Back to school!

My sister treated me to lunch at the Kennedy School yesterday, on her last full day in town after an extended visit. So nice to have extra time with her, as she lives so far away.

Lest you think we suffered with school cafeteria food, I assure you it was nothing like that! The Kennedy School is one of 50+ Northwest establishments bought and revamped in the most amazingly creative ways imaginable by the McMenamin Brothers, local icons. The photo is one of the many skylights in the School, enhanced with mosaic tile.

The brothers started out with a small brew pub and bought a couple of old theaters in town, theaters where you can watch a movie while having beer and pizza. Their business grew by leaps and bounds; they started buying up old defunct buildings -- one, a former TB sanitarium, some churches, dance halls and more theaters, a residential care facility -- and turned them into pubs, restaurants, hotels and more. The artwork throughout the buildings is plentiful, phenomenal and Portland-quirky. This link tells about the artwork, how it's chosen, the history, etc. Here at the Kennedy School, they've maintained a lot of the room names - the Faculty Lounge, the Principal's Office, even Detention - and taken artistic advantage of the associations with them. The classrooms have been turned into hotel rooms and conference rooms.

The grounds at most of these establishments are equally beautiful and quirky. At Kennedy, outside the Courtyard restaurant is this amazing mosaic tiled fireplace. There's an adjacent community garden that is incredibly robust, as well as a beautiful 100-degree F soaking pool and winding paths that lead to funky nooks and crannies that you could probably explore for hours.

Even though it's only a couple miles away, it's so tempting to book a room for a couple of nights just to have the time to explore everything.

Slideshow of more Kennedy School photos.

Many apologies for my lack of commenting and replying - I'm out at class every weeknight now at the music institute or at choir rehearsals - loving it to bits, but not much time for anything else. Hopefully I'll catch up with you all on the weekend.