McMenamins Grand Lodge...

Here are the last pictures of our long week-end get-away in Portland. The last night, after our visit to Cannon Beach, we spent in the coolest hotel we've ever been in: McMenamins Grand Lodge! It is situated in an old Masonic Lodge  which was built in the early 20's, about half an hour west of Portland. Every surface was painted with texts and paintings etc about the local history. Very, very fun indeed!

Do check out their website because they have a lot more hotels like this one.

Click on photos to enlarge!

They brew their own beer so we spent their Happy Hour in the garden (a park) with a sampler tray of their beers and some fabulous tater tots and fries. Afterwards we played several rounds of Frisbee Golf (where you throw a small Frisbee disc over long distances into a metal cage) and we had a lovely time in their salt water spa/ pool. 

Here are some pics that I downloaded from their website to give you a better idea of the rooms with bunk beds that we had and of the pool.

And did I mention that these hotels are extremely affordable?

And then there were all the authentic vintage lamps everywhere! I only took a few pictures but believe you me: they were awesome!  {smile}

Excellent food was served there as well and after a wonderful breakfast (I had a mushroom and goat cheese omelet!) we drove back to Portland to visit the Lewis & Clark College. We had arranged a tour at this private college of 2000 students (extremely small for American standards) and Mr. G. and myself were ready to start studying there right away!  <wink> We'll see what Master C. decides in the spring but it was a very cool school. Of course it is private so the cost will be around $50.000 per year (!) which we obviously cannot afford, but they are generous in their financial aid department, so we'll just wait and see... 

It is difficult to see on the pictures but the school had a view of Mount Hood in the distance: wow!

We drove home after that and from the car I took a few more pictures of Portland and of Mount Hood. What a great place!  {smile}