Spencer County: St. Meinrad

** Before I start this post, can I be so bold as to ask you who are prayer-inclined folks to pray for me today? I have my great dental event this morning, and it's scheduled to last between 4-5 hours. My specific requests are that I will either be fully asleep or seriously SO loopy that I don't know what's happening to me during the procedure - and that my jaw will handle being open that long better than I think it will. And that they don't break my jaw during the thing. I ask for prayer for that only because I had a dream that it really happened, and it has me so. freaked. out. **

Back to our vacation.

Since school is back in session, Holiday World is only open on weekends, so we took our Friday off work to tour Spencer County, where Holiday World is actually located. This county was actually formed from the parts of two other neighboring counties and is named for Captain Spier Spencer, who was killed at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. A big claim to fame for this county is that President Abraham Lincoln lived in it from the time he was 7 until he was 21. There's actually a national memorial on the land where his family lived.

Please take note of my classy hair. God bless the wind. :)

{Note: over my right shoulder, you can see a cone looking thing sticking up above the trees. That is part of the bridge into Kentucky. Our hotel was literally across the street from Kentucky. The Ohio River is behind those trees, and the state line is right at the start of the river.}

We started our tour of the county by crossing to the opposite side to tour St. Meinrad Archabbey. We aren't Catholic and so I know dreadfully little about these sorts of things, but I did happen upon the information that there are only 11 archabbeys in the entire world, and only 2 of those are in the United States. {The other one is in Pennsylvania.} I figured it was rare enough that we should make sure we visit it to soak up the culture and architecture!

It was founded in 1854 by an Abbey in Switzerland. One of its main purposes is to educate leaders in the Catholic Church, and in fact, the day we visited, the students were arriving for the next term. We passed a lot of signs directing them!

They have a STUNNING church building - built back starting in 1900. Look at it:

 As we walked over the hill and it came into view, I said to Ryan, "How did they even ACCOMPLISH something this amazing in that time period? The brochure we picked up said it took seven years to build, and it was completed by monks and area townspeople who used sandstone quarried right there on the property, and hauled in mule-drawn wagons. The blocks were all cut by hand.

Unreal.

We were fortunate that no one was inside when we went through, so we were able to soak up some of the inside beauty as well:

After touring the church we took a walk through the grounds, enjoying a really tranquil rock garden area and making our way through the cemetery - hundreds of years of men who devoted their lives to this place!

Before we left, we stopped in the gift shop - which also had a casket company. I can honestly say I've never seen that combo before!

I really appreciate all the hard work and thought that has gone into making this beautiful place; it was an honor to visit and absorb everything it stands for!