Day two of our return trip from Grand Tetons. We have really been looking forward to this stop because we stopped briefly in Baker City two years ago on our trip to Moab. It’s a great little town that boomed during the gold mining days from about 1860 to 1920. It had multiple hotels, shops, an opera house, saloons galore, banks, fine clothes shops, etc.
After the boom ended, much of the town fell into disrepair, but fortunately now many have been restored and there are several blocks of original stores and buildings with plaques telling the history of the various places. We had made reservations to stay at the Geiser Grand Hotel, a really stately old structure, built in 1889 and restored in 1993. I highly recommend this place to anyone who likes fancy old hotels and a feel for living history. It would be especially nice for couples or honeymooners. After being in an RV and regular hotels for 11 days, this was a fitting end to our journey.
The hotel is build around a central open area with a huge glass window at the top (about 20 ft x 30 ft in size). This open area is for all three floors and has the dining room at the bottom. Upon checking in we read about the ghost who supposedly lives at this hotel. The boys are really interested in this so we head to the basement to check it out. There is also a nice library on the second floor near our room. Everything is very stately. You expect to see men and women dressed to the T in fancy clothes of the 1900s!
To reward ourselves for the grueling trip, Sharon and I decide to have dinner down on the first floor while the boys eat in the room and watch TV. Great idea! We have a romantic dinner just as we finish dessert, the boys show up – good timing. Then we decide to go for a walk around town as it is not quite dark yet. It is still about 90 degrees outside and there looks to be a storm coming. We comment on how it just makes sense that it would rain on our first day back in Oregon!
We all sleep like logs on this night as we are fairly tired from the days prior. Although, Pete insists that he heard some strange noises during the night! We did get an hour back when we crossed back into Pacific Time, but we sleep in for our last drive back to home.
On the way back from Baker City to Hillsboro, the weather is hot and VERY windy. Blowing against us of course, so we use more gas and time than expected. Along the Columbia River, we see whitecaps and two foot swells. But that doesn’t seem to bother all the wind surfers – they are out in force all along the river!
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