Category: To Occupy my Time

We are cashing in two of our six free hotel nights.  Thanks McMenamins Passport!  (McMenamins Passport replies: Thank you for spending all that money at McMenamins while completing your passport.)

We’re staying at Anderson School, which is the newest hotel in the chain.  I’m glad to use our free nights at this hotel, as it’s more expensive than some of the others.

Why is is more expensive than some of the hotels?  A bathroom! In the room!  While I don’t mind at all the shared bathroom situation at many of the hotels (and am happy to trade off the bathroom for a lower-cost room) it was nice to have our very own bathroom.  There was also a TV.  Very un-McMenamins-like!

It did have the same awesome artwork throughout.  We stayed in a room named after a local Bothell resident who became an astronomer. 

I didn’t take pictures of the soaking pool, but it was an interesting experience. (You can see a picture in this blog post, or by googling) When we walked into the pool area, it seemed to be very cold and the lifeguards were bundled up in sweats and blankets.  We got in the water and kept as much of our bodies as possible in the warmth.  It was night, so it took a while, but eventually I wondered if the skylights not skylights but openings in the roof.  They were indeed openings.  And the huge windows on one wall were not windows, but also openings.  It’s an indoor/outdoor pool.  Apparently, it was built that way, when Anderson School was a school.  McMenamins kept it the same way.

“What happens when it rains?” I asked the lifeguard.

“It rains through the skylight,” was his nonplussed answer.

“What happens when it snows?”

“It snows through the skylight,” he said with a shrug.

Because of the unique indoor/outdoor pool experience, at times the pool is closed due to fog.

On Saturday we ate at the Tavern on the Square (actually we also ate there on Friday night, [McMenamins says: Thanks for spending money onsite while staying in the room for free] but these pictures came from Saturday morning)

This set of stained glass windows is David Schlicker’s interpretation of Mike McMenamin’s most favorite Grateful Dead song “Scarlet Begonias”

The lyrics to the verse are carved around the bar.

Aside from watching three movies and reading, my big activity in Centralia this trip was taking a long walk on Saturday morning.  I walked Main Street until it turned into Harrison Street and took me to Fort Borst Park.  Here’s what I saw:

Given my upbringing, it was inevitable that the next work that came to mind after reading that sign was “Footloose“.

I was interested that this business was wholly outside. The garage to the right was rented to another business.

I also loved their muffler man.

Too many flutes at the pawn shop.

Typical setup.  Planned Parenthood on one side of the street, anti-abortion organization on the other.

Someone had placed a scrap wood bench in front of their house.

Crossing the Skookumchuck River.

Hoo-boy did I love this sign.  Clearly, at one time the Panda Inn was a different kind of establishment.

A “lady” tending her crop outside the Country  Cousin restaurant.

The Historic Fort Borst Blockhouse, which was originally built for protection, but actually used to store grain.  Later Mr. Borst bought it and it was used as a house while the Borst house was being built.  That’s when the windows were cut in.

Fort Borst Park has a lot going on.  I took the one mile trail around the park.

No one was fishing when I walked by.

Here is the historic Borst House.  It was not open for tours when I wandered by.

The Borsts had a lot of dead children.

This Oregonian grumblingly questions if the trail in Washington is really the Oregon Trail.

Another picture of the Borst house.

Master Gardeners! It’s always good to come across a demonstration garden.

There was also a one-room replica schoolhouse.  

So many things to do at Fort Borst Park.  The “Pioneer Soccer Fields” name cracked me up.  Those pioneers were big soccer players.  Or maybe they are fields honoring early soccer players?

I loved this brochure rack of information available to all.

Some of the brochures were a little worse for wear, but still imparting important information.

There was a swim center in the park.  And attached to the swim center was a…miniature golf course?

Look what’s coming soon at the miniature golf theater.

On my way back I stopped at the Goodwill.

I was blown away by their Halloween display, including Look Book.

You could also have a costume match up.  My match up?  Ghostly Lumberjack.  I like the May 23 choice:  Evil Hero.

I found a mini keyboard to bring along to the ukulele sing alongs I occasionally attend.  I loved the design, including the tape player that looks like a CD player.  Sadly, this keyboard is not in tune. The C is actually an A#, so back to the Goodwill (in Portland) it went, to delight another.  It cost me $4.00, so I wasn’t terribly broken up.

I spent some time reading in the Centralia Library and really liked this reading recommendation flow chart.

I had a weekend retreat in Centralia, Washington, at the same site of a previous vacation.  Like that vacation, I traveled by train.  It was a good train riding experience.  When I checked in, the ticket agent said, “Your train is two hours late.” I knew this already, having looked online.  Then she said.  “Do you want me to see if I can get you on the train that’s coming in about 15 minutes?” The answer to that question was yes, I did.  She could, so off I went on the earlier train, that was arriving later than my departure time.  (I would love it if the US really put money into rail travel.)

I arrived in Centralia, walked the two blocks to the Olympic Club Hotel, checked in, dropped off my things and headed downstairs for a free movie (which is one of the perks.  No soaking pool, though.)

Here is my room.  At this hotel several of the rooms have only skylights, not windows.  It was cozy.

A view of the skylight.  If I had a project to finish and needed to get away to do so, I would come here and stay in one of these rooms.  They are very focusing.