

 Our first stop was the town IGA.  A friend went with us who estimated that they have attended a dozen or so of these events said we should go there first.  The good people there were handing our small cracker sandwiches and pop!  Each time one was handed out, a “Merry Christmas” was exchanged.  It was very sweet, cheerful and festive.

 AND, at the front of the store was a great country band!  They were doing Cash as we left.  I would have loved to have stuck around and listened, but my friends wanted to explore more.

 After that we stopped at a bank and found another great band playing.  More treats were handed out by very sweet locals.

 Other places were handing out different snacks, all given freely with no expectation of purchase or anything.

 We went into City Hall and Elvis was there!  He was entertaining anyone visiting City Hall.  This was the same Elvis we saw earlier in the year performing in Danville at Pioneer Playhouse.  He was nailing it in his authentic King gear.

 My mother in law went with us.  Elvis started singing directly to her and we all had a great laugh over it!  As a side note, I have always been a huge Elvis fan and I love getting to see a great Elvis tribute.

We also went inside of a small religious reading room/prayer room location.  A wonderful young lady was singing and playing the piano.  Like the other musicians I have mentioned I would have really enjoyed getting to see more of her set.

The music alone here was exceptional.  There were at least four acts performing this night that I would love to see on another day when I could stick around for a full performance.

 As we walked around, we found some interesting businesses that we will have to check out on another day!  The small town looks to have TWO quality coffee shops!

 One beautiful old church was open for visitors to walk through.  In addition to having some very ornate windows worth seeing on their own, the church was displaying some privately collected nativity scenes.  I love miniatures like this, and I really enjoyed seeing them!

 There was a very sweet lady hosting visitors at the church.  We really enjoyed talking to her.  Her husband was outside the church handing out cups of hot chocolate!

 As the evening winded down, we made our way to the large church for their service to end the evening, which was very musical and fun.

If I heard correctly, there have been 31 “Wilmore Old Fashioned Christmas” events.  During this service, a show of hands was asked for of people who had been to all of them.  I did see some hands raised!

 Also, the collection plate was passed only once during the service.  It was passed to collect donations to help out a small local business that had something bad happen to them earlier.  It seems that a car crashed in to Solomon’s Porch Café earlier.  I thought it was very sweet that they took up a collection to help the business out.

This is a great event, in a great town.

I want to get back soon just to visit some of these friendly businesses again!

Sinclair's at West Baden Springs Hotel Indiana

With our stay at West Baden Springs this time, we were able to enjoy a couple of breakfasts at Sinclair's!

I mentioned before that the service was great here!  We had a great waiter named Austin our first morning.  He was perfect.  He kept our coffee cups full and made sure we had what we needed.  We talked with him a bit about local history, the museum, and the hotel.  He said that he was from the area and loved it!

He also told us a great story about an interaction his dad had with local legend Larry Bird!

We had another great waiter named Thad the next morning who was just as good.  It was our last day at the resort though, and we had to hit the road, so we weren't able to talk to him as much.....  but he also took great care of us!

I had eggs Benedict one morning.  They were tasty.

I had steak and eggs another morning and man, that might have been one of the best breakfasts I have ever had in my life!  Seriously!  I am not a big breakfast person but I really enjoyed the meal.

I had a PERFECT cheesy hash brown casserole side each morning too that really made the breakfast special.

Owensboro Towne Square Mall at Christmas

 I stopped by the Owensboro Towne Square Mall right after Christmas this year.  It's no secret that the old mall is not the thriving place I remember from growing up in the 80 and 90s.....

Still, there are some shops there with some life.  They still have some impressive anchor stores that other malls have lost.  For what its worth, I thought the stores that are still there were giving great services and all of the shops had friendly staff.

I hated to see that "The Spots" second location that was opened here some time ago was gone.  The cool little record shop had closed its doors too.

Some local friends told me that the mall has been sold again....  and the new buyers are gong to try to get the mall going again.  I have heard that story before, but hopefully they can pull it off.

It was nice just walking around and seeing the Christmas decorations.  Christmas songs were played over the speakers.  The center of the mall looked very cute.  I do miss the old fountain though.

When I was in high school, we did a production of Charlotte's Web, and I remember the drama crew going out to the mall, and doing a short segment of the play by the fountain, hoping to drum up interest in our upcoming performance.

When I attended the nearby Burns Middle School, some Fridays after school my late cousin Matt and I would walk from school to the mall.

It was a nice walk, and a lot of fun.  We would get to the mall and play a few games in the arcade.  I remember that we would often get pizza at a pizza place that only lasted a year or so.  I want to say the place was called Luigi's.  There was a really nice guy who ran the place and I think it was the first pizza place I remember where a wood fire oven was used.  My memory could be fuzzy on that one though.

When I find myself in Owensboro, I really like going here for nostalgia's sake.  Hopefully the new owners can get locals to come back for more than just nostalgia.

French Lick Winery in Indiana

My buddy Brent recommended that we stop by French Lick Winery while we were in town.  He said they had good food.

We stopped by and were glad we did.

It is near the resorts and they have a lot of seating.

I had a nice personal pizza and my wife had a salad she really enjoyed.

I thought my pizza looked small, but it was thick and satisfying!

We didn't have time to try wines, but I am sure we will be back!

Ballard's in the Atrium at West Baden Springs Hotel in Indiana

Here are a few pictures of some of the meals my family and I had while at Ballard's at West Baden Springs.  In general, the food was good.  We had 2 meals here on this visit.  Service was great one time, and frankly bad the other.

Still, it is nice enjoying a meal while setting under the amazing West Baden Springs Dome!

French Lick at Christmas! in Indiana

We did spend a little time at the French Lick Hotel.  It was really decorated up for Christmas!  There are lots of fun Christmas displays....  This would be a great place for photo ops with the young kids!

Here are some pictures!

Our Room at West Baden Springs in Indiana

I mentioned that we again had a nice room at West Baden Springs.  here are a few photos.

We were very comfortable the whole time, and the room was great.  Again, this was our first time not in an atrium view room.  Out our window, we could see the main entrance people use when they arrive.

Here are some pictures!

West Baden Springs at Christmas Time!

 Not that long ago, I mentioned that we went to West Baden Springs in Indiana.  We talked about how the place was great, and how we knew we needed to get back soon.  Well, we made it back shortly after they put up their massive Christmas tree!

We got a great deal that included breakfast for us while we were there, a historic tour, and a cool back about the West Baden Springs and French Lick Resorts.

We arrived early, knowing that, even if we couldn’t check in, we could still enjoy the place.

We stopped first at the visitor center in tow, which is pretty close to West Baden Springs Resort.  There is always a nice staff person there to tell you about the area.  They also have a ton of great promotional magazine and brochures about various Southern Indiana towns!  I walked out with a handful of material to help me plan future trips!

Like I said, we were early to town, but we decided to go on to WBS and see if our room might be available.  As we assumed, it was not, but the check in staff was very pleasant about it and we were welcomed to enjoy the property as we waited.  We visited several of the shops on the main floor, and then we read for a while in the beautiful atrium.

Check out the photos of the atrium.  You can see how grand it all is….  But you can’t understand it unless you actually walk in to it, and feel being there under the huge dome. 

Speaking of reading in the atrium….  This is such a special and historic place.  I consider time spent reading in the atrium very special time.  It’s a great environment and I really enjoy relaxing with a book in this space.

After that, we enjoyed a one hour tour of the hotel that was included with our stay on this visit.  Several years ago, when we stayed the first time, we did the tour then too.  It was nice hearing the history again.  Our guide told us about the angel paintings done in the ceiling attached room just under huge roof.  You can’t access the area where the original paintings are, but there are copies around the Christmas tree.

I am still amazed at how West Baden Springs went from being a bit of a crumbling mess in 1996 to a functioning hotel in 1998.  Now, it is nearly flawless.  There are pictures on the wall, that our guide pointed out, showing the massive hotel throughout its history.  Some of the photos show rubble.

I enjoy hearing about some of the window art in the front check in area.  There were 8 angels painted on different sections.  Well, as the hotel sat abandoned, all 8 windows were stolen.  Well, 4 of the angels were found at an antique shop in Kentucky.  The thieves who took them were never found.  The 4 missing angel windows were replicated.

After our tour, our room was ready!  This was our first time not having a room overlooking the atrium.  The room was great, and we loved it…  but there is something special about the atrium here, and having an atrium view is a real treat.  Then again, we did hang out in the atrium a lot on this visit.

We ended up having dinner at Ballard’s in the Atrium on this day.  I love WBS so much, I hate to be critical, but there are some issues with Ballard’s in the Atrium.  Our food was, for the most part good (I had a Reuben on Rye and end of the bread was rock hard).  We had to ask for refills and things, including salad dressing for my wife’s salad after the dressing less salad was brought out.

Some of my family from Owensboro met us at Ballard’s the next day for a family lunch and our experience was totally different.  We had a very nice waiter named Austin that was on the ball and great. 

We ended up having our two breakfasts at Sinclair’s.  More on that later but those meals were ridiculously perfect.  We had a different Austin as our waiter and he was great too.

It was cold, and even rainy at times while we were at West Baden Springs, but it didn’t matter.  

There were lights and other Christmas decorations up everywhere.  The garden area was lighted beautifully, and it was so nice walking around and admiring everything- inside and out.