More Pinball in Calgary

Calgary, AB

Greta Bar

Today we chose to walk around downtown.  We ended up at Greta Bar for a beer and pinball.  We tried to play here the other day, but it doesn't open until 3pm.  Today was the day!

They had a cool Food Truck inside.  It's our 2nd indoor food truck of this trip!  The other was in Vegas here.

They had 5 machines and they were all set to play pretty long and the replay scores were very low.  

You had to buy a "power card" to play so I bought one for $20 and it gave me $30 in credit.  The games were so generous with the Matches and Replays that we hardly had to use the card.  We will be back!

It's a cool space and the beer selection wasn't bad.

The Anime convention was going on as well so we got to see some cosplayers around the city.

That's it for today.  If you missed, A Calgary Park in a Mall, check it out!  There is a botanic garden in a mall here!

Bartender Error in Your Favor!

 Victoria, BC

Collect 12 Ounces of Local Spirit

Last week we were feeling a bit shut in by the size of our accommodation so we decided to head back over to a local bar that we enjoyed visiting.  They have great local beers on tap and they have a few local spirit flights.  Donna wanted to try a few local spirits so she ordered the Premium Flight and comedy ensued.

The Premium flight is $19.50 CAD and consists of Three 3/4oz pours.

Our bartender was new and we knew this because they were being trained a few days ago when we were there last.  They gave me a beer that wasn't quite full and their trainer corrected them and had them top off my beer.  Well this visit they made up for the error by misreading the menu.  We assume that people don't often order the spirit flight so this might have been their first attempt at one.  It's supposed to be Three 3/4oz pours but what we got was Three 4oz pours.  You can kind of see how the error came about but an experienced bartender or even an experienced bar attender would realize that 12oz of spirit for 20 bucks isn't a profit making proposition.  We took a few sips and then I got up and quietly pointed out their error.  They said something like, "yea I thought that seemed like a lot for $20, thank you."  Needless to say, we didn't finish the full flight.  We wished we could have teleported another few friends there to help us finish it.

We got to try the Seaside Gin which was refreshing, as they describe, but we didn't need 4oz of refreshment.

We also tried the Mia Amata Amaro.  This was an Amaro so it wasn't as alcoholic as the Gin or the Aquavit, but still.  

We needed a bit of food in our belly to help with the alcohol so we bought a few beef sticks which were all very good.  

On the way to the bar we stopped by Cherry Bomb to play a couple pinball machines.  Cherry Bomb is a toy store with three pinball machines.

It was a fun time and makes for a great story.  If you missed, Kinsol Trestle, check it out.  It's one of the tallest free standing timber structures in the world!

Visiting a "Haunted Mansion" Themed Bar

 Portland, OR

Raven's Manor

Today we hit up Raven's Manor, a Haunted Mansion themed bar, for happy hour.  The theming is amazing and their cocktail program is fantastic.  They have regular cocktails, as well as cocktails that come with really cool presentations.  They even have a special ticket you can book where you enter a private laboratory and build your own concoctions.  We make our own cocktails at home so we decided to not have this experience, but people appear to love it.

On our walk there, we saw a California Sea Lion in the Willamette River.

We also saw the Cherry Blossoms still doing their thing.

The outside of Raven's Manor looks rundown with dead plants out front.  

We got there at opening so I got a photo of the bar before anyone was enjoying it.

They had real candles lit all over the bar which was a really nice touch.

They host suggested we explore The Manor so I did.  I took a lot of photos.

My first drink came with a smoke bubble.  It broke pretty much right away unlike the one we got in Vegas at Area 15.

My drink with no bubble.  It was delicious. 

Creep portraits are all over The Manor just like in the Haunted Mansion.

We got The Graveyard dip which was Artichoke Dip with Tombstone Garlic Bread.

We also split a delicious burger.

My 2nd cocktail came with fire!

And a beautiful glass.

My explorations took me downstairs.  It looked like some bad stuff had gone down.

The bathrooms were downstairs and that area amped up the creepiness' as well as the jump scares.  There were multiple things that caused jump scares throughout The Manor.  

Who doesn't love a Creepy Doll?  Why not two?

Someone took the time to write, "Red Rum" on the bathroom wall in BLOOD!

This is the entrance to the Private Elixir Experience.  The mail slot says "Take a Look, If You Dare".

I dared!

There was also an upstairs area with seating.

Is that a real coffin?  Anybody home?

A view of the bar from upstairs

Floating chairs 

Another shot of the cherry blossoms.

That's it for today and almost it for Portland.  I have a tournament to play in on Tuesday and then Wednesday is packing day.  If you missed, Back to Next Level Pinball Museum, check it out.