Wife turning 30... is this a good gift?

[oe39]

cut a hole in a box...

[nolanfan34]

Wife and I have stayed at the Grand Lodge a couple of times now. So, my 2 cents.

- Fun place to stay, typical McMenamins, artsy kitschy, that part will be good.

- Don't have dinner at the restaurant there. Spend the cash and go to one of the local places. Pull up Clark's trip report from his West Coast trip, he listed a couple of good places. The Grand Lodge restaurants are good for desert, but the dinner is only passable and not memorable.

- Soaking tub is fun, basically a big hot tub, if you're lucky you'll have it to yourselves for a bit, very relaxing.

Don't underestimate the effect of the 30th birthday. My wife is generally pretty unflappable, but I was out of town coming back home the day of her 30th - bad decision, she was sort of a wreck that day.

Spend the extra $100 or so to splurge on the meal, or do the bottle of wine idea like Boris said, that's genius. Buy a good pinot you can cellar for 5 or ten years, etc.

[KDawg]

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Spend the extra $100 or so to splurge on the meal, or do the bottle of wine idea like Boris said, that's genius. Buy a good pinot you can cellar for 5 or ten years, etc.

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this is an excellent idea, especially considering that the 05 pinot harvest is just spectacular in oregon. One can get three tremendous oregon pinots for ~120-150(don't know if they're cheaper at the winery or not)

[jackflashdrive]

Turning 30 sucks. I think ideally a person would do something when she turns 30 that is drastically different from anything she's done before. It makes the positive memory more vivid, and also makes for a better story later. What about wine in a hot air balloon or helicopter? Skydiving? Bungee Jumping? I don't think any of these (with the possible exception of skydiving) are that expensive and there are probably a million other offbeat adventures. Don't get trapped into thinking that whatever you do has to be a variation on dinner and wine(don't get me wrong, I do think a lot of the ideas presented here sound great and you can't go wrong -- I'm just throwing out a few other possibilities).

[aces_dad]

SC,

My wife and I did the winery tour from the McMinnville hotel (old Hotel I believe?) and it was pretty neat. I'd say the tour is better if you're a wine noob and want to hear from an expert about all the wines / wineries you're visiting. If you're familiar with the wines / wineries then it is not worth the cost, as well as you'll be in a group and not just 1:1 the whole time.

As far as dinner most of the McMenamins restaurants (even the nicer ones) aren't that great as far as food etc, so if you're going for a really nice meal venture outside the hotel IMO. As well, you will still have the drink credits available for a night cap when you come back to the hotel.