Last weekend Jen and I took a quick little getaway to McMennamin's Grand Lodge in Forest Grove. All my friends in Oregon know about McMennamins, but for those readers from other parts of the world they own some brew-pubs here in Oregon. They expanded into running hotels by taking over historical sites that were otherwise jeopardized. In the case of the Grand Lodge they took over what had been a Masonic retirement home. In the 1920's it was an orphanage as well and it's pretty heartbreaking to see the pictures of the orphans that decorate some of the halls. Each of the hotels are decorated with hand-painted faces in interesting places, such as on the elbows of exposed pipes on the basement level.
The Grand Lodge has a movie theater, a soaking pool, two restaurants, and of course wonderful beer. We stayed in the "JRR Tolkein" room which had a portrait of the master himself painted on one of the walls as well as a few well chosen lines from the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring.
We had an early-ish dinner and after walking around a bit and taking in the building we watched "The Darjeeling Limited". I love this movie - Wes Anderson's sense of aesthetics and humor are right up my alley and even though I've seen it before it is the kind of movie that you get more out of from repeated viewing. Jen, bless her heart, was tuckered out and fell asleep on me before the movie even got started.
The next day we had a late breakfast after reading the paper in bed. After breakfast Jen went to the on-site spa, where she got a facial treatment. Luckily for me, they also had a really nice sitting room where I could get cozy and read through a couple of issues of Rolling Stone.
