The Viewpoint Inn

Over Memorial Day Weekend the Studly Hubby took it upon himself to arrange for us to go on a weekend getaway-vacation to Oregon.

We stayed at the Viewpoint Inn, a very old beautiful building that has been turned into a restaurant and bed and breakfast.

This is the back of the Viewpoint Inn which faces towards the Columbia River Valley gorge. The first floor is the restaurant and the second floor are the rooms for overnight guests. Our room was the one on the far left.

The Viewpoint Inn also happens to be where the ending of the movie Twilight was filmed.

A snapshot taken between scenes of the two stars of Twilight at the Viewpoint Inn. In the background you can see glimpses of the fabulous view, which is also seen in the movie.

The lawn of the Viewpoint Inn is the kind of place you could hang out all day. They serve drinks and limited appetizers to people on the lawn and leave it open for anyone to stop by and enjoy (while we were there many people did this, but it is a big lawn and generally not crowded)

Some of the original props from the movie like the Monte Cristo arch were kept as a souvenir but instead of leaving it in the center of the lawn as it was in the movie (as shown below) they tactfully put it on the side of the lawn nearest the road so tourists can go shriek and jump around it without interfering with the tranquility that the rest of the guests enjoyed.

Although it was a fantastic coincidence that this was the site where they filmed part of Twilight (and the wait staff told us some great stories when they weren't busy), the Studly Hubby picked this spot because of its great location (near Portland, the waterfalls, and Mount Hood) and also because of its beautiful view, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The rooms were very classy and made us feel spoiled, but were not very private - we shared bathrooms with the other overnight guests AND the restaurant guests, they were constantly giving tours through the entire place, and there was actually a shared door between our room and the room next to us (with a 2-inch crack under it). But they served amazing food, we met some memorable people, and we had a fantastic time. We enjoyed nature (we drove around and up Mount Hood, hiked to a lookout over the Columbia River Valley gorge, and sprawled on the lawn every chance we could), we ate their amazing food and saw the gleaming kitchen of a four-star restaurant during the off hours (overnight guests have the run of the place when everyone else has left). At night we went into Portland and drank local beer and got caught up on movies we haven't seen at a great dollar theater (that serves... local beer!). 

When we got back we watched Twilight again. It was even worse the second time, and the scene filmed at the Viewpoint was rather short (although very beautiful). However the Studly Hubby watched it all the way through with me and didn't even complain, which is really something.