Embassy Suites, Portland Airport is really nice. I stayed on the 8th floor.The breakfast buffet was robust and there are snacks in the evening. The picture of the orange with flowers is of our center piece at dinner.
When Dear Husband and I first came to visit Washington State we stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel at 1531 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 in downtown Seattle. I remember the hotel stay as being a good experience, but I was so happy to be exploring Seattle for the first time, that it would have been hard to dampen my excitement! It was completed in the deco style in 1929 with John Graham and Harold Lockland as the architects.
An evening event brought us to the Bellevue Hilton at 300 112th Ave SE Bellevue, WA 98004. Its a nice hotel and they had delicious brownies 😀
The Norman Bates Motel at 4411 Pacific Highway East, Fife, Washington 98424 was demolished in 2012. The land is available for sale. I’m not finding much information about the motel or why it was named after the hotel in the famous Hitchcock movie, Psycho. I’ve included photos from today and from April 2012, which the building was in place but behind a fence.
My family just recently watched Psycho in an effort to find a movie that isn’t a slasher flick, but actually scares my dear daughter. She enjoyed the movie, despite the fact it was in black and white, but wasn’t overly scared. Info about the movie can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%28film%29
The Panama Hotel Coffee and Tea House at 607 South Main Street in the International District of Seattle has a fine selection of teas and plenty of history. I learned of it because my book group read The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Though it is a work of fiction, it is based on historical facts about the treatment of the West Coast Japanese during World War II. The book opens with artifacts being found in the basement of the hotel and now a days one can view some of these artifacts through a plexiglass in the floor.
The Tahoma Indian Center at 1556 Market Street, Tacoma, is part of Catholic Community Services and their website is at http://www.ccsww.org/site/PageServer?pagename=families_emergencyservices_tahomaindiancenter
Their website states “Located in downtown Tacoma, the Tahoma Indian Center has met the basic needs of low-income and homeless Urban Native Peoples for more than 20 years in a safe, warm, peaceful and drug- and alcohol-free environment. The purpose of the Center is to restore and sustain the dignity and culture of Urban Native Americans in Pierce County.”
This is great old building and it has an interesting history.I’m not sure, but I think it use to be connected to a building on the now vacant lot next door. So, in full disclosure I’m not sure of the history of the property, the lot next door or both. Tacoma Public Library says the Lorenz Bldg. / Sisson House was constructed in 1890. The Astor House opened c.1899 as the first major Japanese hotel in Tacoma. It was also known as the Hiroshimaya Hotel. As of 1946, the property was known as the Columbus Hotel / Yunan Ling Herbal Medicine / Tacoma Jujitsu School. The same year, a petition was denied for the hotel and the headlines read “all colored hotel” closed for prostitution violations.
In 1947 it was Fukui’s Grocery Store (and was “surprised by the police!”). And by 1996 it became the Intertribal Cultural Arts Center. When looking at the spectacular doorway, I noticed that the Lion King is hanging from a coconut over the doorway. I bet there is a story there!
http://www.mcmenamins.com/426-grand-lodge-home
This lodge features a full restaurant, a movie theater where food and drink from the restaurant are offered, a soaking pool, small bars and 77 European style guest rooms. The building was constructed in 1922 as an Masonic and Eastern Star home. In 2000 the building was renovated and opened as a McMenamins. The history of the building can be seen in the historic photos and original art hanging on the walls.
We checked into the Lodge around 4:00 and had dinner, watched the most recent Harry Potter movie (yes, it is that dark) and enjoyed the soaking pool. This morning there was a Continental breakfast. All in all, a delightful, relaxing time away.
This morning I was traipsing around taking photographs and the desk clerk noticed me. He asked if I had a shot of the theater and I said kind of (I took a cell phone photo during the movie, really it was an awful photo!). He said it was much better to take a photo during the day with the lights on and then he took me upstairs and unlocked the theater for me! How nice is that!
Today’s new place is the Sea-Tac airport, with the photo taken from the top floor of the Doubletree Inn (yesterday’s new place). This photo was a happy accident because I was just lost looking for a meeting that I thought was upstarts. It wasn’t, but this lovely view was! Considering the photo was taken with my phone, I thought it came out pretty well 🙂 The photo below was taken the next day with the better camera, though it doesn’t look all that different. The airport is the 18th busiest in the country and is the primary hub for Alaskan Air. When I checked into the airport on my FourSquare App, there were already 43 people checked in there.
http://www.portseattle.org/seatac/
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
Today’s new place of day is the Doubletree Hotel in SeaTac, where they have very lovely carpeting!
I took a quick photo of Titlow Lodge today for my new place of the day. The history of the Lodge, which isn’t now actually used for lodging is pretty interesting. When it was built in 1911 it was called the Hotel Hesperides and had 30 guest rooms. The building’s architect was Frederick H. Heath who also designed Stadium and Lincoln High Schools and the Central School Building. In 1926 the property was purchased by Metro Parks and between 1937 and 1941, the top two floors were removed. The building is now being upgraded and is not open to the public.
http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=734
A photo of the building taken in 1977 can be found in the Tacoma Public Library’s Tacoma-Pierce County Building Index. http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldgv2.asp
