Travel

Ecola State Park Our first stop was Ecola State Park. The overlook near the parking lot provides a great ocean view. We paid the parking fee $7 at the kiosk on the parking lot. One mistake I made was throwing away the parking receipt after we left the park. We did not know that the receipt was good for a week and several other state parks. So keep your parking receipt. Canon Beach We had lunch at Canon Beach, and then went to the beach. It was very crowded everywhere and very hard to find parking. We walked around on the beach the famous Haystack Rock and the Needles.   Astoria We drove to Astoria to check in at our hotel Astoria Riverwalk Inn. There was quite some traffic on the way.  The hotel is right at the marina, so the views were fantastic, especially sunset time. We saw many animals like birds and a family of raccoons. The location was perfect too: it was a short walk to the Astoria bridge and many restaurants. The hotel was quiet, good for a night of rest. We sta...

  Multnomah Falls We got up early to visit Multnomah Falls because we knew that it would be crowded at this holiday weekend. If you drive along I-84, you'll need to prebook a parking spot for Multnomah Falls. Instead, we drove along Historic Columbia River Hwy, and no prebooking was needed. The drive was extremely scenic, but we did not stop by any vista points and went straight to  Multnomah Falls. We arrived the parking lot before 8 am and found parking without a problem.  Multnomah Falls was breathtaking. We walked to the bridge and walked around a bit. More waterfalls There are about 90 waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge area. We stopped by Wahkeena Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Shepperd's Dell Falls, Latourell Falls. All of these beautiful waterfalls were either directly visible from roadside or just a short hike (< 1 mile) away. Columbia River Gorge is a great place to spend a long vacation. It would be fun to just hike everyday to the waterfalls and enjoy the...

We took a family road trip to Oregon during July 1-9.  It was the July 4th week, so we expected it to be crowded everywhere and everything to be more expensive.  Our first day was to drive 11 hours to Portland.  We had dinner at Jalisco Mexican Restaurant in Eugene, OR. The food was very good. We stayed at the Quality Inn at Gresham. Two nights for $294.58. The hotel had great facilities, and was very quiet. It was my favorite hotel of the entire trip.

Itinerary Day 0. June 10. Saturday. Flight to Cape Town Day 1. June 11. Sunday. Arrived at Cape Town. Checked in at the President Hotel (4 nights) Day 2. June 12. Monday. Cape Town Orientation Tour .  Day 3. June 13. Tuesday.  Cape peninsula tour Day 4. June 14. Wednesday.  Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens Day  5.  June 15. Thursday. Flight to Hoedspruit via Airlink. Checked in at Sausage Tree Safari Lodge (3 nights) Day  6.  June 16. Friday. Safari day Day  7.  June 17. Saturday. Safari day Day  8.  June 18. Sunday. Checked out after morning game drive. Checked in at Loerie Guest House (2 nights). Went to Blue Mountain Restaurant. Day  9.  June 19. Monday. Panoramic Route tour. Day  10.  June 20. Flew to Johannesburg via Airlink. Then flew home. What could be changed in the itinerary In hindsight, I could have arranged Day 8 to land on a weekday, so that I could visit Moholoholo Wildlife Reha...

We ate leftover breakfast food from yesterday. Then we checked out of the hotel. I had previously booked an airport transfer with Sable Tours. The driver dropped us off at Hoedspruit airport. Our flight was 12:05 to Johannesburg with Airlink airlines. For such a short flight, they again served complimentary drinks including wine and lunch (beef sandwich).  We spent the rest of the day at Johannesburg airport. We had dinner at an airport restaurant before our 8pm flight to New York. It was a long 16 hour flight to New York. We arrived at around 5am. Then we departed at 8:20am and flew another 6 hours to San Francisco. Ethan picked us up. 

I ordered box breakfast from Loerie Guest House the night before. In the morning, we got the food. It was so much food that Claire and I only ate less than half of it, and we put the rest in the fridge.   Sausage Tree Safari had a promotion of staying three nights to get a free Panoramic Route tour. I saw the promotion a few months after I booked the trip, but they were kind enough to give us the promotion. The tour started at 8am. It was with Buya Buya Tour and our driver turned out to be Patrick again. When we went outside of the hotel at 8, he was already waiting for us. He said that he hitchhiked to work at 5am in order to be there on time. Our first stop was Three Rondavels. The three peaks were named after the three wives of a chief who won a war. There were lots of gift stands at the view points. This was true for all later places. Prices were very negotiable.   The same spot also has a view of the Blyde River Canyon. Patrick said that this is the world's larg...

Claire decided to sleep instead of going for the morning game drive, so we went without her. Jimmy and Themba tried to track a leopard, but we did not see it. A car ahead of us said that they saw it jumped into a private land where we could not enter. We saw lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras. After breakfast, we checked out of the lodge. The lodge had arranged Buya Buya Travel & Tours to take us to our next hotel, Loerie Guest House. Loerie Guest House was an ok place to stay. We originally planned to spend the afternoon visiting Hoedspruit town. The town is really small and not much to see. T he lodge owners and others suggested Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre as a good place to visit. However, they are closed on weekends so we could not visit today.  T he safari lodge owners connected us with Andre, the owner of the Blue Mountain  Restaurant. He and his wife Cheryl took us to the restaurant. It was a very scenic place with delicious food. I took a photo fro...