Z to A games. All the "P" games in one night.

There are only three.  We began with Poo.  Matt won.

We moved on to Poker, where I discovered I am much better than Matt.  I won.
He's not much of a gambler.

For most of the game I had a progressively larger pile of his chips.  We finally set a timer to and declared the person with the most chips when the timer went off the winner.

And here is my winning hand.

We moved on to Pirate Fluxx

Matt played the "talk like a pirate" card, mostly to annoy me.  I countered by talking like a pirate's pet crow (Caw, Caw!) while Matt hurt his vocal cords saying too much "arrrrrgggggh"

He won the game.

Dinner at Lardo

Before attending the theater, we stopped at Lardo for dinner.  Matt got a burger which he inhaled in roughly five bites.  

I had a Cubano, which was incredibly with the pork belly and cheese and good filling and warm and oozy on delicious bread.  We also shared a Kale salad which was delicious.

And that pickle was good too. I got two of them, because Matt doesn't understand how delicious pickles are.

Dayton to Drive-in, it's still summer!

Time for another 5k, this one in Dayton.  I'd not been to Dayton, but it's a right-nice looking small town.  In their town square they had a fort and an interpretive sign.

Here is my favorite line from this part of the sign:  "[Joel Palmer] established the Western Oregon reservations and led the way for removal of the tribes; which kept tribes safe from settler attacks."

Um, yes, but...  I realize that I'm judging Mr. Palmer's actions from a modern perspective and that's not really fair, but STILL.  That's like saying that women having a 10pm curfew while at college will keep them safe from rape-y guys.  Not really and why are we focused on the women, not the rape-y guys? 

Mr. Palmer was forced from office, accused of favoring native interests over those of settlers, so he probably was doing something right.

The fort has an unusual design which I enjoyed learning about.

And here is the tiny fort now.  

You can see there's been some shoring up of the structure.

The park in the square was full of pine cones which were very fun to step on. 

These two little girls were decked out in U of O cheerleader outfits which were incredibly cute.  Their mother (in the yellow) turned out to be the mayor of Dayton.

Upon finishing, I claimed my souvenir glass.  This was a fun race which took us past many Dayton churches and the school.  I finished in 37:46 which is a HUGE improvement over my previous time.  I also was 5 of 6 in my age group.  

Matt had to drop me off and go to tutoring, so he was dressed fancy as an athletic supporter.

I came home for a bit, then set out to see a movie with friends.  I arrived early, so I killed time in Holladay Park which apparently has a reading room. I'm not sure if the guy on the left gave shoulder massages to all patrons, or just this specific one.

Driving to Dayton we passed the Newberg Drive-In and decided to come back for a double feature.  So we did.

It was classic car night.

There were cars from all decades.

Even some Tin Lizzies which arrived after the first movie had begun.

Look at this cute flyer.

I've watched movies from the back of a truck before!

Our show begins.  Notice my foot on the dash and Matt's clock radio providing the sound for us.

Dime Store and the Book of Mormon.

We had a lovely brunch at Dime Store, which is at the location of the former Leo's Nonsmoking Coffee Shop.  I adored the former Leo's Nonsmoking Coffee Shop, not only for the name, but the vintage counters and the fact that the very nice proprietor would present you with a copy of the newspaper seconds after you sat down in your seat.  His wife did the cooking and the fare was standard diner.  Delicious.  

The proprietor and his wife retired this year and Dime Store has taken over the place.  They updated the restaurant a little, but the renovations stuck with the spirit of the former restaurant so I approved.

Here's the menu which also tells us at the bottom that a 5% surcharge is added to each tab to help offset the cost of employee health care.  I found this interesting.

Matt gets ready to eat.

There's a newsstand area.

I was debating between an omelet and something with greens when I turned and saw the special I knew would be mine.

Egg in a hole!  Delicious and so inexpensive.

This incredibly large container (think gallon of paint sized) of MSG was on display.  I asked from whence it came, but the server did not know.  That is a lot of MSG!

We both had dessert.  Matt had a healthy cookie and I had chocolate cream pie.  The filling was delicious and the crust very tough.  I answered honestly when the server asked and he offered to not charge me, or give me a cookie to go, but I figured I ate it, so I could pay for it.  I expect tough crusts from restaurants anyway.  But was impressed he really wanted to make it better.  Overall, this was a great dining experience.

Here we are waiting for the Book of Mormon to begin.

Guess what's in the program for the musical the Book of Mormon?

Not one, not two,

But three (3!) ads for the actual Book of Mormon!

This made me laugh.  A lot.  I do appreciate the media-savvy of the Mormon Church.

The production itself was fantastic, though for some reason I was not really prepared for the raunchy nature of the songs.  It's not like I haven't seen Stone & Parker's South Park, South Park: Bigger, Longer Uncut and Team America: World Police.  Also Avenue Q by co-creator Robert Lopez.  Knowing this team's past creations, my head wasn't quite on straight. It's raunchy and very, very funny.  The songs were catchy and also moving.  I will always appreciate the rhyme scheme of "Salt Lake City/shitty". Both "Salt Lake City" and "Hello" stuck in my head.

Also, there was dancing!  Tap dancing, even, which included a  massive quick costume change that is perhaps my favorite moment of musical theater in the past five years.  I also enjoyed the Uganda setting as it allowed for not only good culture contrast, but display of different kinds of singing and dancing.

All in all, it was worth the many years I've waited to see it.

More of Edgefield

The next morning we got room service!  This was my first time ever getting room service!  Matt went back to sleep and I took a walk.

The Main Lodge has great photos and paintings of the Poor Farm's history, which is why I like staying at McMenamin's Properties.  Here's a photo of the Poor Farm employees in 1934.

A picture of the pool hall, which is still a pool hall!

There are a lot of tiny bars tucked hither and yon at Edgefield.  I found that interesting.

When the Poor Farm was decommissioned in the early 80s, it wasn't boarded up very well.  So there was a good decade of vandalism and thievery before McMenamins bought the property and renovated it.  I liked this mural because it shows the new (doors to the now-hotel rooms being painted) and the old (graffiti) 

There were several maps of the Poor Farm at different times.  These I wished weren't placed so high on the walls because I really wanted to study them. One of my more-money-than-I-know-what-to-do-with fantasies is buying a large abandoned institution and making into some sort of bucolic Farm/Job training program. If that comes to pass, I'll come back to Edgefield and spend more time studying their maps.

Picture of the deterioration before renovation.

Typical McMenamins detail.

A doorway with a painting of the renovation.

Old picture of the Poor Farm.

See what I'm talking about with the porches?  This is the upstairs east-facing one where it would be a great way to start your day with some tea and a nice book or newspaper.

Just in case you were wondering about the cost of the new root storage house in 1941. Interestingly the labor cost $2937.00 and came from the W.P.A.  Five thousand dollars seems like a lot, but it is a 37 X 70 foot root storage house.  The paint only cost $14.04.

Rebuilding the cupola.

A reminder of the fishing that used to happen at Celilo Falls before the Dalles Damn flooded the site.

Here's a painting of that red door in the garden.  

I loved this picture of residents being given bananas.

Another picture of Celilo Falls.

More porch!

This portrait of a lady freaked me out, she was so realistic.  There's a pay phone there, if you haven't already guessed.

First off, notice the hand dangling above this painting.  Secondly, isn't Verne Jones' tie fabulous?  He was the administrator at the Poor Farm for 33 years and retired when the Poor Farm (which had become a nursing home by that point) closed.

The portrait was taken from this article, which included a black and white picture of Mr. Jones as he prepared to close the poor farm.  He was the last administrator.  Looking between the picture and painting I was surprised to notice that his tie really was that wild in pattern, it just didn't show up as much in a black and white photo.

I love this society lady photo op.

Discovered something marvelous too late for this trip, but will be taken advantage of on the next one.  This hotel, like other McMenamin's properties has no bathrooms in the rooms.  Instead there are a multitude of bathrooms throughout the property.  Some of them have sink/toilet/shower and some just have sink/toilet, so you choose according to your needs.  But at this property I found bathtubs!  There are a couple of bathrooms on the third (possibly second) floor!  There are no stoppers in the tubs, but if you use a rolled up washcloth, it works well enough.  If you like reading in the tub, plan your trip to include a bath!

Wavy carpet down a long hallway.  Yet another attention to detail I love.

This is a hatch-type thing to lead probably to some upper attic-type thing.  But look how they painted it into a cute optical illusion with a cat!

Here's a black rabbit hiding in some greenery.

On the third floor, rooms started being named after musical artists (presumably who have performed at Edgefield which also hosts concerts on the lawn in the summer). Here's Chris Isaac.

And here's a blurry photo of the Etta James room.

In that same hallway, I found an Exit door that surprised me.

It led to an unadorned staircase which went all the way down to the first floor and deposited me right outside my room.

Good working drinking fountain.

One of the bathrooms overlooks a lovely courtyard.

Most of the windows had these interesting features: metal flaps that opened and closed. I think it was for air circulation without opening the whole window.

Gorgeous mural in a women's lounge area.  Aside from lounging, which you can do on one of the couches in the room, there are four bathrooms to choose from.

At one point the Black Crows played Edgefield.  From a historical perspective, concert posters bug me because they rarely say the year.

Portrait of the art team.

Portrait of the renovation crew.

The four McMenamins properties we have not yet stayed. (A list of where we have:  Crystal Hotel, Kennedy School, Olympic Club and now Edgefield)

I bought postcards for my Postcrossers.

Overall, this was a great place to stay.  It would be fun to come here for a multi-day stay. Some porch sitting to begin the day, a hearty hike in the Colombia River Gorge mid-day, then a good dinner, a soak in the soaking pool, and a movie at the Power Station, or perhaps a concert on the lawn.