Have you read
Master of the Universe? Don't go look for it - it's not there anymore. It's getting published this month as
Fifty Shades of Grey!!! I am one of the many blogs participating in the MotU tribute today, and I'm super excited to be involved! A hearty welcome to you, if you're new here!
I have read MotU, and loved it, although I am sorry to say I didn't follow it off of fanfiction.net, so I'll be waiting until the sequel gets published, I suppose, to find out what happens after the first part! That's okay - it's a small price to pay (no matter what it costs). My post today is going to be a little personal, because what originally drew me into the story (apart from the huge recommendations it was getting all over the interwebs) was the location where it begins.
In the beginning of
Snowqueens Icedragon's Master of the Universe, Edward Cullen is staying at the
Heathman Hotel in Portland, Oregon while Bella is set to graduate from
Washington State University - Vancouver. As most of you know, I live in Portland, so my contribution to this tribute to MotU is a visual peek at these locations. It just so happens I have a work connection to the Heathman (I don't want to say more than that in case someone from work stumbles across this blog), so I put that to use and got some photos that aren't found on the website. Then, one sunny day, I headed downtown to the Heathman to get some photos and snuck into some of the private dining areas - in which Bella and Edward have a very important dinner in the story - so you could see what those look like. Finally, I drove out to the Vancouver campus of WSU for some pics of that. When you get your copy of
Fifty Shades of Grey, if it's still set in Portland/Vancouver in the beginning, now you'll know what it looks like! You're welcome. And here's to Icy!
The Heathman as seen from SW Broadway and Salmon facing South
(as always, click any photo to enlarge)
Another view. You can see the restaurant awning a little better here - the two are connected inside, but also have separate entrances. On the corner is
Cacao, a hot chocolate shop. I've never been there, but this spot used to house a coffee shop, and I had been there, it was good. It was not, however, the coffee shop to which Edward took Bella in the story - that's the Portland Coffee House (and I've been there several times, it was very good, now it's closed... although the location still houses a coffee shop).
Across SW Broadway - the facade.
A close-up of the hotel entrance. The doormen wear
Beefeater costumes. Fun fact. :)
A close-up of the window signage. On the other side of this window is the Marble Bar, where our characters meet before dinner. As I want to be allowed back, I did not try to take a picture inside. But they make awesome drinks, and have a great wine selection.
After their drink in the Marble Bar, the couple head up this staircase to the Private Dining rooms.
The mezzanine corridor - the top of the stairway in the previous picture is over on the left here.
The view down into the tea room from the mezzanine.
Now, the rooms into which I poked my trespassing head were between uses, so they don't look great. Also, in the original story she has the characters going into a small-ish, sumptuous, single-table private dining room, which the Heathman doesn't really have - so I imagine one of these rooms with just all the tables cleared out except one, and potentially comfy chairs or a sofa or something brought in - you know Mr. Cullen would have had them set it up however he wanted. So here's what they look like...
The Sellwood Room
Another view (when I got a little bolder and ventured on in).
From the Sellwood, looking into the Hawthorne and Morrison rooms.
A promotional shot of the Broadway room.
Sadly, I was not gutsy enough to try to talk my way into one of the guest rooms - I do need to maintain a level of discretion and all. But I was lucky enough to be able to get some pictures of the Presidential Suite - the biggest and best, and where Fifty Shades would have stayed for sure. So here's the bed in which he (or Bella, after her night at the bar) would have slept:
Lovely, no?
The whole room.
The dining area - you can see the bedroom in the back still.
The view from the "living" area into the bedroom. Kitchen on the left.
The view from the bedroom into the living area.
The living area and fireplace.
Sigh.
A few days later, I drove up to Washington State University Vancouver. Fun fact: before reading MotU, I did not know this college existed, and I've lived less than 25 miles from it my entire life.
The banners in Vancouver - it's so odd to me that I didn't know this was here!
Official sign
The drive up to campus...
A WSUV building
The Student Center
Maybe this is what they call "the Quad" here...
This made me think of you ladies - how appropriate that their school mascot is the Cougar, no?
Desolate parking lot and buildings - it was Easter Sunday.
New construction - perhaps sponsored by Cullen Enterprises Holdings, Inc?
Campus map
The building on the left is the Undergraduate classroom building. This is a pretty small school (only 3000 or so students according to their
website).
That pretty much concludes our tour! Thank for taking this trip with me - I enjoy seeing actual locations used in stories, so I hope you did, too.
The location may have been what drew me in, but I was soon hooked on this story because of the characters - both are complex and realistically written, and I cared what happened to them. Plus: the lemon-y goodness I didn't know I was going to love as much as I did - Icy definitely knows her way around the Red Room (blindfolded and in cuffs). But I've taken enough of your time with my many photos!
Please go visit the other sites participating in today's tribute:
and the future-girl who started it all...
I leave you with the picture I took of Escala (Fifty's condo building) en route to Forks last year:
What's that in the top window? Do I see hands pressed against the glass??? ;-)
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