Baxter's adventure in Tacoma (part 2)

 Hello Blog readers, as you might remember my plan to look for free public art by Dale Chihuly was not as fruitful as planner.

That's ok, this bear can readjust.  First, take  a brain break, time to play some pinball.  That ought to take my mind off of the failed exploration.

Ajdin would like this machine.

I decided to continue looking at free art and went to the Mcmenamins Elks Lodge in Tacoma.  McMenamins is know for lots of art to look at in their restaurants.

Ooh, a scavenger hunt.  This is right up my alley.

Nope, this isn't it.  Comfy chairs in the lobby :)

Nope, no little green men but I like the animals in the upper left corner. 

Argg, someone save me. 

Maybe I should go outside to explore. 

Aha! Found it. Time to celebrate with a beer. 

Wait, where the pictures? Well, you know....humans do I need to say more?

What a nice day, time to take a walk back to the bus station and head back to the cottage.

If you ever get a chance to vistit Tacoma you have to go. It's a beautiful city. 

This fox is hungry.  Perhaps the humans will stop at Burger Ranch for dinner?  According to this sign they have the best fish (makes sense, right???)

No Burger Ranch but we did get some great Vietnamese food at a local spot in town.  Plus saw some cool glass (not Chihuly) art lit up at night. 

Thanks Tacoma for a great weekend.  

Time to explore with Little Fox

 Hiya Gang,

Little Fox here. Today I am hanging out at the McMenamins Edgefield. Just finished my lunch of a burger and tater tots and now this fox is ready to explroe. 

Every year the pastry chefs at McMenamins create  a gingerbread house of the Manor.

Before Edgefield became part of the McMenamins empire it was a county poor farm built in 1911.  It replaced the previous county poor farm named 
Multnomah County Home for the Destitute.  When it first opened if you were able to work on teh farm you got meat with dinner, if not mush.. 

It operated as a poor farm until the early 60s when it was turned into a nursing home for the county  In the early 90s McMenamins bought it, remodeled it and the rest is history.

As you can see this is an elaborate gingerbread house.  

According to the write up by the pastry chef this year they were going for a spooky halloween/christmas feel. I think they nailed the theme.

Time to explore.  When the McMenamins crew bought the property they had all sorts of challenges (haunted rooms, graffiti like there was no tomorrow etc.) and rabbits. 

Meet Red, the rabbit.  There are lots of paintings dedicated to Red. 

Sorry Red, no munching.  Red was named by yours truly.  We bought a bottle of Black Rabbit Red years ago at a McMenamins (and guess who was on the label).  The name has stuck ever since. 

Red and pals. 

Red, a toad and fox. 

Red is even the mascot on their homemade blackberry ice cream. 

Rabbits everywhere. 

Jeez Red.  Is there anything you don't do around here? 

Red even does the dishes. 

Red is one of the hardest working rabbits around.  He's a vintner, brewer, distiller along with his other rolls as mascot, dishwasher, musician, restauranteur, and guy who rides on a frog. 

Red pretty much has retired and hangs out at the house with me and my gang.  

Red did recommend that when I as at McMenamins to find the Red Fox Room (a secret social club for stuffies only).

Time to explore

 Hello Blog Pals,
Little Fox here. It's a beautiful day so why not head out to explore a new place.  My adventure today is at the McMenamins Kalama Lodge.  Whenever this fox goes to a Mcmenamins hotel he always looks for the scavenger hunt clue.  Ah, here it is. 

The clue is asking to me to find some dancing salmon and a curtain.  Hmm, I'm off.   

First stop is the brewery.  Nope no salmon here but if I am lucky maybe I will be able to sample the beer. 

I think my clue might be a painting. I found this painting on the wall, no salmon, no curtain but a dog.  

Nope, no salmon here.  This picture is of a traveler who would come to town, knock on your door and if you invited him to a meal he would thank you by breaking out his violin and his dancing mice.  Yep, real story. 

I must be getting close.  Do you see the salmon?  Back in the day they canned a lot of salmon in Kalama.  The canneries are long gone.....

Maybe I should look for my clue outside.  No luck but I did see a big totem pole.  No fox on it but there was a bear. 

What a beautiful day.  

My roommates are tasking me back to work.  They say I can have a beer when I find the clue.  Let's go!!!!

Found it!  Curtain, check.  Salmon, check. Dancing, check.  

Yep, this one is all for me. 

What's next for this little fox?  

Little Fox earns a day trip as a reward for his supervision skills

Greetings Blog Pals,
Little Fox here.  As you may remember I worked hard last week building some Ikea furniture.  As a reward for my supervision skills my roommates took me on a daytrip that included a nice scavenger hunt.

My adventure takes me to the Hotel Oregon in Downtown McMinnville Oregon.  As I enter the lobby I noticed this cool art deco light.  I might have keep this picture in my file archives if Sandy has another art deco contest.  This lamp came from an old church in Coos Bay, Oregon.

Here is my clue. I need to find Ruby tiptoeing south for the winter.  Ruby is one of beers that Mcmenamins brews across the Northwest (in fact they have been doing it since 1986).  It's made from raspberries and other things that go into beer (hops, yeast etc) and it's really good.  

Off to look at some art.  This picture caught my eye.  The rabbit in the far right looks really scared (probably because his pal is being abducted by a UFO). 

Onward.  I know this picture doesn't match the hunt but the squirrel wearing a hard hat mining nuts is pretty darn cool. 

On my adventure I made it to the rooftop bar.  Some rain today but looking westward the weather seems okay.   Ruby is not hanging out up here.  Time to move on. 

Onward....

This bear is really protecting his grub. 

The Hotel Oregon originally opened as the Hotel Elberton (1905) and the Elberton Grill opened in 1920.  Why is there a picture of a bear for the hotel?  Probably because bears are cool. 

Hmm, this person seems to be tiptoeing.  Could it be Ruby?

Yes, it is.  Yipee! Ruby sure seems to be tiptoeing and I made my roommates check the compass on their phones and she is facing south.

Time to celebrate my success.  Follow me gang back to that rooftop bar.

  Nope, no Ruby ale for me, instead I got the "Terminator Stout".  Terminator has been around since 1985.  

Corvallis Oregon! (aka the lost Sandy blog #2)

Hiya everyone,
It's Sandy here and when LF and I got together this summer there was another adventure/blog that the sekrebearies forgot to post in a timely manner.  LF says this is to be expected being that his sekrebeary works cheap.  Humans, what do you expect?

Anyway, today's adventure takes us to Corvallis, Oregon.  Corvallis is home to Oregon State University, GO BEAVS!

OSU is the agricultural and engineering institution in the state.

College is out of session so campus is pretty quiet.  OSU has a good baseball team  and a so-so football team but what LF says they are most known for is the marionberry.  It's a berry cross developed at OSU from way back in the stone ages (1956).

 Go BEAVS!

Corvallis is a nice little college town.

 It's located on the banks of the Willamette River.

Corvallis is the county seat.  Here's the courthouse.

Luckily, this bear and fox have been staying out of trouble so we don't need to visit the courts but it's important to vote.  We are voting for the "pro stuffie" candidate.

One of the reasons the roommates wanted to go to Corvallis was to try some beer at FlatTail Brewing.

They have a cult classic beer only brewed in the spring.  It's called "El Guapo" and it's cucumber, limes and habernero peppers.  Little Fox really likes the dark beer.  Sandy is showing more constraint.

It's hard to find in stores so the humans decided to come down today to see if they had any bottles left for sale.  Nope, no bottles for sale.


Next stop is 2 Towns Cider Works.  They produce lots of cider and distribute it all around the northwest.

 Dry apple cider but also fun flavors like mango, strawberry, pineapple and marionberry.

Perhaps you should slow down Little Fox?

That's better.  Everyone is upright and ready to go. 

All this exploring is making these two stuffies hungry and as we all know no adventure would be complete without lunch.  Luckily, a McMenamins was nearby.

This McMenamins is near OSU and offers lots of heart healthy options (none of which we got).

One neat thing about McMenamins is that they have lots of original artwork in each pub.  Time to explore.

Fun games like Shuffle Board.

A nice colorful picture.

More sinks on the walls.

In a few minutes we need to catch the stuffie express back home. 

Here it comes.