When to plant your impatiens? And what’s the best soil to
use?
Which signature cocktail served at French Lick Resort derives its name from a World War I bomb?
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| The new Horse Sense course combines a 30-minute informational session with a 45-minute trail ride. |
If you’re a beginning collector of memorabilia, how can you
start building a nice inventory without spending a ton of money?
You’ve got questions, we’ve got answers.
That’s why the doors are opening on “French Lick Academy,”
our series of interactive, how-to courses ranging from golf instruction to
wine-centered events. We get it — once you’re an adult, the idea of being back
in a classroom evokes the type of anxiety that you get in those dreams when the
final exam is approaching and you haven’t been to class all semester. But this
is a learning environment with better twists.
Class at the bar sound good? The Signature Cocktails course
running every Saturday afternoon in May will blend history and tastings with a
different theme each week. While historical background about popular cocktails
will be a common theme, there’s sure to be a few modern twists as well — such
as the second Saturday that will introduce the new Wheatley vodka, which is the
only 10 times distilled product on the market. And if you’re here on Kentucky
Derby Saturday, bourbon and the mint julep are naturally on the syllabus for
that day.
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| Items almost 100 years old (or more) will be part of the behind-the-scenes look during the French Lick/West Baden Memorabilia sessions on the Saturday and Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. |
Another nice thing with this line of study: you’ve got some flexibility as French Lick Academy offerings range from weekdays to weekends to holidays as well.
In addition to Signature Cocktails, three other courses run
on a recurring basis — Horse Sense (Mondays-Thursdays at 1 p.m. through October
29), West Baden Gardening Guidance (Wednesdays at 10 a.m. from April 25-May 23)
and Golf Instruction, which can be arranged on an individual basis (including a
50% discounted rate for children’s lessons).
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| Floral Manager Kim Holland has plenty of expertise to lend at the floral design course on May 11. |
It’s also a chance to see some of the folks who make the
magic happen across the resort, such as Floral Manager Kim Holland. (If you’ve
ever been here at the holidays and seen the lights and trees and endless
decorative touches, she’s the one behind all that.) This time, she’ll be
guiding the Floral Design class on May 11, which was positioned on the Friday
of Mother’s Day weekend for a unique family bonding experience.
“This class came about just because Mother’s Day is special
and it might give something for the moms and daughters to do,” said Holland,
who plans to guide her class-goers step by step through creating their own
small flower arrangement. “The best part is they can build it together, make it
together. So there’s more interaction there and it makes it a little more
special than just going out and buying something.”
All experience levels welcome at any of the classes —
Holland expects some in her course will have floral experience and others will
have zero, and she’ll be able to accommodate both.
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So what other course would Holland be curious to try if she were to branch out and try one herself? West Baden Gardening Guidance gets her vote: “That interests me — and it’s something to do with flowers, too — but just that process of how they do their stuff.”
Grounds supervisor Todd Schrank, who’ll lead the Gardening
Guidance, regularly hears from other resort guests curious about all the
flowers that start bringing the resort to life with a confetti of colors around
this time every year. “There’s all kinds of questions people ask: whether our
flowers are perennial or annual; what we do with them after we take them out
for the season,” he said. “People have questions about what kind of soil to
plant or how to amend their soils, what to use for that.” With 7,000 plants
currently in the West Baden greenhouse awaiting transfer to outdoors, Schrank
will have plenty of teaching props to show off as the class tours both the
greenhouse and the neighboring formal gardens at West Baden Springs Hotel.
Did we mention there’s wine with class as well? A West Baden
favorite, Wine and Canvas, is on the docket (Saturday, May 12) along with two
first-time wine functions. Cheers to Pallet Painting (Monday, May 7) and Pour a Glass, Paint a Glass (Tuesday, May 22) are new offerings where you can savor a
few glasses of wine while you’re here, and have a hand-painted pallet or wine
glass to take home afterward.
There’s no snoozers in this curriculum. And cell phones are
allowed in class, too, so tag us @frenchlickresort and use #frenchlickresort
when sharing photos of your French Lick Academy experiences.