Old St. Francis School

Location: I arranged a trip to Old St. Francis School in Bend w/ some friends. I've always wanted to go to Bend in February as a way to reset my sun clock after a long rainy Portland winter. Sven & I went years ago and had a really nice time.

Fellow travelers:
Originally, Sven, Cecilia, Carl, Serin & Luke were all going to go. By the time the date arrived, only Serin & Luke came. But then sadly Serin got sick after dinner, so at the end it was just me & Luke sharing a scotch and cigar at O'Kanes! I guess it was a pretty good way to meet someone for the first time. :)

For some reason every photo I took of them is blurry:

It was actually pretty amusing that Luke came because so many things are named after Father Luke: 

 

Favorite light:
Luke thought this light at O'Kanes was pretty unique, and I agree.

I also thought this was an unusual mounting for one of their signature sun lamps:

Favorite art:
The soaking pool is my very favorite art. The Old St. Francis soaking pool is the best one in the whole chain. I love how it is totally enclosed but without a roof, which means the ambient air temperature varies drastically (in this case, it was VERY cold in the soaking atrium, which made the water that much more delicious). An open roof also allows for stars and rain (or even snow!). I love the tile work here. I love the lion spouts & fountain, which also help buffer the noise from other soakers. But I especially love the sun & moon stained glass windows, in part because they are aligned appropriately east-west, so in the morning the sun streams through the sun window beautifully. But I had to wait until guest-only hours because the soaking tub was PACKED otherwise.

But I also liked many of the other arts at Old St. Francis:

 

 

Food: 

I had an excellent fish the first night that was paired with mediocre sides. I tried room service for breakfast. But the star at Old St. Francis is the scones! They were soft and flavorful without being overly sweet. If I had known how amazing they were, I would have bought more. They change the flavor every day and are half-off after 3 p.m. The strawberry ones, in particular, are perfect. I wish more McMenamins locations carried these scones!

Passport stamps:
Old St. Francis School, Old St. Francis Pub, Fireside Bar, O'Kanes

The Fireside room was PACKED. We tried to play shuffleboard there but the waiting list was long. But I loved O'Kanes. This double door was especially wonderful:

Because I completed an Passport page, I was eligible for a "Nun's Choice" prize. I chose a pack of McMenamins cards because I've not seen that as an option before. And how fun to play with friends the next time I go to a hotel!

Lodging:

Dear McMenamins: a portrait of the person your room is named after outside the room is charming. An art piece including that person as one of several elements inside the room is cool. But a portrait inside the room is creepy. I really don't like rooms where someone is staring at me in bed. In this case, Henry.

This room felt huge compared to the rooms I usually stay at because all the rooms at the St. Francis have bathrooms. Comfortable and pleasant rooms with great showers The only problem is that the rooms are next to the sidewalk and because people are loud outside, the heater fan needs to be run at all times just for the white noise.

I initially wanted to stay in one of the cottages, but they were totally booked months ahead of time! And alas, apparently someone bought those cottages and is moving them to Sun River so McMenamins can build more units in those spots. So now I'll never know what the cottages look like inside.

Other items of note:

• Apparently the brewery was built first! Then the restaurant & hotel.
• I was surprised St. Francis doesn't offer a free movie for hotel guests like many other McMenamins hotels do.
• Sadly, no milkshakes at this location.
• I only learned long afterwards that one of the paintings had been vandalized and repaired, and now I wish I had taken a closer look at the wolf drinking coffee w/ St. Francis around a campfire!

Explorations:

 

Also, I got to visit the lava fields! It was SO COLD:

 

Thump, a coffee shop just across the parking lot, with wish tags written in wood scraps:

Finally, a time-lapse video of the drive to Bend:

...and from Bend:

music: "Sunshine A" by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Crystal Hotel

Location: I've been worried about when I was going to visit all the hotels, so I decided to jump into the new year by staying at the Crystal Hotel downtown. It's a place I probably never would have gone otherwise, but I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. Its prime placement in downtown makes it a wonderful place to explore SW and NW. The Crystal Hotel includes the Zeus Café, Al's Den, and Ringlers Annex. It takes up an entire triangular block. Combined with the Crystal Ballroom just one block west, this whole area is a Super Block of McMenamins Fun Times.

Fellow travelers: Michaelmas, Sven & my bike. Michael visited me for dinner the first night, and Sven stopped by the second night to try out the soaking pool.

Favorite light: 

Love the lights in the Zeus Café.

 

Favorite art: The stained glass windows in the Zeus Café always made me happy. Every time I saw them they changed with the light. [Update Jan14: Hey, these stained glass windows are artistic interpretations of the Grateful Dead song "Dark Star"!] 

And I found this both interesting and puzzling: where did it come from? Was this building an old International Order of Odd Fellows location?

Food: I enjoyed everything I ate at the Zeus Café: cinnamon grape soda, spiced cranberry soda, seared salmon, toffee hazelnut pudding, chilaquiles. (Hello, homemade sodas! I WILL be back!) Since the food was going to be the same at Ringlers Annex and Al's Den I didn't bother eating there. But because I was in downtown Portland, I also took the opportunity to explore a couple of other restaurants I had been meaning to go to: The Roxy (old school diner), Chinese Garden Tea Room, Cacao (the hot chocolate pour-over is INCREDIBLE), Boxer Ramen (meh).

Passport stamps: Crystal Hotel, Al's Den, Ringlers Annex, Zeus Café, Soaking Pool

 

This is another location that requires a photo clue to receive a stamp. It turns out they change the clue about once a month.

 

Because I toured the Crystal Ballroom on the second day of my stay, I completed the entire Crystal page in the Passport. It's my first completed page! That meant I was eligible for a "Crystal Surprise": a choice between a leather glass cozy or a plastic tumbler. Instead, I asked for a Crystal Ballroom patch because I wouldn't use the other things.

Also, the soaking pool meant I completed another four experiences, which got me another gift card!

Lodging:

Room 413, right at the intersection of Burnside and SW 12th. My room had a great view of the brewery blocks and the rising moon. Most McMenamins rooms are painted a parchment color, but the walls of the rooms at the Crystal Hotel are a deep rich blue, the color of the sky the moment after twilight finally fades. Each room is named after a song and the lyrics are painted on the walls.

It's a bit noisy as a downtown hotel, but manageable -- much better than I expected near a thoroughfare like Burnside. (And they provide earplugs for sleeping if necessary.)

As usual, the bathrooms are down the hall. In this location the bathrooms also require a key card to enter. So does the soaking pool, a long wavy trench with bamboo-lined walls. The first night I had it all to myself, but Sven & I were not so lucky the second night.

Everything is connected: you can get to the hotel, the cafe, Al's Den and Ringlers Annex without ever leaving the building -- or you can enter each via a separate outside location. 

Other items of note:

• Guests at the Crystal Hotel get free admission to the Mission Theatre about four blocks to the West. It would have been an easy way to get an extra stamp, but it wasn't really showing anything I wanted to see. The Living Room Theater is even closer, but it also wasn't showing anything I wanted to see.
• I never knew Ringlers Annex was three stories. Ringlers should also win an award for the Most Clandestine Table in Portland, tucked under the stairs in the bottom floor.
• Sadly, no milkshakes at the Zeus. 
• This visit coincided with the Chinese Garden's "9 Free Days," so I popped over there. A perfectly beautiful day! I also stopped by Powells. Hard to stay in your room when there's so much to explore!