Yes, I am the Budget Queen as well as in Hot Pursuit of becoming a McMenamin's Cosmic Tripster!
You may ask, what IS a McMenamin's Cosmic Tripster? Well, I am here to tell you in full glory. Besides being wild and crazy about the McMenamin Boys' undeniably amazing concept of historic hotels, pubs, movie theatres, wineries, breweries, distilleries, soaking pools, concerts, billiards, etc., a McMenamin's Cosmic Tripster takes a Carpe Diem approach to life, soaks up all the experiences that McMenamin historic properties have to offer, accounts for them and is thus richly rewarded. The best way I can describe my enthusiasm is that is like being a kid in a candy store, only so much more and so much better! My husband describes the McMenamin's properties as Chuckie Cheeses for Adults. Oh, so true.
The first step and the easiest one is to purchase a "passport" from any of the many McMenamin locations. It sells for $25. That may seem a little steep however I promise you that you will more than make your investment back.
The next steps involve a lot of traveling about and adventures awaiting. You see, the basic passport has 32 pages, most of which need to be filled up with stamps for all of your various Cosmic Tripster Wannabe ramblings. On occasion, there are "extra" pages that you can purchase for more rewards.
See www.mcmenamins.com for full details and all kinds of fun stuff! The gist of the passport is that once it is completed in its entirety, I will become a full-fledged McMenamin's Cosmic Tripster, with bragging rights, many prizes and rewards along the way and the following GRAND PRIZE:
- Three individual night stays at three of McMenamins historic hotels.
- A pair of concert tickets at the Crystal Ballroom or Edgefield.
- Drinks at happy hour prices, Sunday-Thursday, for the first year after you've completed your passport (Must show passport to redeem this offer).
- Entrance to the annual Passport Club Party.
- Exclusive Passport merchandise to show that you did it!
- A Cosmic Tripster Key. Consider this your ticket to getting into exclusive passport events.
With all of the above as motivation, I do hereby declare that:
Attaining Cosmic Tripster status is my mission, and I have decided to accept it, and to complete my Passport in its entirety by no later than the end of 2016. It is now almost June of 2015. That gives me just about 18 months. I have a lot of territory to cover, a lot of beer and wine and spirits to taste, a lot of cool historic hotels to visit, and many experiences to savor. If I lived in Oregon, I could accomplish my mission much sooner. Since I live in Washington State I will be taking quite a few jaunts over the state border to collect my stamps. I am a Cosmic Tripster Wannabe on the Go! I plan to take one road trip each month which will cover various regions of Oregon State.
My first trip will concentrate on downtown Portland, NW Portland and the Hawthorne District. My second one will be the West Side of Portland, Cedar Hills, Murray & Allen in Beaverton, Cornelius, Forest Grove and perhaps McMinnville.
My third trip will involve North/NE Portland area. SW Portland and suburbs will call my name for my fourth trip. My fifth trip will combine Portland's East side & suburbs like Oregon City & West Linn.
My sixth trip will incorporate Salem, Eugene, Corvallis and Southern Oregon (primarily Roseburg). This will be the most miles to cover in pursuit of my passport stamps!
My remaining two trips will involve Bend and Gearhart. Both of these will be taken with my husband. Even though I have 8 trips total planned, they will be taken in any order I choose, and however they best work out.
Since McMenamins also has a Frequent Stay Program, which I am part of of course, I just may get my free night in either Bend or Gearhart. You need 6 stays for a free night and I am half way to my free night, which will be my second one since the program began.
So, Hawthorne Blvd., downtown/NW Portland, Crystal Hotel & Ballroom, Portland West Side, North/Northeast Portland, Southwest Portland and Suburbs, Portland East side and Suburbs, Edgefield, Hotel Oregon, Grand Lodge, Salem, Corvallis, Eugene, Southern Oregon, Bend, Central Oregon Coast, Vancouver, WA, Olympia, WA, and eventually Anderson School, here I come!! Watch out, I come with verve and Tripster Wannabe determination.
For today I will end this post with saying my husband I just stayed two nights at The Kennedy School in Portland. We loved it there and I collected two $20 gift cards from participating in experiences listed on my Passport. I messed up and missed going to The Chapel Pub which was in the same area. That is OK though since I love the Alberta area of Portland and will return there before too long and get my stamp at The Chapel Pub.
One last thing, I plan to add some photos later from the Kennedy School stay. As I plan for and take my trips on way way to Cosmic Tripster stardom, I will keep you posted.
