Pendleton, Oregon - May 20- 22

The weather is cold, windy and rainy so we signed up for the Pendleton underground tour.  The tour started with a quick video that covers the history of Pendleton.  The tour guide led us down the stairs into the staged bar area.

 

Our guide, Holly stepped behind the bar and shared the history of this underground complex.  Pendleton's underground was dug out by hand.  The bar bill was paid in gold dust.  The bar tender would continually wipe off the bar spreading the extra dust to the floor and so it would get caught in the mud in his shoes.  How creative!

 

We visited lots of rooms.  There were the rooms where Hop Sing had a laundry and a bath, rooms where the Chinese workers lived, rooms that were used for business like the processing of meat for the Butcher on street level.  The Butcher and the Ice Cream shop both used ammonia pumps for refrigeration.  We also saw the Speakeasy!

 

Mark and I were shocked when we saw the card player.  Palm Creek Tennis friends do you know who we think must have been the model???

We saw the prism glass that was installed at street level so that the underground complex had natural lighting.

And, we saw what the prism glass looks like at street level.

 

Here is the photo of the Butcher Shop on Street Level.  The prices were amazing: Salmon for 20 cents a pound and hamburger for 8 cents a pound.

The guide took us back to street level and showed us the same building that was the butcher shop.  Today it is a chocolate shop!

A short way down this block is the brothel run by Stella Darby.  Stella was a smart woman and, per the guide, she treated her girls very well.  She trained them in secretarial skills, she paid them 50% of the receipts, and they did not have to cook or clean.

 

After the tour we walked back to the Chocolate shop as we were intrigued by the sign that offered a chocolate tasting.  We have been to many wine tastings, but never a chocolate tasting.

 

 

We tasted each of these different types of chocolates.  We learned that you are never to chew chocolate.  You need to let it melt in your mouth.  The higher the percentage of cacao the slower it melts.  Milk chocolate has a lot of butter and sugar so it melts very quickly in your mouth.

 

 

It was interesting to learn what the Cacoa beans look like, and the pod they grow in.  There are a limited number of companies who deal in Cacao and the pod must be freeze dried before it can be shipped.

 

 

We really enjoyed the many unique restaurants in the Pendleton area.  Our favorite was The Sundowner. 

 

 

Those are our highlights from our stop in Pendleton, now its on to Walla Walla!