McMenamins Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving – in its traditional US sense – is not much of a holiday for Pedro and me. We have instead re-claimed it for ourselves. The day is always a work holiday and most stores and restaurants are closed. Thus it is nearly guaranteed to be a slow and peaceful day without interruption, as long as we plan ahead. This year we decided on a “Staycation,” in other words, a vacation at home.

We chose another McMenamins, to continue our plan to eventually stay at every overnight option that the McMenamins chain offers. A quirky one (quirky even for a McMenamins, I mean) was on the list this time: The White Eagle Saloon & Hotel. It’s in downtown Portland, near the Convention Center. It’s not well known as a place to stay, probably because it has only 11 rooms.

The White Eagle is in a building that opened in 1905. It’s old and creaky and has no elevator. It is exactly what we wish for in a McMenamins stay. The paint is faded and sometimes wonky and maybe cracking in a place or two. The framed paintings and photos and notices and brochures and posters don’t always make sense, but I have to assume it’s all there with purpose, and the fact that we don’t know the history just means there are mysteries to solve.

We stayed two nights: Wednesday and Thursday. We knew we would be there all day long on Thanksgiving Day, and that’s the day we planned to have a feast. I called ahead to find out what kind of refrigeration or food heating options we had. The answer was zero. The hotel would be accessible to us, but the saloon and restaurant would be closed. There are no microwaves, refrigerators, or ice makers in the hotel part. So I went on facebook marketplace and found a little microwave for sale for $20, and we brought that with us in the suitcase! ha ha. One of our favourite things about McMenamins is that they specialize in craft beer brewing, so we brought two empty growlers along, and Wednesday night we had them both filled.

When we arrived Wednesday evening, check in was smooth and our room was darling, with a great view of the city. I was not expecting that and it was a treat.

The name Happy Rolling Cowboy took us a while to figure out, but that’s because of a mistake in the room. The phrase painted on the wall is attributed to the once-famous singer and actor, Bob Nolan, of the Sons of the Pioneers. We listened to the song and liked it. However, Nolan sang Happy Rovin’ Cowboy. It wasn’t until later that we discovered the hotel theme is the band The Holy Modal Rounders, founded in New York City but after some upheaval, some infighting, and rearranged band members, it moved and became a Portland band who played here at the White Eagle. They covered Nolan’s song and either got the lyrics wrong, or did it on purpose. That’s where the word “rolling” came from. Here’s a funny sidenote: the two main founders of The Holy Modal Rounders, and the two in the worst feud, each have a toilet named after him. The hotel’s two toilets are named P Stampfel and S Weber.

After checking out the room, we headed back downstairs, hungry and thirsty. We explained that we wanted to try everything on the menu, so the bartender hooked us up with two six-sample flights. In that way we were able to try 12 different beers which, believe it or not was not every craft brew they had. But nearly. And that’s not counting the ciders, which we could have had another flight of, but we didn’t. The evening was pleasant and there was a fire outside, so we headed out there for our drinks and dinner.

The saloon was hosting a comedy show that night. First a stand-up show called Pants on Fire! which was seven comedians who each told a true personal story. Except one was a flat-out lie. At the end, the audience had to try to guess who told the lie. We all failed because the liar’s story was quite believable, and some of the true stories were outrageous. Then a random audience member was chosen to tell two truths and a lie. Pedro and I both submitted our versions but were not chosen. After all that, the floor was opened to anyone who wanted to do some stand up. We enjoyed the entire thing, while sampling more craft brews and soaking up the awesome McMenamins atmosphere.

The next morning dawned gorgeous again. Portland had a miraculous five-day streak of sunshine last week. A stretch that long without rain this time of year might be one sign of an impending apocalypse, but we were grateful. We knew that everything would be closed, and our plan for the day was simply to walk around and explore a part of the city of Portland that we almost never see. It was chilly, but the sun was effective and we walked briskly. Soon we were not cold at all. We thought it would be fun to find a cup of coffee or some eggs, and that began an hour-long hunt. Though Portland has every great restaurant or coffee shop you could want, it was a holiday, and they were all – ALL – closed. So instead of great, we aimed for mediocre and dependable, and had breakfast at Denny’s.

After that, we walked some more, past our hotel and north into the neighborhoods where we found a mini-museum. It was very Portlandy, for a city that prides itself on being weird.

There are a lot of murals in this part of town, and a lot of highway overpasses. We enjoyed them all, and the Autumn colours around us.

After walking over six miles in our explorations, we were ready to begin Thanksgiving feast preparations. Pedro and I eat a tamale feast every year. Wednesday we had visited his favourite authentic Mexican place and picked up a bunch of tamales, some chile relleno, fresh nopales (cactus) salad, Chicharrónes (fried pork rind), rice, beans, salsa verde, chipotle sauce, and corn tortillas. We plugged in the second-hand microwave and got to work heating all the food, one item at a time, since the oven was tiny. We grabbed two plastic cups and paper plates and some plastic cutlery and the growler filled with a hazy IPA. We could stay in the room and eat on the bed – awkward – or haul it all downstairs and use the patio we had used the night before. We voted for the patio.

All the chairs had been piled up and chained securely to the wall, but there were two picnic tables that were perfect. We spread out our meal there.

We talked and ate and drank beer until it was too cold to stay out there any longer and we returned to the warmth of the room. After all the walking we had done, we were pretty satisfied with a slow, easy evening. We chatted and watched silly videos on my phone and enjoyed our staycation.

Friday dawned gorgeous again. We had enjoyed the walking so much the day before, we decided to do it again, only to walk in different directions. We also had fingers crossed that the bagel bakery next door would be open. It was!

We had coffee and bagels with cream cheese and were fortified. We struck out on the city streets once more. As with the Thursday before, this Friday was almost equally quiet and devoid of traffic, which made neighborhood exploration quite enjoyable.

And then it was time for checkout and time for the 30 minute drive back home. We loaded up our gear, the microwave, and the second growler full of my favourite McMenamins beer, Ruby Red, and loaded the Jeep. We said goodbye and thank you to the woman who was cleaning rooms. It’s the third year we have gorged on tamales. Last year we had a traditional feast of turkey at my brother’s house in Boise, so we had tamales at Christmas instead. I never get tired of them. Is there a holiday meal you never tire of?