We went on yet another trip in June.  We went back to Oregon.  Now Tom and I are both fond of this state.  We both lived there briefly (Tom in the late 1980s working as a firefighter, and me in the early 1990s in my residency), and we both separately contemplated moving there.  I developed my fondness for McMenamins when I lived in Portland and went to the Hillsdale Brewery and Public House.  Little did I realize how much this franchise would expand.

In March 2020, I had made reservations at several McMenamins for my birthday and to get some passport stamps (the passports we received from my cousins Keith and Christina in 2017).  But then the pandemic happened, and I cancelled all of this reservations.  So I somewhat recreated that trip again.  And I haven’t been to the Black Sheep Gathering in 9 years for a variety of reasons.  I haven’t been since they left Eugene.  So on Thursday we headed out to accomplish these things.

En route we stopped at the Spar in Olympia for lunch.  I went here occasionally when I was in college so it is always fun to revisit it.

We had our beagle along for the trip so had to take a potty break too.

Then we drove to Gearhart.  We passed a lot of historic sights that we didn’t have time to stop and visit.  A trip to Astoria and these places is on my bucket list.  We arrived at our hotel.

We had a snack on the patio.

And then headed to the beach.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

This hotel has a lot of history.

After dinner we settled in to watch the debate.  What a debacle.  But at least we got to see it.  Most McMenamins do not have televisions in the rooms.

We headed out Friday morning.  There was a  cocktail party that night at Gearhart in honor of James Beard which I would have loved to attend but couldn’t.  Here is art from the poster for it.

But we did get to drive by the house he used to stay at with his mother in his childhood summers.  Fairly recently I read his book Delights and Prejudices which described this time as well as his time in Portland growing up.  It is a great book, and I have bookmarked quite a few recipes to try from it.

We arrived in McMinnville and had lunch on the rooftop of the hotel.  We had been here before on our Highway 99 trip (one of my all-time favorites) but didn’t have passports then.

We walked the beagle around town a little.  She loved it.

Then we checked into our room.

We checked out the art on the walls.

And some of the bars, collecting our stamps.

We each took a long hot bath in the antique claw foot tub in our bathroom.  It was wonderful!

We dined outside with the pup and enjoyed the MacFresco sights and sounds.

Then Saturday morning we drove to Black Sheep!  I was so excited to see it again!

I checked out sights in the Marketplace first.

I then went to the Wool Show.  I was hoping to knit while the judging was happening.  But they had wrapped up early which thwarted my plans.It didn’t seem like they had as many fleeces as they used to.

So I checked out the sheep judging (and said hi to our shearer who was announcing it) and tried to knit there  But it was too dark, and I messed up.  So gave up.  It also seemed like there were less animals than there used to be too.

I meet up with Jeanne, Marlys and Rico.  We had lunch with some of their friends and caught up which was really nice.  Then I went to check out the wool sale.  Here are the Shetland fleeces, again not as many as I would have thought.

Here’s a blue ribbon winner.

I was not (I told myself) going to buy a fleece.  I have way too much wool already.  But this Angora goat fleece somehow jumped into my hand.  It was so soft and pretty, I couldn’t leave it behind.  Now I will have to decide how to best process it.  Advice is welcome.

I revisited the vendors and bought a colorful roving

and a natural colored alpaca roving.

So all in all, I think I showed some restraint.  Tom bought a t-shirt, lotion (for his healing burns) and soaps in the morning.  He then left to run around the area with Ryeleigh while I spent the rest of the day there.  He came back to get me and my loot, and we headed to Corvallis for snacks and stamps.

Then we headed to Salem for dinner and stamps.  I must say that the people working at Thompson were not friendly.  Not a great experience.  The people at Boons were much friendlier but awfully busy.  (We had eaten at Boons before on our Highway 99 trip too.)

We got up Sunday morning in McMinnville to get packed to travel some more.  Our back fence camera had been silent the whole trip until that morning when some deer were recorded.  No signs of the bobcat which is nice.

I walked Ryeleigh around town one more time and sat with Abe for a bit.  She seemed to like this part of the trip most of all for some reason. There were a lot of dogs walking around as well as squirrels in the trees.

We headed to Edgefield.  We had stayed here once before for a New Year’s Eve celebration, way before we had passports.  And since it was winter, this was a whole different experience.

We got some lunch.

Got some more passport stamps

and enjoyed the art.

We had arrived early as I had scheduled staggered massages for both of us (staggered due to the beagle).  So we had to wait a little to check into our room.  But we finally we able to during Tom’s massage.

Below is the room we had stayed at the last time we were here.  It is amazing that I remember which one it was.

We had a nice dinner at the Black Rabbit restaurant and then headed to the salt water soaking pool.

We had completed all of our 10 Edgefield stamps and got our prizes.  Tom got a hat, and I got a stuffed animal. I gave that the Ryeleigh to play with.

We took her out on a twilight walk, checking out more of the sights.

This morning I got up a little early and explored the halls a little more.  McMenamins are so much fun to walk around and checking out the art, historical photos and whimsical embellishments.

While Tom was getting packed, I took Ryeleigh out to the concert grounds one more time.

It was a wonderful trip.  My apple watch tells me that my resting heart rate has decreased significantly in the last 3 weeks.  I think it is due to being relaxed for the first time in a while.  It is nice.  I am hoping I can take some of this relaxation home to me.  Unfortunately there is a whole farm’s worth of work that needs attending to now.  But thrilled to have accomplished these two trip goals.