I loved Indiana University at first sight. Same with St Mary of the Woods College.
I love the grounds.
Love, love, love them. If I had to go back to college again [God forbid!] I'd go to St Mary of the Woods just to hang out on the grounds.
That said, let me confess that this year the beauty of the grounds was mitigated by the ferocity of the insecture.
[Yeah, I made that word up.]
There is a gnat issue at SMW this year. Of course, there are gnats all over Indiana this year. Biting ones. Combine those with the mosquitoes and it's No. Fun. At. All. It is wise to cover oneself with bug spray. If you miss a spot, they will find it. I know this from personal experience.
When we were walking around the SMW grounds, the gnats were so bad, we had to brush them off the camera lens to take a shot. If there are blurry marks in the photos, that's where a gnat landed the second we stopped to take a pic.
We got a lot of exercise brushing the gnats off. And dancing around trying to keep them off our bods.
Anyway. The bugs won't last forever. And the grounds are beeee-utiful, so here's a little photo tour for you.
First stop, the labyrinth. I LOVE labyrinths. I can't resist them. But on our way to the labyrinth, we found this. I love the old capitals that they put the planters on.
And then we found the labyrinth. Yes, I walked the whole thing, without cheating. Here's K2 walking it.
Once we were done with the labyrinth, we walked over toward the grotto. And this is what we found. The stairs go down to the grotto. The bridge goes over to the drama building.
The view down to the grotto...
and the view across the bridge.
Then the bugs ate us alive and we scooted for cover in the church.
