Crafts, content strategy, flatware, and dogs. Not necessarily in that order.
This shining relic of “The City by the Bay” has a spinning middle piece that shows the Golden Gate Bridge on one side and a street car (natch) on the other.
Like most California souvenir spoons, it is free of any paranormal possession.
Happy National Wine Day! I was going to pose this spoon from Sonoma, California next to a bottle from the same region, but looking through my stash, it appears I only buy Washington and Oregon wines.
This spoon has grapes on the enameled badge at the top, to further reinforce Sonoma’s claim to being the birthplace of winemaking in California.
Fun fact: Sonoma is also the site where the original Grizzly Bear Flag was raised during the Bear Flag Revolt in June 1846, when a group of insurgents attempted to create their own republican government in California.
The Fairmont Château Frontenac in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada was built in 1893 as one of the famous grand “chateau” hotels of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It is one of the most photographed hotels in the world and was designated as a National Historic Site in 1980.
This souvenir spoon from the Château Frontenac is probably on the more modern side, manufactured in the last 25 years or so.
Although I’m not sure about the spoon, the Château Frontenac itself is definitely haunted. Its ghost is also the hotel’s namesake: Louis de Buade, Count of Frontenac, governor of the colony of New France from 1672 to 1682 and 1689 to his death in 1698.
According to the hotel’s website, when Frontenac died he had his heart sent in a box to his fiancé in Europe, but she was so sad, she sent it right back. (They also claim he’s been haunting the hotel in search of his love ever since then, which is impossible since the hotel was built 200 years after his death.)
And just when I thought I couldn’t love Canada any more than I already do: the Count’s ghost is so famous that he’s featured in the first set of “Haunted Canada” stamps, released in 2014.
