McMenamins Historic Property: Edgefield Resort and Spa in Troutdale, Oregon

All photos by Allison Lamplugh

With a history as interesting as the grounds itself, the historical McMenamins Edgefield Resort and Spa is a one of a kind, must see attraction in the Portland area. Located just outside of downtown, the 74-acre property has something for everyone. The buildings, built in 1911, were restored to keep the essence of their past using original furnishings and decor from the once 300-acre "county farm."

During the Great Depression the property became a place where locals who lost their homes came to work in exchange for room and board. During those years the farm housed more than 600 people. The orchards, gardens, and animals fed the residents as well as the local county hospital and jail. After World War II the farm continued to operate but made another transformation in residency becoming a nursing home and rehabilitation center. In 1982 the farm was closed and abandoned.

In 1990 Portland brothers Mike and Brian McMenamin purchased the property and started its restoration. They hired a team of over a dozen artists to incorporate historical photos, murals, and artistic touches to the grounds. Art is painted on the walls of the rooms, hallways, and walkways, even on the exposed pipes overhead from original plumbing. The room doors are labeled with names of past residents of the farm or of past influential Portlanders. The vibe is understated yet classy, a great destination to entertain families on vacation or those simply enjoying a day overlooking the Columbia Gorge.

The main lodge has several choices of accommodations including a hostel for those traveling on a budget or private rooms and suites affordably priced from $50 to $160. The property stays true to its vintage feel with no phones or televisions in the quaint rooms with large windows and original furnishings. Edgefield has meeting halls, event venues, a library, and movie theatre. The resort has a community campfire nightly, weather permitting, where guests can gather to talk about their adventures of the day.

The 74-acre land is planted with a vineyard, an orchard, vegetable and herb gardens, flower gardens, and lawns. Visitors are welcome to walk among them. The on-site restaurants use seasonal goods from the gardens and specialize in organic growing practices. The entire property is beverage friendly, so guests are encouraged to take their drinks to and from any destination. There are outdoor concerts on the lawns in the summertime.

Edgefield has three restaurants and seven bars, including a pool hall and tasting room. On-site is a brewery, winery and distillery. The bars and restaurants feature fresh home brews, wines and spirits. Each has its own theme, such as a bar that only plays the Grateful Dead, a bar that only serves tea, and the Black Rabbit Bar (pictured) that has the feel of a low-lit speakeasy with a rich mahogany counters. 

Guests can enjoy a game of golf on the Par 3 courses. A 12-hole and 20-hole course are available with holes designed for any level golfer. Rounds are priced reasonably at $18. The course is open to the public and meanders around a pub and a hillside of blackberries.

Ruby's Spa and Salon is named after McMenamins Ruby Ale. The spa is exclusive to hotel and spa guests. It's designed as a one-stop-shop for brides-to-be with services ranging from manicures and pedicures, skin care and body treatments, hair and make-up, and massages. The outdoor heated saltwater soaking pool is chemical free and warmed at a therapeutic 102 degrees. Complete with a waterfall and trickling showers for a cool-down in the pool, it guarantees a day of relaxation.

Oregon in Bloom: A Spring Flowers Photostory

Even though many of us wait all year for summer to come back around, the time in between gives chance for life to replenish, reproduce, and thrive once again. Getting caught up in our every day routines can be easy and we can miss seeing the subtle beauty around us. Sometimes it's found in the shadows and sometimes in the open but many times if we take only a moment to stop, look, and listen a beautiful painting will appear, courtesy of Mother Nature. 

(All photos were taken with an iPhone 5s in the Willamette Valley or Oregon Coast.)

Photos by: Allison Lamplugh

The Piano: Film Essay and Exploration of Music and Emotion

The Piano: It conveys the emotion of voice, the feelings of the heart, the troubles of the mind and the excitement of nature.

The Piano, such an interesting film featuring a main character that does not speak.
Jane Campion’s 1993 hit not only won an Academy Award for Best Original Screen Play but also won the Palme D’Or (the highest prize) at Cannes Film Festival, making her the first female ever to win the award. Anna Paquin, who plays the young Flora, won an Oscar for her performance making her the second youngest winner in history. The movie and its performances are exceptional.

Thesis: Music is a language of its own. It conveys the emotion of voice, the feelings of the heart, the troubles of the mind and the excitement of nature.

            Ada McGrath is a 30-something, mute bride-to-be arranged to marry a man whom she’s never met in New Zealand. Her daughter, Flora, communicates to others for her mother and seems to cause trouble on purpose, shaping to be an undercover antagonist of sorts. Alisdair Stewart is her new husband, a wealthy land owner who spends much of his time away. George Baines is their neighbor who Ada begins to give piano lessons in exchange for working to get her prized piano back from him. Their love affair becomes the catalyst in the story plot.

            “I don’t think of myself as silent. This is because of my piano,” Ada says in the opening scene of the movie. The narration of her voiceover explains that it’s her mind speaking, as she has not spoken since she was 6 years old. Her piano is how she communicates. In the film Campion brilliantly incorporates Ada’s reaction to emotion, that most of us would use spoken word, but instead Ada uses her piano. In scenes where she’s happy the sound of her piano is upbeat and her key stroke is soft. In scenes where she is frustrated the sound is overwhelming and her stoke on the keys is heavy.

            She uses the music she hears in her head to translate her inner-self. In link between Ada’s erotic, raw emotion and how she expresses it through touch, Campion crafts imagery to reveal the way Ada moves her hands on the keys of her piano is how she moves her hands on her lover. The film explores the intensity of touch, a form of emotion needed to play the piano, and way for her to speak. A scene with a close-up shot on the keys of the piano reveals a drawing of a heart with an arrow through it (Cupid’s arrow) and the letter “A.” No explanation is made to whether the “A” stands for “Ada” and was from Flora’s father or if Flora’s father’s name began with an “A,” but it leaves contemplation in the viewer’s mind. It reveals she once loved, therefore is capable again.

Campion tells the story thoughtfully with subtle messages. Later in the film when Ada seeks to give George a secret message she confesses her love on a key she removes from her piano and writes in the same area the earlier close-up revealed a love note on a different key. Again no confirmation is made but the action tells the viewer that not only does she communicate through her piano but her piano speaks for her. It holds the secrets in her mind. In a scene early in their love affair, George touches Ada’s shoulder when she plays the piano and the sound she plays immediately becomes strong and chaotic, revealing to the viewer that she urns for his touch and is stimulated by it.

Even though Ada never tells the viewer with dialog of her emotions, Campion uses editing techniques to reveal them. In scenes involving or leading up to involving her husband, there is a slight blue tint of the frame. The interpretation hints that her feelings for Alisdair are cold, as is their relationship. In scenes involving George, specifically in his home, the tint is a red symbolizing lust and love. The imagery is subtle and gentle similar to the depths of a woman’s heart. Campion’s own femininity helps portray Ada’s character in a complicated yet understandable manner. The story is told in time, not too quickly, and nothing is assumed or obvious.

Campion took two minutes to show the viewer how much Ada’s piano was a piece of her rather than just telling the viewer through dialog. When Ada and Flora are first delivered to the beach where Alisdair was to pick them up, they are unloaded with their belongings and left to wait. When Alisdair arrives he refuses to take the piano. “The piano is mine. It’s MINE!” she writes in a note to him, which he ignores. Without her piano she plays a table in the house like it’s a piano and sleep-walks while mimicking the movement of playing a piano. She is restless without it, she is unable to communicate. A loss of words is not an issue for her but a loss of communicating the music in her head is devastating. Her first smile in the film is not revealed until George takes her back to the beach to reunite with her beloved.

The structure of the film makes one wonder if Alisdair had allowed the piano to come when they first left the beach whether she would have loved him. In a conversation with Flora, via sign language, Ada tells her daughter that her father is no longer around because, “He became frightened and stopped listening.” It begs insight of whether Ada accepts those who listen to her through her piano being the ones she allows into her heart. George accepted her piano and he loved to hear her play. Would she have loved her husband if he would have accepted her voice? The Piano explores the realm of music as a language of its own.

Although Alisdair views her as weak and small in stature, she is actually quite strong as her will reveals. George, a bit of a misfit himself, spends most his time with the indigenous people who were thought of as the lowest class. Ada and George together were able to bring their differences from other people during the time period, and where they lacked social skills with others, they found it possible with each other. In a confrontational scene between Alisdair and George, Alisdair asks if she speaks to him. Surprised by his answer it’s obvious that Alisdair doesn’t understand how George could love a woman that does not speak. The ignorance on his behalf reveals that he simply does not speak her language. He doesn’t deserve her love.

Oregon Trail Brewery: Paul Miller Brews IPA

Head Brewer Paul Miller, 22, says his favorite Oregon Trail Brewery beer is their Red. Miller grew up in Portland but moved to Corvallis at the age of 18 to attend Oregon State University. A home-brewer by hobby, he decided to make it a career and studied Fermentation Science. "It's fun!" says Miller. He's been with Oregon Trail since October 2013.

Oregon Trail Brewery, located in the same building as Old World Deli in downtown Corvallis, was established in 1987 by Dave Wills. Two of their best selling brews are their Red and IPA. Wills' favorites include their Porter and Wit. Oregon Trail brews seven main beers in rotation year-round in addition to seasonal specials.

Miller prepares for the brew of the day, an IPA. He collects the grain needed from the base malt hopper. This hopper holds 10,000 pounds of grain and will last him about five months. Mixed with hot water, this barley will steep for one hour. The steeping will extract the sugar from the grain.

He prepares the yeast and cools it down so it doesn't go dormant. Yeast will turn the sugar into Co2 and alcohol.  Each brew uses 30 to 35 pounds of yeast.  The yeast will multiply as it ferments, and Miller will pull off 9 to 10 pounds for a future batch. "This is generation six yeast," said Miller. "I don't like to go past nine or 10. By that generation you have your original yeast plus all this other yeast, so you don't know what's good or bad at that point."

Hops will be added in a few hours.  The hops used comes from the flower of the plant which only the female produces. Wills planted a hops in the back of the brewery decades ago that produces multiple pounds of hops when it blooms. Oregon Trail makes a special home-brew from it each year. The pellet form (pictured) is reserved for special recipes.

This "mash tun" is where the barley heats and steeps at 152 degrees.  This process is called "mashing in."  It will last an hour and a half before the "mash out" begins.  If the process is done too fast or too slow it will change the flavor of the grain. "Vorlauf" is the process of circulating the fine and medium sized particle grains in the water. 

The grain is ready for "mash out." The tun has a false bottom that the grain has drained into. At this point the "mash up" is basically sugar water. "It's sweet," said Miller. A local farmer will come and collect the boiled barley and feed it to his livestock.

The "mash out" drains just over seven barrels of brew from the "mash tun" into this boil kettle.  The draining process, called sparge, takes an hour and a half. This solid copper, handmade boil kettle was acquired by Oregon Trail in 1987 from Pyramid Brewing.

Miller lights the bottom of the boil kettle. Direct fire underneath the kettle will caramelize the sugars and boil for an hour and a half, then sit for another 20 minutes. After evaporation there is seven barrels of brew left.

The brew drains from the boil kettle into a fermenter. Oregon Trail has a seven barrel system. Each is 31 gallons. These barrels were made in the '60s and are each named after someone Wills knows. This barrel is "Betty" and is their primary fermenter.  The brew will actively ferment for four to seven days and stay in the barrel for two weeks to allow the yeast to seep out and sink down.

Miller uses a hydrometer to estimate the alcohol content. This shows where the brew is in the fermentation process.  It has been in "Betty" for six days and has one more day to go to reach the preferred content on the hydrometer. 

"That's about as good as it gets," says Miller. After 21-28 days the brew is ready to drink. Oregon Trail sells their brews directly from the brewery. New growlers are $6 and refills are $8. There's a self-serve station linked directly from fresh kegs in the cooler to the tap outside the cooler. They also sell their brews to local bars, grocery stores, and co-ops in Corvallis.