Vintage Baseball

Last year, Fr. Paul mentioned to us about taking a road trip with his sister to watch a vintage baseball tournament that takes place every summer in West Baden Springs. As much as Andrew loves baseball, Tony and I decided it would be a fun family day trip. We started the morning at St. Joseph Corydon's annual summer picnic with my parents and Tony's mom. After all-you-can-eat fried chicken and homemade side dish goodness, we bid my parents farewell and continued the extra hour to French Lick, Indiana. French Lick and West Baden have a fascinating history that I can't even begin to do justice to. The best thing to do is to check our their websites: http://www.frenchlick.com/. Here is the inside of the West Baden resort's famous dome:
The baseball tournament was both yesterday and today. The teams play by 1860s rules, and wear vintage uniforms. There was a brass band entertaining between innings. The weather was perfect and we had a phenomenal time. Andrew was intent on the game, while Sophie and Aidan enjoyed playing in the grass more.

The barbershop quartet roamed the hotel and even made an appearance at the game at one point.
Andrew had lots of questions about the rules, and the "ballists" (players) were more than happy to take time to talk to him.

Enjoying some baseball with Daddy

After a long game, Daddy's back is the only way to travel!

We stayed for a game and a half, which ended up being a couple hours. We walked up to the resort, and then loaded into the car to drive the very short distance to the other resort at French Lick. The French Lick train station sits in the parking lot, and we had promised Aidan that even though we couldn't ride the train this time, we'd stop by the station.

After grabbing some ice cream, we were on the way out of town. It was a great way to spend a summer Sunday, and I'm positive that vintage baseball has now become a family tradition.