French Lick – 11/19/2014

Don’t get your hopes up, this is not a dirty post. It actually about our Thanksgiving trip out of town to French Lick, Indiana. We booked a room at the Big Splash resort/indoor water park. The water park is located on top of a hill, so its hard to miss, but not a place I would want to drive in or out of in slick conditions. The room was of decent size for the four of us. One of the features the family enjoyed was RFID bracelets that were worn in lieu of keys. To get in the room, place the band next to the lock and the door would electronically unlock. This feature made it quite easy to get in and out of the room without worrying about carrying keys or a card as it was always on you.

If I was paranoid about security, I would have been upset with the bracelet mechanism. My cell phone was able to read the bracelets and get the electronic key to the room. It wouldn’t take much work write the key back to a different RFID tag and get into the room. Getting another key would take some work (as its attached to the bracelet on another person’ wrist), but I don’t think it would be impossible. Enough of my IT security rant……

Back to the water park, here are a few photos of the kids having fun at the water park.

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Of course we didn’t spend the whole time at the water park. We partook of some of the local cuisine, and visited a famous landmark, West Baden Springs Hotel. The hotel  is very luxurious and has a long history of use and neglect. Several things make this hotel famous. First are several natural springs on the site, and second is the 200 foot atrium inside the hotel. Only photos do it justice.

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This was a great family trip to see a new area of the country and swim in cold weather. It was our first time eating beer can chicken chips!

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Finally, the hotel we stayed out is decorated nicely throughout with a water theme. Here are some of the walls we got to look at each day.

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Another great Thanksgiving with the family!

Hogan Haake