Playing tourist

On our way to the Idaho Suzuki Institute mi compadre and I had a more leisurely drive on the second leg of our trip this year, not needing to check in until late afternoon.  We stopped for gas and a picnic lunch in Baker City, Oregon.  We found the park we visited last year easily, but missing the first turn and the second being closed for construction meant a fairly lengthy detour through the historic downtown area.  After we finally found the park from the back side and had our lunch, we decided to go back to see some of those interesting buildings.

This is the Geiser Grand Hotel.  If we had been PAYING guests we could have moved further into the lobby and taken better pictures of the stained glass skylight. 

I looked with interest at the photographs of early settlers on the wall, too.  Wondering if any might be my wandering ancestor who traveled the Oregon Trail.  As far as I know he didn't live in Baker City, but we don't really know where he ended up.  I liked this embroidered Oregon Trail display.

After spending quite a while in the gift shop as well as looking at some of the beautiful architecture of some churches, we continued on our way, thinking we would arrive at the top of check in time.... until we passed the "Mountain Time Zone" sign.  Oops.  How could we both forget that?  Oh well, we still arrived in time to stop for groceries for our dorm breakfasts and lunches, just didn't get to unpack before heading off to dinner.