Friday, October 31, 2014

Tree to Tree Adventure Park & Halloween at Grand Lodge

Before we get to Tree-to-Tree Adventure park, let's look at how pretty Grand Lodge is.  And do you see that fan at the window at the end of the hall?  That fan was blowing air, because Grand Lodge runs hot.  I couldn't get over how incredibly warm that building was.  I walked around barefoot most of the time, which is something I haven't done in my own house for a few weeks.
Then we went to Tree-to-Tree Adventure Park, which is outside of Forest Grove, by Hagg Lake.  We loved it.  They have a big zip line, but we did the Ariel Obstacle Course.  We suited up in those harnesses that climbers wear and then hooked ourselves in to the training course where we learned to hook on to the safety cables, walk through the obstacles and do the zip lines within the obstacles.  The courses got progressively harder and the zip lines higher and higher.  The instructors were great and gave the exact amount of help.  Also, when we were there, there were only five other people, so we had tons of time to do as much as we wanted.  This is a picture of our hands at the end, because we were having too much fun to take pictures.

Here is the sign decorated for Halloween.  The course was too, with ghosts and tombstones here and there.
I should also say that Matt did all of the courses, including the very hard Black course.  The instructor who was helping him said he was the first person to listen to her instructions all week.

Back home we had dinner and each got a pint of seasonal cider.  I was looking forward to mine, having enjoyed the bit I tasted with the Wine Sampler.  Matt ordered the Blackberry.  We both got our stamps.  Then Matt gave me his to drink.  I came nowhere near to finishing both.

We went around collecting stamps for Grand Lodge and decided to take in the Haunted House set up in the Children's Cottage.

The haunted house was at exactly my preferred level of scary:  not very.  This room was set up in an homage to the board game Clue.  You can see the wrench in this picture.

And the table set for all the Clue players.  Along with the knife.

The sign said "Walk up if you DARE."  We dared.

Scary photos.

Scary pentagram.  There was another scary room that was about this level of scary. Again, I was quite happy with this level of scary.

There was candy on the porch. And a scarecrow who would sit up and hand out glow sticks.

Abundant fungi at Grand Lodge.

Having completed all our passport stamps, we each chose a prize.  Matt went for the disk, I chose the pint glass with pin.
There were two different live bands and trick-or-treaters wandering the halls.  It was the most festive Halloween I've had in years.  Maybe next year we will book a stay at a McMenamins property for Halloween.

2 comments:

balyien said...

Wow, that adventure park sounds really cool. I'd love to do something like that. And that haunted house is adorable! I'm typically not a big fan of haunted houses. The last one I went in was so dark that I tripped over something and hurt myself. :-/ I've already forgotten if you said Matt's beer was blackberry or raspberry, but I think either would be delish.

Sara K. said...

Wow! This looks like great fun. I am sorry to say that I am about to do a drive by commenting session! I cannot get over how behind I am with my commenting. Please forgive the lack of depth, it is not out of disinterest!!! I even did 4 blog posts for us this morning!!!

Being done is fun!