Day 2 p.m. Grand Lodge

The Grand Lodge McMenamins was originally a Masonic retirement home, built in 1922. The Masons know how to treat their people right (and their families) and this building is proof. As opposed to Edgefield, which was a poor farm, the residents here were much better off. It was in use up until 1999 when a new facility was built and the McMenamins brothers worked their magic. (below; a sitting room across from front desk)

Well it was still hot as hell at check in (no joke, still over 100, and that's HOT for western Oregon standards) and we were moving a bit more slowly after our evening at Edgefield. While the gang napped away the heat of the day I did my wandering, camera in one hand, cold beer in another.

Most of the artwork illustrates the formers residents of the Lodge, some of them quite the characters. Here is "Cookie" as the Queen of Hearts. She lived to be over 100 years old. Notice the little chocolate chip cookies in her middle.

You know this old gal must have been famous for her cakes!

Some of the best artwork is in the basement. Home to two of the property's 3 bars, a spa and a soaking pool, the ceiling pipes and maze-like nature allow for plenty of creativity. The heat rather ruined our appetites for dinner so we had milk shakes instead and listened to a bluegrass band.

We were all still feeling the heat but felt bad hanging out in the basement bar all day so we ventured out to the outdoor bar The Yardhouse. We still weren't hungry until the server told us the special was sliced watermelon! How perfect is that!

So as the sun set (and cooled off maybe 5 degrees) we ate our juicy treat and listened to a rather entertaining dual of the wedding bands. There were only 3 weddings going on at the Lodge, two of them outdoors and on either side of the bar. We enjoyed a number of butchered 80's songs before we decided to call it a night and be ready to depart in the morning.

Luckily, the ride home was cooler and much faster than the car-fire laden ride down!

Many more pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_hbic/

Day 1 - Nightmare on I-5

The four of us left on time and ready to go! We’d told our friends so much about these places and were eager to finally show them. Our excitement lasted about an hour. Traffic was horrendous. A parking lot. Worse than that Thanksgiving Day trip that took us 12 hours instead of 6. Was it a holiday? No. Did a baseball game just let out? No. Accident?

Yup. A large crane, the big, city kind, had caught fire and was a melted wreck on the highway. Now the temperature is creeping up too, but we expected that. Traffic is still crawling. Another accident, this time a city bus was on fire, the whole thing a charred mess. Now the temperature is 100.

We crawl along at a snail’s pace in the unbearable heat until we pass another fire! This one looks like a vehicle caught on fire, then started fires on both sides of the highway. They had just re-opened the road or we would have been at a stand-still the whole time.



What should have taken an easy 4 hours took 7 but we finally arrived. And there is no parking. I mean there are so many people here (4 weddings per day plus conferences) that they had to direct us to park in a neighboring field! I didn’t think to drop everyone off at the door with our bags so we lugged them across the field in the 105 degree heat. But we made it and cold beer is only moments away! (below, side entrance and the Black Rabbit Restaurant)

We check in, dump our bags and practically run to the basement pub where we assume it will be coolest. Wrong! It’s a stifling coffin down there. We’re hungry too but at least we have beer in hand now and we go in search of a cooler spot.(And you can wander the entire estate with your beverages!). At last we find a seat in one of the bars, directly underneath a wheezing, dying AC unit. Heaven at last!

Let the good times roll! We polished off our fantastic dinners in record time and washed it all down with more deliciously cold, handcrafted beer. Part of our room package included a bottle of wine and a cheese tray in the winery so we rushed off, with full bellies, to consume it before they closed. Our server was cranky at out late arrival but we showed her what we were capable of and devoured it in the 15 minutes we had left. Deeeelicous! A cool chardonnay with brie, grapes and crackers.

Afterwards we wandered the property, showing our friends the sites and enjoying the slightly cooler nighttime air. There was the Jerry Garcia bar (their fav, see weather van above), a tiny little cozy, hippy den that played Grateful Dead videos all night. Then we went up to the Distillery for a cigar and a shot of whiskey. It’s at the edge of the property near the golf course and you could feel the cool air from the sprinklers coming down the hill. Everyone sat outside on the benches near (but not too close!) a large bonfire. Incredibly, one of our party actually worked up an appetite for a midnight snack so we hit another restaurant and helped him polish off a sandwich. My memory gets a bit hazy at this point but I don’t think any of us lasted much longer. (Here is one of the many balconies available for general settin' and drinkin")



Off to bed! We have most of the next day to see everything in the daylight and do everything we missed because of our late arrival.

More pictures here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_hbic/