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I have been eager to share about a very fun day the shop crew and I had earlier this month. In peak summer, we took off on a Sunday and had our first ever, all team all day outing! It was a great day!
A special highlight (for me!) was renting a van to haul 6 adults, coolers and snacks around in- what a fun ride! Our stealth black Pacifica whisked us away from North Portland and into the sweeping gorge for our adventure. With Maryhill Museum as our destination, we made a pit stop at my favorite turnoff- Mitchell Point Tunnel. An easy, BREEZY stop for a short walk, great photo ops and a quick potty! Back on the road, we crossed the Columbia River into Washington at the Dalles Bridge (HWY197) and continued east on HWY 14. I'd never been on this stretch of the highway before, and it was stunning. We didn't stop, but the Columbia Hills Historical State Park looked like a cool spot to explore.
Before we rolled into Maryhill, we visited the museum’s Stonehedge Memorial. A quirky replica of the original Stonehedge in England, it was nonetheless pretty cool and makes a good photo stop. We met another big group there (family reunion!) and had some fun taking group photos for each other.
Maryhill Museum has been on my list of destinations for twenty years and I’m happy to report that it is very well worth the day trip. The grounds are beautiful- we brought a picnic spread and had our choice of picnic bench spots on the sprawling, green property. The museum has an eclectic and engaging collection- it’s basically the combined imagining of a group of friends, mostly women, from the 1920’s. It’s one of those rare places where the story and history of the space are nearly as engaging as the work itself. Alma Spreckels, who married the Spreckels sugar magnate and coined the term “sugar daddy” (he was 24 years her senior), was a major figure in the San Francisco art scene, and was responsible for building San Francisco's iconic and beloved Palace of the Legion of Honor, one of my regular SF haunts. She was pals with the founder of Maryhill Museum, Sam Hill, and was a major force in building its collection. Another player, the famous modern dancer, Loïe Fuller, was friends with Auguste Rodin and basically his brand ambassador to the US. She was also pals with Alma Spreckels and Sam Hill, and you can see the through line of Alma’s philanthropy and their friendship in the vast collections of Rodin pieces between San Francisco's Palace of the Legion of Honor and Maryhill Museum. There are some fun photos on the basement level of the museum, including this sweet one of Loïe with Rodin and his muse of 53 years, Rose Beuret. Then there is Queen Marie of Romania, another friend of Sam Hill. She donated an exquisite collection of personal objects to her friend Sam, which are prominently displayed as you enter the museum. I didn’t discover this old reel of the museum’s inauguration until now, which showcases Queen Marie as a news sensation in the Northwest.
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