2020 Road Trip - Day 4

 

We're at Stonehenge... sort of

There was no lounging at the Travelodge this morning. We woke up, showered, and headed to the Rainbow Café because the hotel employee who appeared out of the back room when I rang the bell at check-in last night told us to. For people who hate being told what to do, we sure do what we're told a lot.

The oldest restaurant in Pendleton

We found the Rainbow Café in an old building downtown and walked through a pair of squeaky, swinging doors into a dark restaurant lit solely by neon lights. On the right side of the room stood a long bar lined with 16 bar stools, and the left side was lined with booths. We chose a booth and then sat looking at the walls that were cluttered with photos and animal heads and sassy signs like, “The customer is always right. But the bartender will determine who is still a customer.” The Rainbow Café opened in 1883 under the name “State Saloon & Banquet” and has remained opened for the last 137 years. And that’s how long we sat there waiting for the Pendleton Underground Tour to begin.

The underground tour takes place, well, underground in a network of tunnels and basements beneath the buildings that used to make up Pendleton's red light district. We explored the prohibition-era cardroom and speakeasy, a brothel that actually had a chapel inside it for the working girls who wanted to go to church. Our tour guide was well versed in the stories, and I don't know how accurate they are. She referred to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 as "the Chinese Inclusion Act," and whenever I asked her a clarifying question she responded with, “Um. I have no idea,” and then just guessed an answer. 

At the end of the brothel tour, our tour guide said, “Next we’ll head down these stairs to the opium den,” and Chad turned to me and said loudly, “Oooo, your favorite!”

All 7 people in our tour group stopped to look at me. 

Thanks, Chad.

The speakeasy walls are stained pink
from the red velvet that used to hang there.
(Those are fake men. I talked to them for 6
minutes before I realized it.)

The tunnels are beneath these glass grates.

Directly below where we were standing in the top picture

Then and Now (I can't tell you the date in the Then picture
 because our tour guide didn't know it).

When the tour was over, we walked a few blocks to Hamley’s Western Store and Saddle Shop where they make beautiful leather saddles and then sell them for $5,000. Usually, visitors can watch skilled craftsmen make saddles right there in the shop, but Hamley’s currently doesn’t have a saddle maker, so we relied on Bree, a young sales associate to answer all our questions. Questions like, “tell us everything you can about saddles,” because neither of us—not even Chad who knows everything—know a single thing about saddles. We enjoyed our time at Hamley’s and now we know like 6 things about saddles.

Saddles saddles everywhere

Our final stop in town was Pendleton Woolen Mills. My introduction to Pendleton came when I was 16 and would spend hours scouring thrift shops for flannels with my friends. It was the era of Dr. Martens, grunge, and a whole lot of angst. Someone must have told me that Pendleton flannels were the cool shirts to wear for those of us who were trying really hard to not be cool. (The irony was lost on my teenage self.) It wasn’t until years later that I learned the actual value and quality of Pendleton products.

Blankets in the making

As Chad and I walked into the store, an elderly couple passed us on their way out, and the man was saying to his wife who was carrying a Pendleton package, “Now, you need to promise me that you’ll use this. We already have so many.” An hour later, as we were leaving the store and I was clutching my bag that held my new (and first ever) Pendleton blanket, Chad didn’t lecture me like I was a 5-year-old. Instead, he took a selfie of the two of us, and captured a very happy moment for me.

Thank you for my blankie, Chad.

Here’s a cool bit of trivia for you to share the next time you’re hanging out with your friends and you want them to think you’re cool and smart: In the 1960s, a music group named themselves The Pendletones after the Pendleton flannels that were popular among surfers. Later they changed their name to… wait for it… The Beach Boys.

We stopped for gas before heading out of town, and Chad, after 4 hours of walking, needed to adjust his tucked-in t-shirt that had hiked up. So, before he got out to pump the gas, he unbuttoned his jeans, unzipped his pants, leaned back in his seat, and lifted up his butt to tuck in his shirt. A woman came out of the gas station and walked toward our car. I laughed and said, “what if she came up and knocked on your window right now.” And Chad said, “Yep, that’s what she’s doing!” and started frantically tucking in his shirt and buttoning his pants just as she reached his window and said, “Hi, what kind of gas are we getting today?” Apparently we forgot we were in Oregon where attendants pump gas for you. I laughed so hard for the next 5 minutes that I nearly choked.

For our next stop, we drove to Maryhill, Washington, to see a full-scale replica of Stonehenge. Why? Because it’s there. Commissioned by Sam Hill, it was built about 100 years ago as a memorial honoring the servicemen who died in World War I. This Stonehenge sits on a bluff above the Columbia River and we spent less than 10 minutes taking in the view because we were freezing. Now that I think of it, we could have wrapped ourselves in my new blanket to keep warm, but we were actually pretty bored. Also, I'm scared to use my blanket because I'll probably ruin it.

We got back in our warm car and drove to Hood River, Oregon, where we’re staying for the last night of our trip. We ate a fabulous dinner at Riverside restaurant along the Columbia River before checking into a hotel where we are very happy to lounge in bed and watch Fresh Prince of Bel Air all night with my new blanket tucked safely in its bag next to me.

Dinner on the Columbia

-Rachel