Summer Vacation - Part 2

On the 14th, Chris flew in from Utah to meet up with us and head down to Oregon for a family reunion. We were all very excited for him to get here. Since we were going into Seattle to pick him up, I decided that a quick detour into China Town was necessary. I had just finished the book, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, for bookclub and it was set in Seattle. I loved the book and thought it would be fun to go take a look and see how it compared with my imagination. Truth be told, my imagination was much grander. However, it was fun to see these places that I had read about.

We stopped by the park first which was across the street.

The lighter red brick building on the left is the Panama Hotel and the darker red brick building on the right is a different hotel.

The entrance and probably the original sign

That is the main entrance. Nothing fancy at all. To the left is the Tea House. The hotel has been restored and is now a bed and breakfast. The bath house is still there as it was back in the day.

The double doors to the main entrance. Nothing but a flight of stairs behind them. I didn't go in though, didn't even think about it.

This was a display in one of the glass windows outside the hotel. I was a little disappointed because they weren't really organized and didn't showcase the hotel's history. This was one of 4 display windows and it was the most organized.
This is the Puyallup Fairgrounds just 15 minutes from my mom and dads house. We had to go to Costco and this was about 5 minutes away. This is the first "relocation camp".

It was a really interesting book, very clean and a great story. I love historical fiction. The 2nd camp, the "Minidoka work camp" was located between Jerome and Twin Falls, Idaho. We pass through there on our way to and from Oregon but I didn't make Chris stop since it's such a long drive already and this one was off the highway a bit.

On our way from Seattle to Portland we also stopped by this little school....recognize it? This is the school they used for Twilight. It's actually in Kalama, Washington, not in Forks. It's like 2 minutes off the freeway, you can actually see it from the road. So we stopped by to take a few pictures. Lauren thought that we should have parked really close to the other car in the picture and that Chris and I should have re-enacted the "parking lot" scene. We didn't.


Another place we were driving right by during the reunion was the greenhouse/fieldtrip scene from Twilight. They filmed this at the Clackamas Community College greenhouses. Chris actually went to school here for a couple of years when we first moved to Oregon. I believe he may have gotten a speeding ticket in this parking lot now that I think about it. Oh, and enjoy my artistic additions just to help you visualize. Your welcome!

For your viewing pleasure, you can see this scene here: Greenhouse Scene (about minute 3:45 to the end)

During the reunion, Chris wanted to go eat at a little country breakfast place. Oregon has tons of them and we used to eat breakfast on Saturday mornings at a few favorites while we lived there. I had heard that the Carver Cafe was the restaurant used for the "diner scenes with Charlie" and "Stephanie Cameo" and it was near where we had thought about eating so we thought, "why not"? Unfortunately, for a restaurant that is open 365 days a year, wouldn't you know it that the one day we decide to eat there, it was closed for a private party. So I had to take pictures through the windows. We then headed down the road and ate elsewhere.

Oh, and right between this tree and the window of the cafe is a classic "Mike Newton" scene at minute 1:09 you don't want to miss. No, we didn't recreate this one.

The tables were configured differently but you get the idea. This cafe is TINY! For your viewing pleasure, you can see this scene here: Carver Cafe

There were lots of places we could have gone as much of the movies are filmed around Portland, Oregon. However, I wasn't there for a Twilight Tour, we just happened to be right by these places and thought it would be fun to stop by.