San Diego to Lake Tahoe

This Christmas long weekend was to be spent at Lake Tahoe which we had never visited before. I booked a vacation rental through Lake Tahoe Accommodations. We had a nice (per the pics in the rental page) 3 bedroom/2.5 bathroom home in Kingsbury or Stateline right across the CA/NV state border. I flew into San Jose on Saturday morning, where we picked up a rental (4WD due to the snowy conditions) at Hertz and started our drive to Lake Tahoe from SJC. It was about 2 pm when we started the drive - which was smooth and traffic free all the way past Folsum. We reached US50 close to Pollock Pines with absolutely no issues. At this point Google maps seemed to indicate that it would take 4.5 hours to reach Lake Tahoe - which was only 75 miles away! This sounded ridiculous to us so we continued driving. Sure enough, we hit traffic that had come to a standstill. After inching along only 2-3 miles in over 1.5 hours, we decided to turn and head back to a gas station in Pollock Pines - 10 miles back! This would put us back a couple of hours but we were low on water and gas. We headed back to the Chevron gas station, where we took a restroom stop, refueled both the car and ourselves and decided to wait in traffic since heading back to Folsum would put us back by a day. The traffic had come to a standstill due to several vehicle incidents along US50 because of the snow storm. We finally made it to Lake Tahoe past 12:30 am. The rental office had clear instructions on where to pick up the keys and how to head to the house. So that was all neat. But once we reached the house, we realized that there was a long, steep driveway to the house filled with almost 2 feet of snow! We could not leave the car on the road, so we had no choice but to shovel the driveway! :-(
Ugh! Definitely made me regret my decision to stay at a vacation rental vs. hotel! After attempting to shovel the entire driveway, we gave up and only shoveled the bottom part sufficiently to get the car off the road. We then hauled our luggage another 20 feet up the driveway to the garage. But that was not the end of it! The house was another 20-25 feet up - two flights of stairs! Sigh! After hauling all the bags up the stairs we entered the house (which was all warm and cozy) only to realize that 2 bedrooms were downstairs but the master bedroom/kitchen/living room were another flight of steps up! Oh well! We decided to take the master bedroom, so on we went, hauling the bags one more flight of stairs up! The house itself (@187 Kingsbury Circle) was immaculate, cozy and very nice..but after our travel ordeal all night, it just wasn't the fun experience I was hoping it would be!

So ended our journey to Lake Tahoe. By the time we settled into our beds it was 3 AM!!

Portland

Inside Voodoo Doughnut store

Voodoo Doughnut

The weather this morning looked good enough for a walk to the park along the river. So I headed out with my MIL. Unfortunately, light showers started as soon as we hit the streets. So we walked along Adler st, then skipped the park and made our way on 3rd ave to Voodoo Doughnuts. I had read so much about this doughnut shop that I had to stop by. And just like in the reviews, there was a line forming almost out the door at 8 am! We bought a few doughnuts (one with fruit loops on it!) and they were good! DH loved the "Gay Bar" - the one with a line of fruit loop on it and with bavarian creme inside and I really enjoyed the "Portland Creme" - voodoo doughnut's take on Boston Creme!



We didnt have time to do anything else in the morning - just a few stops to check out stores near the hotel. Then we had to pack up to leave for the airport.

With my college buddy - Yatin

My college buddy whom I had not seen or met for the last 6-7 years stopped by to say hello. He's a native Portlander now and in retrospect I should have consulted him on this trip earlier. Oh, well... I left it to the Fodorites to guide me and the trip turned out pretty well. I might have cut short one day in Hood River and added that day to the Portland stay. But then I'm sure we'll return to the city because there is so much to do and see!

Oregon is a beautiful state and one worth visiting in the summer/fall. We will definitely go again!

Our flight back to San Diego was uneventful and in fact, we landed early to a light drizzle! We brought the rains back from Oregon! :) It was a fun road trip - tiring and long but fun!

Back to Portland

October 19 -
We were going to head back to Portland today and with rains in the forecast, were unsure of how to plan to day. After breakfast, we checked out of the hotel. Since it wasnt raining yet, we decided to stop at Bonneville Dam and take a tour. This is a US Government facility - entry is free and very educational. The dam itself is quite small but looking at the fish ladder and understanding what the engineers are doing to sustain wildlife in the area is important. We saw only a couple of migrating salmon today but I enjoyed the visit. DH thought we should have skipped this and done a longer hike instead.

We did stop near Horsetail falls and go on the 1.2m trail towards Oneanta. You will be rewarded with a view of Ponytail falls (0.4m steep hike from the road), more stunning views of the river & gorge along the remaining 0.8m path to Oneanta. The falls at Oneanta is nothing to write home about but the hike is very enjoyable. Past the bridge at Oneanta, there is a fork where one can take a 1.1m trail to Triple Falls. We did not do this. One can also take a 1m hike down to the highway forming a loop to the Oneanta Falls trailhead. We decided to head back the way we came. We got some light showers on the way back.

View of the Columbia River during the hike to Oneanta Falls

Lan Su Chinese Garden

After a quick stop at the snack bar near Multnomah Falls, we headed into Portland. DH wanted to go shopping to the outlet stores in Woodburn (around 45 mins south of Portland). I nixed the plans in favor of walking the streets of downtown Portland. We were staying at the Marriot City Center which is in the heart of downtown and I could not justify heading out of town while we were going to be here only one night. So I dragged the family with me to the Lan Su Chinese garden in Chinatown. For nearly $10 per adult, this place is definitely not worth a visit. It might be a tranquil stop for a local Portlander but for a tourist, this is a waste of time and money unless you are really interested in Chinese tea and plants. We walked back in rain stopping at a couple of stores on the way. We eventually made our way to India House, an Indian restaurant on Morrison st. The food is decent - we had veg and seafood thalis. The portions are filling although the service was a little slow. No complaints after our last Indian meal experience!!! ;-) Nothing spectacular but good enough for satisfying an Indian food craving.

We called it an early night and unfortunately did not explore any of Portland's night life!

The scenic Columbia River Gorge

October 18 -
Today was our day in Hood River and surroundings; per plans dedicated to the Columbia River Gorge scenic drive. After a decent breakfast at the Riverside grill (included with our stay), we stopped at the Hood River visitor booth to get some maps of the area and look up the falls and nearby hikes. There was some good info to be had here since I didnt find anything similar online.

View of the Vista House from the Womens Forum Viewpoint

The best part of the scenic drive is between Portland and Hood River. We didnt explore the Washington side and did not venture out to The Dalles. We drove west on I-84 till exit 22 to state hwy -30. The first stop on this route going east from the town of Corbett is the Portland Women's Forum park. This scenic viewpoint offers spectacular views of the Columbia River, the vista house and the surrounding mountains. It was extremely windy when we stopped here and we could barely stand there to take even a few pics. In any case, its a definite stop on this route since the views are totally worth it. The next stop is the Vista house but the part of hwy-30 leading up to this spot was closed down for construction, so we had to skip it. A fork in the road (going right) leads up to Larch Mountain from where one can see the peaks of several mountains. We didnt go the 6-7 mile route, so cannot comment on the views but I am sure its stunning as well. We drove back the way we came, headed west on I-84 and took exit 28 to Bridal Veil falls. Once we got back on hwy-30, we headed east till we reached Latourell Falls. This was our first glimpse of a Columbia River Gorge Falls. I had my fill of photography from the lower vantage point. We then hiked up to the top of the falls - the hiking trail continues way past the falls but we we didnt venture out very far. From here we started out west - our next stop was Dell's Sheppard. This is a much smaller but more scenic waterfall. Its just a short climb from the highway and the bridge around the waterfall would probably offer a stunning picturesque photo if the light is right. I didnt quite get it since the Sun was in my face (and camera) and I couldnt quite avoid it no matter what angle I chose. An HDR might have worked but everyone was losing patience! :P

The "other" view near Bridal Veil Falls

Our next stop was Bridal Veil Falls. This is a bit of a hike down from the highway - so hike down to the falls, then hike back up. The location is very beautiful with a small wooden bridge amidst green forestry leading up to the actual falls. Lots of photo ops! :)



Wahkeena Falls is next (going east) and visible from the highway but we did not stop here. We headed on to the most famous of the falls along the route: Multonomah Falls. By this time the family was hungry. The result of not packing a picnic lunch was spending extra $$ on average food at the Multonomah Lodge restaurant at the falls. Its ok and a savior if you are starving since there isnt really anything else along the route unless you head out of the area. After doing to necessary "pet-pooja", we walked towards the falls. As cliched as the pics of these falls are, one cant resist getting that "money" shot with the same view/look. I got several one of which I am hoping will be hanging in a frame some day! :D

My money shot of Multnomah Falls!! :)

The climb up to Benson bridge is short - 0.2 m - worth it since the views from there are quite nice. The hike to the top is about 1.1 m - DH very enthusiastically climbed all the way up and pretty much sprinted down. He thought the climb was very much worth it as well. The falls is very pretty and even though I'd read it was over-rated, I would not recommend missing seeing it or hiking to the bridge/top.

Next on our drive east was Oneanta falls - which is a 1m hike from the road. We skipped this and went to the next one: horsetail falls - visible from the road. We got some pics here but take the trails to the several falls accessible from this location (including Oneanta Falls).

This little guy was actually posing for me!

We headed back on I-84 and took exit 44 to Bonneville Dam, with the intention of seeing the fish ladder and migrating salmon. Thought this might be interesting for DS. Unfortunately the place closes at 5pm. So we ended up strolling the fish hatchery and surrounding garden. Its nothing special but for a photo enthusiast, there are hidden treasures everywhere. We got to see some rather interesting fishes, ducks, flowers and fauna. Of course, I was wielding my camera everywhere! :P

By the time we reached Hood River it was time for dinner and DH found a hidden gem in the downtown. The 6th street Bistro is on 6th street off of Cascade Ave. We enjoyed our dinner here: coconut red curry, teriyaki stir fry, pear-walnut salad... the house soup - potato leek - was also excellent! So was the desert! We stayed with vegetarian options and everything was yummy. Definitely recommended.

Mt. Hood and Hood River

October 17 -

View from Drake Park

Once again we woke up to a beautiful day in Bend. After an early breakfast, we checked out of the Fairfield Inn and headed out to downtown Bend in search of a Post Office in order to mail DS's postcards to his friends. We didnt find a post office there but stopped at Drake Park right next to the Deschutes River in downtown Bend. The park offers stunning views of the surrounding foliage and the faraway Mt. Bachelor.

After getting our fill of fall pictures in the park, we headed out towards Hwy 97 and found a post-office right off the hwy. Our drive towards Mt. Hood took us through some scenic countryside, through the small town of Madras (where we stopped for food) and onto Timberline Lodge - listed as a historic landmark site. We spent some time here admiring the history of the lodge but most of its facilities like the Blue Ox Bar etc were closed. The bar upstairs was open and the view from there is pretty good. We spent some time playing shuffleboard in the game room.

DH in our rental car in front of Mt. Hood at Timberline Lodge

From Timberline Lodge, we drove to Hood River to our hotel for the night - Best Western Plus. The hotel is in a nice location right next to the Hood River bridge. Our room, the Oneanta Suite, is pretty nice too with a view of the Columbia River and the bridge.

After unloading our bags and freshening up, we drove north into Washington and then west on hwy 14 (also known as the Lewis and Clark Hwy) hoping to stop on the way to see the sunset. We started driving around 5pm and stopped at Drano Lake. Then continued on, thinking we would find lookout spots to catch the sunset. Unfortunately, there are no such points. We ended up back on the Oregon side after crossing over the Bridges of Gods past the town of Stevenson. On the Oregon side, we stopped by the river side and got some pics of the sky past sunset. We headed back to our hotel and had dinner at the Riverside Grill which is the restaurant in the Best Western. The restaurant is rated pretty high on Yelp but is nothing to write home about. It has typical American-Italian fare. The tomato soup and house garlic bread are pretty good. We also got a fairly good bottle of 2009 Merlot. But the main entrees were all lackluster.

Sunset sky at Hood River seen from the Oregon side near the Bridge Of Gods

Bend and a trip back to Crater Lake!

October 16 -

Benham Falls trail from the park

Benham Falls

We woke up to a bright, sunny day. No rains in the forecast! yaay! After the included breakfast at Fairfield Inn (MIL went on a long walk by the river park which she thoroughly enjoyed), we headed out south on Hwy 97. We were deciding whether to make the trip to Crater Lake considering the sunny weather forecast. Meanwhile we pulled over towards the Lava Lands National Park. This is the exit I was told to take, to go to Newberry National Monument but the park entrance seemed to be closed. So I continued driving towards Benham Falls state park. The road ends in a small parking lot by the river where a trailhead marks the trail to Benham Falls (~0.5m) and other falls in the area (3-7 miles distance). The walk to Benham falls was very nice - the cooperating weather made it even more enjoyable. The falls itself wasnt really a waterfall ... just the river gushing over an outcropping of rock. Nevertheless we had a good time with the walk and taking pics (of course!)

A road to the clouds... drive around the Crater Lake rim

We walked back to our car and decided to take a chance and drive to Crater Lake. We did the 2 hour drive with a short stop to fill gas before hitting hwy 138 and buying some snacks (there are no real restaurants close to Crater Lake unless you count the snack shop/restaurant at Rim Village). We reached the north entrance to the park close to 1 pm. We decided to go around the lake going from the west towards the east. The weather was clear blue sunny skies! Our first stop at Pumice Point did not disappoint - it offered us breathtaking views of the vista. The lake is all it is made out to be - a deep blue like no other and fantastic panoramic views. Our next stop was at Cleetwood Cove trail. There is no lookout here but the start of a 1m trail that leads to the lake and (in summer) to the boat tours. We went a short distance down but skipped the full hike down. It seemed worth doing but we decided it was better to focus on going around the lake. We then stopped at Cloudcap overlook and Phantom ship overlook - both give different views of the lake. From the Phantom ship overlook, a short drive away from the lake is The Pinnacles. A 7 mile drive takes you to this stop where you can see a view of the volcanic fumaroles.

The Pinnacles

After a short break here and being mesmerized by these volcanic formations, we drove out to the rim road. We continued on the east rim route and intended to stop at Vidae falls. This falls is right next to the rim road on the right. But we took a left turn away from the lake after reading a sign for "Vidae". This happens to be the road to the Vidae picnic area and the entrance to the trailhead for several hikes. These hiking trails were closed at this time but looked pretty tempting for a summer visit. After a confusing roundabout near the picnic area (where we thankfully found restrooms - there are no restrooms at any other point from Pumice Point!!) - we headed out, only to realize the falls was to our right on the rim road itself. The falls was pretty tiny - no snow yet to feed the falls. It looked like it might be pretty spectacular in spring or early summer with all the melting snow. We continued our drive along the east rim road to the Rim Village, where we grabbed a bite to eat ($4 for PB&J, anyone??? yikes!) and had some really good latte and cappuccino. The views from behind the restaurant and gift shop are pretty neat too. DH got some postcards to mail his friends from school at the gift shop. After a couple of more stops at Discovery Point and Watchman Overlook we headed back to Bend. Discovery Point is the location from where the lake was discovered by a mule rider whose mule suddenly stopped at the edge of the crater and surprised his rider. DH wondered how many stops we could possibly take to view the same lake??!! We had spent 4 hours at Crater Lake and the view from every angle is completely worth it if you are a fan of landscapes and the beauty of nature! My camera certainly loved it! :P

A pano view of the lake & Wizard Island

The drive back to Bend was uneventful and took us 2 hours. DH chose a Lebanese/middle eastern cuisine restaurant after our debacle with the Indian one the previous night. Joolz, the restaurant in downtown Bend, turned out to be very nice. The decor is quite impressive and we walked into lively chatter and very welcoming servers/hosts. Our server, Fibia (I think) was fantastic. We had several vegetarian tapas - every one of which was scrumptious! DH had a cod dish which was also very good. The cocktails were excellent and so was the date cake we ordered for dessert. I definitely recommend the place!

An awesome end to an amazing day of visual treats followed by culinary delights! :D

Crater lake

October 15 - 

The next morning our plans to go for a walk/hike up to the nearby waterfalls were squashed by the continuous rains. So instead we got ready and took in the beauty and charm of the resort and the log cabins! We really loved our accommodations and resolved to return in the summer - such is the charm of Oregon!! After a very hearty and heavy breakfast at Beckie's (which is a 85-year old tradition on Hwy 62), we checked out of the resort and decided to see some of the falls nearby.

Natural Bridges Falls

The road to Natural bridge viewpoint is 1 mile south of union creek on Hwy 62 to the right. Drive on the road till you get to the parking lot. A short walk later is a bridge to view the falls. The falls is quite lovely and you can see some amazing "natural bridges" formed from lava tubes. 

After walking around the falls and taking plenty of pics, we headed towards Crater Lake which is about 23 miles from Union Creek resort. Unfortunately for us, the visibility today was extremely poor. We attempted a drive along the west rim road but after stopping at a lookout and being blasted by cold, almost freezing winds - we gave up on seeing Crater Lake! This was a huge disappointment since we made this long detour and drive just to see the lake. It was not to be! So we just started driving towards Bend. In retrospect, we should have checked out some more falls in the area. We didnt stop to think or plan. Drive to Bend was smooth for the most part, except for some traffic congestion along hwy 97. On the way, we stopped at the High Desert Museum. This is definitely worth a short visit but its $15 pp. If you are in the area to do other activities this can be skipped. I certainly enjoyed taking pics of the butterflies in the live butterflies and hummingbird exhibit, the rattlers, owls, eagles etc. We also saw some nice fall colors on the way to Bend as well as in downtown Bend where we stopped for coffee at Looney Bean Roasting Company. This place has good coffee and an even better view of the river. We were staying at the Fairfield Inn, in downtown Bend. Its a nice place - nothing special - but good enough. We decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant for my in-laws' sake. Dinner at Taj Palace on Wall St. in downtown Bend was probably one of the worst Indian food I have eaten! :(

Its been raining considerably this evening in Bend. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a clearer day so we can enjoy the town.

Note: the Fairfield Inn is next to train tracks. So expect to hear trains going by and hooting at all odd hours of the night! :-/

Lincoln city to Union Creek

October 14 -
Note about Surfrider Resort: like I mentioned the buildings are old, so if your room is on the first floor and you have noisy folks upstairs (like we did) you will hear every footstep! In case you are a light sleeper ask for a room upstairs during reservation. The resort does have excellent WiFi connection though. Kinda makes up for being kept awake, since you can post and update your blogs then!!! :P

I woke up early and attempted to take pictures of the beautiful shoreline. But there was a light drizzle and mist so visibility was pretty low. 

View from our room at the Surfrider Resort, Depoe Bay

We then headed towards Lincoln City to Beach Dog cafe. Once again, the Google maps marker was incorrect and the cafe was a little south of the marker. We found it after some looking around (& sending several bug reports to Google). This is a fun little place right on hwy 101, dedicated to dogs but serving food to two-legged folks...excellent food! I had 'kristina's stuffed French toast'...as mentioned on 4sq, its excellent. Every thing else ordered on the table was pretty good too. We left completely satisfied and with very full tummies. We then headed further south to Captain Dan's pirate pastry shop in the hopes of grabbing some 'world famous cinnamon rolls'. World famous..they certainly were not!
We then started on our journey south towards Newport. The Oregon coastline is beautiful - rugged tall cliffs facing the waves of the ocean while lined up with tall pine trees and other trees starting to show fall colors. We  stopped on the way several times to take pictures....finally reaching Newport around noon. We stopped at historic Nye beach, which looked lovely but rain kept us from exploring it further. Took another stop on the other side of the bridge for taking pictures, then headed south on 101 towards Reedsport. On the way, we halted near the Yaquina bay bridge, got a glimpse of the lighthouse...then made our way further south to the sea lion caves. We paid $10 a pop to walk down to the elevator in the hillside and descend 200ft into the caves. There were no sea lions today but the cave looked fascinating. Maybe not worth $10 though. However on a bright day, the views alone would be worth the price! My aim was to head south to go to the Oregon sand dunes national park. Again google maps kinda ruined this for us. We followed the directions and ended up way south of the actual location (which we never figured out cuz we got so late trying to figure where we were). The navigation led us off hwy 101 on Sparrow Park Rd towards the beach for some 4-5 miles. The road was unpaved and looked suspect but I wouldn't give up my faith in google! :-/

Much to my DH's annoyance, I insisted we go to the end of the unpaved path... we ended up at one of the most pristine beaches I have seen but the wind and cold weather made hanging out there impossible. I flexed some photography muscles and we headed out of there. 

Umpqua Beach at Reedsport - mistakenly ended up here thinking its the Sand Dunes!!

Deciding to give up on finding the actual Sand Dunes, we headed into Reedsport. My search abilities got us into Reedsport Natural Foods store - where we had some smoothies, paninis and burger. Its a mom-n-pop natural food store and cafe with a small town feel and speed. We had to wait a good half hour or longer to get our food! The subway 2 blocks up the street might have been a better choice! :P After a somewhat slow and late lunch, we loaded up on some groceries in Safeway and headed out towards Crater Lake. The drive was going to be a good 3.5 hours long and it was already about 4pm when we started out. A short distance out of Reedsport we saw a whole herd of Elk grazing! This was at a viewpoint just before Deens Creek. They looked magnificent but we didnt stop (unfortunately) coz we wanted to cover most of the distance to Union Creek before nightfall.  Inspite of the urgency to reach our destination, we stopped at a small park called Scottsburg Park to satisfy my need to take a family portrait with the fall colors as background! :-P

View from Scottsburg Park

I managed to take some more pics along the mighty Umpqua River enroute to Union Creek. The drive from Roseburg off of I-5 to Union Creek is long - 84 miles along state hwy 138, then on route 230, onto 62. At mile marker 56 is Union Creek Resort. We reached after nightfall, so couldnt tell how pretty the resort is. We got a 6-sleeper cabin - C#7 - which is cozy and charming and can easily sleep 6. It has a spacious kitchen and bathroom. There is absolutely no cell coverage in the area and for most of the drive into the area. No television. Very rustic and charming getaway! We reached a little after 8pm and both the convenience store in the resort and the restaurant close by 8pm. Luckily we had some food to cook up that we picked up from the grocery store in Reedsport. Maggi noodles would have been a great choice but we didnt think of that before. Yet rice+buttermilk+chips wasnt too bad! :) We retired early tonight.

Oregon coast

Walkway in RiverPlace

October 13 - we woke up to a cloudy sky but thankfully no rains. The weather was perfect for a nice long morning walk. DS and I took a walk along the Willamette river, while DH went for a 7 mile run around it. It was a refreshing walk and the entire area called Riverplace is very charming and boutique-ish! :) I didnt have the chance to actually explore the shops or restaurants along the path but they looked enticing enough to warrant another trip to the city! Since our plan was to drive to the coast today, we headed back to Residence Inn for our "included" breakfast (available till 10 am. After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles and some pretty decent coffee, we started towards Lincoln city around 11 am. 

View Oregon Roadtrip in a larger map

We headed south on I-5, then took state hwy 99W. Driving south-west on 99W we passed many wineries, so decided to stop by one of them. We took a pit stop at Sokol Blosser Winery. The drive into the vineyard was nice and the humidity in the air made the surroundings look crisp and clean. We did the $15 wine tasting of 6 different wines - a pinot gris, 4 different pinot noir and 1 dessert wine. The desert wine was pretty good but at $40 a pop we didnt think it was worth buying. After walking around, taking a few pictures and picnicking on some food that we had brought along, we started on the route towards Lincoln City. We made another detour to look at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where we drove around and looked at the planes outside but did not go into the museum. We also stopped at a farm and bought some hazelnuts - had never had those before so it was an experience eating them. We reached Lincoln City a little after 2 pm and the fall kite festival was in progress at the D River State Park. It was cloudy and chilly but the kite flyers were out there in full force! We stood mesmerized as a team of 6 flew kites in sync with the musical theme of Star Wars - it was so perfectly choreographed that we stunned to see the kites go up, down, around and even do bows in the air! Absolutely amazing. Then DS got the chance to try his hand at some kite flying - it was pretty neat to watch him learn to control a 4-string kite!

6 kites flying in sync with the Star Wars theme music

We then headed to our place of stay for the night: Surfrider Resort at Depoe Bay, about 20 mins south of Lincoln City. The resort is set on a cliff facing the ocean - so ocean views for every room. The resort itself is very old which is noticeable in the room construction and furnishings but its a clean place. Also, in the summer and possibly into Autumn, one can see whales in the ocean. Unfortunately, we didnt see any although they were spotted a few days before we got there! It has a restaurant on property which we did not try. Instead we ended up at a Thai restaurant called Thai Bay in Depoe Bay. Note that Google maps (as of Oct 13, 2012) gives the location of this place incorrectly. Its next to the Whale Museum, after one crosses the bridge in Depoe Bay. Its a hole in the wall but very clean and utilitarian furnishings. The portions are large (and I mean large!) and their "medium" is pretty spicy (coming from an Indian - this means SPICY). But the food is good, especially on a freezing cold day! We packed plenty of leftovers and headed back. The rest of the evening was spent in the warmth of the hotel room at the resort... it was too cold to venture out and explore anything at all although the beach at the back of the resort looked very interesting.

On our way to Portland, Oregon

Our flights from SD to Portland via Salt Lake City went without incident. We have to pay now for every check in bag!!! Yikes!! Landed in Portland around 11 pm to clear skies (after much rain all day, apparently) & to DH waiting in a rental car. After a 20 min drive, we arrived at the Residence Inn by Marriott in downtown Portland. This is a rather conveniently located hotel in downtown with free continental breakfast and clean rooms.

Salt Lake City, Utah

A weekend trip to salt lake city just sort of happened and we flew in on Delta airlines on January 27, 2012. We had an interesting landing where the plane started taxiing on the runway, probably the plane over-shot (not sure but could be due to wind...the pilot did not explain) and took off again after touching ground!! After a second safe attempt, we disembarked, got our Cadillac Escalade from Hertz car rental at the airport and headed to Cottonwood. We were booked at the Residence Inn by Marriott, which is a clean and nice hotel to stay in and not too far from Brighton ski resort. After freshening up we took a drive up the mountain to Brighton. The drive is beautiful, with brown-red rock mountains covered with snow and conifers lining up the mountainside, their branches laden with pure white snow!! After getting familiar with our options at Brighton, we headed back and drove to downtown Salt Lake city. We drove past the state capitol building, stopping for some pictures, then headed over to Temple Square.

Salt Lake Temple

I took some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple which looked beautiful under the night sky.
We then visited the north visitors center, which is home to an impressive 11-foot statue of Jesus Christ known as the Christus. After looking at a few exhibits describing Mormon philosophy and beliefs, we headed back towards Cottonwood. Dinner was at Market street grill - decent seafood place in Cottonwood. We called it an early night!

Some notes on traveling to Bora Bora, FP

Mostly thoughts from our experience...

• Ensure you carry cash - almost every place takes $$ instead of the local currency. We found that effective exchange rate at our resort was better than at Tahiti Fa'aa airport. So be sure to check that out.
• Not all restaurants are open on all days in Bora Bora. Be certain to check that first with your resort concierge if you are keen on eating at a specific place. We really wanted to eat at La Suite and La Villa Mahana in BB but missed out coz we didnt know which days they were closed.
• Some restaurants like La Villa Mahana need advance reservations - a couple staying at our resort had booked dinner reservations here 3 months in advance!! While that may not be needed, if your heart is set on eating at a particular place, be sure to check with the resort concierge.
• Bring an underwater camera.. the life underneath the surface is breathtaking and worth the money!
• Plenty of resorts on the motus (or islands) off the main island of Vaitape charge to ferry you from the resort to the main island. We got lucky coz Le Meridien has a free ferry every hour. But you may want to check that out.
• Most resorts also charge to take you from the airport to the resort. 
• Everything is super expensive.. so get ready to see double digit to three-digit $$$ amount checks or 4-digit in FP francs! :D
• Get ready to relax and enjoy paradise!

Bidding Adieu to Bora Bora

October 27, 2011.... I had decided to wake up really early to go catch the sunrise today. So I was out with my tripod and cam at 5:10 am. Sunrise was around 5:30. I walked to the east shore of the motu...there isn't much of a shoreline or beach here so I didn't expect anything dramatic. It was mostly for my photography experience and coz I'm in love with my Canon 7d! ....

Sunrise at Bora Bora...

The setting was so peaceful...waves rushing to the shore, not one soul around, the sun starting to peak from the horizon.... one with nature! I tried several shots before the sun came out including several sets to try HDR on. Excited! Then as the sun came up a dense cloud came right in front of the sun covering it and spreading the rays out! It was fantastic... I was very excited to take pictures...can't wait to see if I did justice to the majesty of the scenery. I was there for a good 20 mins after the sunrise...at which point my cam complained "memory full" ...sigh! And of course my spare memory card was in the room! I had to delete a few shots so I could shoot some pics of other vantage points on my walk back to the room.

Back in the room, I decided to go for a swim from our hut to the shore (DH had challenged me earlier)... it was an invigorating swim, the water was perfect...this should be life...jump into water right outside ur room and go for a swim! ;-) after that refreshing swim we headed to the breakfast buffet. Since we had to checkout at 11, we took our own sweet time having a leisurely breakfast... packed sandwiches for later in the day and headed back. Finally got to enjoy the mango I had packed during the biking trip...yummy! It was amazingly sweet. DH checked if we could do a late checkout..we were good till 1:30!!! We should have checked earlier coz by then I was showered and ready to go! But since we had the time, we just chilled in the room. When it was time to checkout we headed over to the reception, got lovely shell leis from the staff, then went over to the bar to enjoy some drinks.

Our boat to the airport was at 2 pm. Note: the hotel charges for the boat service to and from theairport. Le Meridien charged 7000 cfp (~$85) each way.

Check in to Air Tahiti was smooth. Our flight took off at around 3:10 pm. Everyone at the airport seemed a wee bit sad! :-( and all those folks arriving at the airport had a big smile on their faces...seemed like only yesterday that we were there with a big smile on our faces! Sigh!

Le Meridien in Papeete

We landed at Tahiti Fa'aa airport a little after 4. We were booked into the  Le Meridien in Tahiti. Surprisingly the hotel does not provide a shuttle from the airport. We decided to exchange some dollars before getting a taxi to the airport. the exchange rate seemed to be better than that at the hotel - approx 80 cfp for a dollar but once we went into the bank we realized they charge 580 cfp as commission bringing the exchange rate lower than the one at the hotel!! The taxi cost us about 2000 cfp and driving through Papeete, we were glad that we decided to stay in Bora Bora the whole time instead of Tahiti. Le Meridien in Tahiti is quite nice and the hotel faces west, so there is lovely view of the sun setting over the ocean. The hotel has a pool with a sandy beach like setting around it. We got a room on the 6th floor facing the ocean. I set up my tripod in the balcony hoping to get some sunset pics. We went down to the beach bar to have some drinks.

Sunset at Papeete as seen from Le Meridien

I got some cool shots of the beach, ocean, and the over water bungalows...which we realized were not half as nice as the ones in Le Meridien in Bora Bora...score for picking that over this. These huts did not have direct access to the lagoon, which made the whole OWB concept pointless! We really enjoyed the drinks while the sun set over the ocean . I headed back to the room to try and get some sunset pics from our balcony.
We then headed over to 'Le Plantation' restaurant in the hotel for dinner. The food - hot goat cheese salad, tomato soup, bami goreng (Indonesian noodles) and Polynesian tuna platter - was very good and went well with the red wine we had! Creme brulee was very good too! All in all a wonderful end to a very relaxing and excellent vacation. We retired early since we had to wake up at 4 am to get to the airport by 5 for our 7:30 am flight to LA.

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Diving in Bora Bora

Heading out to the dive sites on Yvan's boat

October 26, 2011... its Diwali for Indians every where...Happy Diwali to all our friends and family! We are far far away from any festivities, lights, sweets and celebrations... but today we are celebrating in our own way. We have 2 tank dives scheduled in the morning with Bora diving center!!! :D We booked the trip thru our hotel but they also have a dive shop on the hotel premises. Pick up is at 8:45 am every day for the tank dives. We finished the usual hearty breakfast, packed our fins/masks, I took dramamine for sea sickness and wore my wetsuit. Yvan (who is also the owner of Bora Diving center) showed up promptly at 8:45. He recommended that I change into a full wet suit instead of the half size I was wearing (he called it "shortie") coz he said it would get cold during the two back to back dives. We were 7 people on the dive with two dive masters. DH, myself and Travis (from Alberta, Canada) were going to dive with Yvan and the rest were with the other dive master whose name I didn't catch. We headed out from our hotel to this site called Anau, located in the lagoon between Le Meridien and St. Regis. After a 3 min boat ride, we anchored and put on our BCDs...everything was setup for us - regulators connected to BCD, weights already set, BWARF check done...all we had to do was put on our masks, fins and strap into our BCDs!!! Much easier than our certification dives in La Jolla! We did a back roll from the boat into the water, and lowered ourselves into the water. The descent was smooth and visibility probably 60-70 ft. We were greeted by coral and tons of tropical fish. We descended past the coral into what looked like a canyon pass, called Te Ava Nui pass - this is actually a Manta ray cleaning station (info here) ...around 60 ft. under water. Giant Manta Rays come in here to allow cleaner wrasse to remove parasites from their skin and gill cavities. Yvan told us to lay low and still if we spot the rays. As soon as we descended and touched the sandy bottom we saw 3 rays glide by....what a majestic sight! There are no words to describe the beauty of these creatures...they glide magnificently...and they went right by us! We were lucky that Travis had an under water camera (at that moment I regretted not making the investment in buying an underwater cam... its going to be my universal advise to anyone going diving here) and caught the rays on video! The 3 rays just made it past us and we were about to move when Yvan pointed out 2 more and asked us to lay still. When those 2 went by a few more came around... I lost count but Yvan had started to move...he suddenly became still on his knees and started waving his arms like he was flying (or gliding in water), sort of mimicking the rays movements. I thought I saw a ray move towards him, almost like it was checking us out then it moved on. We slowly made our way towards the other side of the canyon. As we reached the other side Yvan told us to lay still coz he spotted more rays. This time we saw 9 or 10  of them glide by...the biggest one was almost 10-12 ft wide at the wings! They were huge! Yvan said this was his 2nd or 3rd time in all his diving in Bora Bora where he saw so many rays at once!!!! Joy oh joy for us! While the rays went around us a few times, we learned to control our buoyancy. It was good practice to learn to stay horizontal, and raise and lower our body only by using our breathing. Once the Manta rays passed us, we swam around a bit, checked out some more coral and fish, then started ascending. As we ascended a few feet, we saw another Manta ray pass below us...we got another viewing from a different perspective. These looked a lot bigger then the ones we saw during our ray feeding snorkeling experience....while I didn't understand the difference then, I now know that they were two different types of rays...we saw stingrays during our snorkeling trip, and these are much smaller than Manta rays. We did a safety stop about 5m below the surface. Once my tank almost emptied, I was having a hard time staying below the water surface. Had to discuss techniques with Yvan about that!:-)

We got into the boat, Yvan helped us out of the BCD (this is what's so good about diving at resorts! :D) and we rested before heading to our next dive site. Our bottom time was approx. 40 mins. We had some water n cookies while Yvan steered the boat towards Tapu...this was the same site where we went snorkeling during shark feeding...that was a little disappointing that it was the same site but at least we were gonna see the sharks up close. The visibility here was 100 ft, clear blue skies (after a brief spell of showers)....during our surface interval, Yvan had already changed the tanks and set us up for the next dive!!!! We were loving this...expensive dives but no work for us at all! ;) while we geared up for the dive, Yvan started humming the 'Jaws' theme music!!! LOL!! Lemon sharks n black tipped sharks are mostly harmless...we were back in water after a back flip...this time we descended using the anchor rope. We were greeted by thousands of colorful tropical fish....different kinds of triggerfish (redtooth, black), lemonpeel Angelfish, longfin bannerfish, scissor-tail sargeant, forcepsfish and many many more.. black tipped sharks swam around us. It was similar to the day we went snorkeling except this time we were in the middle of the action! Yeehaw! It wasn't long before we spotted a lemon shark, probably 9 ft long... swimming along gracefully. It had a remora swimming underneath, this is a parasitic fish that attaches itself to the host - in this case to the lemon shark....looked magnificent and surprising didn't terrify me even though it was pretty close. We continued gliding along the ocean floor till we reached about 66 ft depth...more coral and bright tropical fish greeted us. We explored the coral reef, Yvan tried to coax a spotted eel out of its cave so Travis could take a pic. He was experimenting with his strobe light and taking shots...was interesting to watch. Then Yvan swam along side thousands of bright fish so Travis could practice his photography skills...I certainly missed having a cam! We got to pose for pics too...so hopefully we'll have some virtual memories that can be posted here soon. We spotted another lemon shark and many more black tipped sharks before we ascended. Again we did a safety stop, then got into the boat and headed to the dive shop on Vaitape. We were greeeted by Yvan's wife Sarah at the shop...we were very happy with the whole dive experience and would certainly recommend Bora diving center. After a brief stop there, we were dropped back to our hotel by boat. We got back to our room, had the sandwiches we had packed in the morning and took a nice long nap.

Sunset at Matira Beach

We had decided to head to Matira beach today to see the sunset and capture pics. So we booked a taxi (3000 cfp or ~$40) to go one way to Matira beach. We reached there around 6 pm, sunset was a little after 6. We stayed there till 6:50 or so....got quite a few shots, I got to experiment quite a bit but the sunset wasn't anything to write home about. I've seen more dramatic and gorgeous sunset in San Diego. Sigh! But at least we got there and tried to take pics, plus we had fun doing so.



We had dinner reservations at Bloody Marys, which according to my fabulous sense of direction was less than a mile away. We decided to walk over....this wasn't the best idea coz it was pitch black when we started walking. It took us a good 30 mins to reach the restaurant! We had to get in quickly since we had to be on the 9pm shuttle back to the boat dock! Bloody Marys has a seafood market type menu...they had cuts of fish and meat all laid out in a bar, you get to pick ur meat for appetizer and entrée and they'll cook it and bring it out to you...I chose tuna sashimi for appetizer and white tuna in a chipotle sauce for entrée. DH had a tuna kabob and red tuna grilled...we started off with a Bloody Mary (which according to DH was excellent) and a blue lagoon (also very good). We got glasses of Merlot to go with our food. We thoroughly enjoyed the ambience - sand floor, wooden tables, etc. And our food.

The restroom at Bloody Marys

The restroom was worth a look (someone had mentioned on Trip advisor)...the faucet was actually a waterfall!!! Very interesting! I got lots of pics coz the place was so interesting. We ran into Travis here! :-)  also met this other couple from Tennessee staying at Le Meridien....seemed like a popular place from the number of people there. We topped off dinner with chocolate cake and another bloody Mary

Headed back to the hotel and to a well deserved slumber!

Biking in Vaitape

Oct 25, 2011 - we had originally planned on doing an introductory dive today followed by a 2 tank dive tomorrow. The afternoon dive was all booked plus it didn't seem worth the money so we decided to go biking instead. We booked a bike tour thru our hotel concierge. They work with Avis (yeah, the car company but they rent bicycles here). Note: its better to ask for bikes with baskets while making the reservation. We didn't get bikes with baskets and that would have been very useful when we shopped for things along our bike ride. After the usual hearty breakfast at the hotel we headed out by boat to Vaitape. A car whisked us off to the Avis office which is close to Matira beach. After signing the requisite papers, we started off on the bikes (no gears, no brakes...these r beach cruisers) towards Matira beach and Vaitape downtown. A single road runs the loop around the island and the entire loop is about 32 kms. Downtown Vaitape was about 10-12 kms from our start point. We stopped on the way to buy a tee for DS & DH and an island necklace for myself...then onto Matira beach. Its as beautiful as I'd heard it to be, with soft white sand, picturesque views of the blue water till the horizon. I really want to be here for sunset. Hopefully tomorrow. After the usual picture-taking, we headed on. Stopped at a pearl shop while it suddenly poured, saw pearls worth $500...quickly made an exit and biked on. :-) we soon reached downtown Vaitape. We were hoping to exchange some dollars here coz the exchange rate was almost 10% higher here than the hotel. But alas! We forgot our passport! Note: all banks in Vaitape need your passport to exchange money and it is better to get money exchanged in town than in the hotel. After pointlessly going around a few banks we went to a supermarket, got ourselves water, a bottle of wine for later, some snacks to go with it and some beer n a vodka drink for lunch. We then grabbed some pork or beef (couldn't tell what it was!!) Fried rice at this shack called 'snack roti' and biked on. Past downtown we found a spot to park the bikes and sit by the beach to have the rice and drinks! Impromptu picnic....it was brilliant! The rice was yummy and it was one of the cheapest meals we had! ;-) Got some cool snaps of the place and of us swinging on a tree! Was a lot of fun...the rest of the bike ride wasn't as picturesque but we rode past many mango trees chock full of mangoes. Of course i had to stop to take pics prompting an exasperated sigh and comment from DH....something to the effect that i was forgetting that i grew up in India among mango trees! :-P...no matter, i got some snaps of a local house, mangoes and had a local woman offer me a mango... score!!!! :-) ...I packed the mango for later and we biked on...We hit a steep hill past the dock for four seasons resort. The hill was a bit$h for me but DH made it uphill all the way riding on the bike. Then it was downhill with crazy speed, no gears and no real brakes! Was a roller coaster ride! We made it back to the Le Meridien dock just before 2pm, which was the time we had to turn in our bikes. After heading back to our room, we swam/snorkeled near our bungalow, I sun bathed for a bit and took a restful nap on the deck, then got ready, sat on the deck while enjoying our wine and snacks. The view was very good...tried taking some sunset time pics from the deck but because the sun sets behing Mt. Otemanu, Le meridien does not get good sunset views. Nevertheless we enjoyed the moment. We had dinner reservations at La Bounty. Food, wine and dessert turned out to be excellent. We had tomato & mozzarella with cabbage slaw in olive oil as an appetizer. It was good. Then we had tuna marinated in coconut milk (apparently island specialty)... we decided tuna doesn't really go well with coconut...it was just OK. Dinner also consisted of tuna tartar and tuna sashimi...all good but certainly not the best. I had the dessert sampler which was totally worth it but also might be a good option for sharing ( it had samples of creme brulee, tiramisu, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and mango sorbet).... When we got back to the hotel there was a Polynesian dance show going on. We watched it for a few mins, I tried taking some shots but without a tripod proved a bit tough. Then we headed back to retire for the night. Tomorrow is diving.....so need the sleep! :-)

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Snorkeling etc

October 24, 2011... snorkeling day! We decided to book the snorkeling excursion thru our hotel. Pick up was scheduled from the hotel at 830 am, so we had a hearty breakfast buffet, packed some sandwiches and pastries for the trip (the hotel staff was very accommodating about that) and headed to the dock. We got into a traditional Polynesian boat and were greeted by our hosts: Steven, Louie and papi - we never got to know their real names but they were amazing entertainers throughout the trip and kept us in splits! I couldn't stop laughing! We headed out from Le Meridian over to Sofitel Marara, then Sofitel Motu to pick up more couples...yeah, that's the thing...there are only couples everywhere in FP...its like no other tourists ever come to this place! DH and I wondered how out of place we would have been had we tagged our 5 yr old DS along...oh, well, good thing we didn't. Once all the passengers were on board, we headed to the open passage where the motus of Bora Bora opens up to the ocean. The snorkeling site we went to is called Tapu. We used our own snorkeling equipment but others were provided with the requisite snorkeling gear. I was so glad I took my wet suit along! For tropical weather, the water is still pretty cold! I was completely unprepared for the sight that awaited me once I got into water. Thousands of tropical fish - mostly black but also blue, yellow etc swimming around..they looked stunning against the turquoise blue water! Steven and Louie were feeding the fish so we kept seeing schools of these fish swim by. There were also black tipped sharks swimming right next to us! It felt like someone had dropped us into an aquarium! Then there were 10 ft lemon sharks swimming right below us. Louie would keep diving down, holding the fin of the shark and swimming right along...it was so amazing. Once we finished our fill of viewing the sharks and tropical fish, we headed back into the boat and onto another site to see the stingrays. This was in very shallow water.... 4-5 ft deep only. We skipped the fins and got into water in our booties. Again tons of rays came gliding by...the first time a ray slid by me, touching my skin, I screamed ...but quickly got used to the idea. Their tails feel rough (the barbs are removed) but their body is smooth and slithery. Louie, in fact, showed us a french kiss with a ray! Yikes! We saw some more black tipped sharks and some tuna. From there we headed to another site called the coral garden. The water here was very choppy, so it wasn't my favorite snorkeling site but we saw thousands of more tropical fish and a huge moray eel. After spending 20 mins looking at the beautiful corals and fish we headed back. The hosts kept us thoroughly entertained with music, jokes and plenty of tomfoolery. We even got to eat some coconut and watermelon (delicious!) Once back at the hotel we grabbed beers ( only because every other drink was way too expensive), some fries and headed back to our room to chill in the balcony. After another beer, stroll by the beach, many more picture-taking moments later we showered and got ready to head to Vaitape by boat. We wanted to go to La Bounty tonight but it was closed. Villa Mahana was booked till Friday (boy-o-boy), so we picked Bora Kaina Hut. Turned out to be a fairly good choice. The place resembles a Goan shack with sand floors and rustic wooden tables n chairs. Taking advise from a Trip advisor review we asked our hotel concierge if she could request the best table for us....we got what we asked for - the best table in the house....it was a private hut by the corner....extremely romantic and very nice. We ordered some cocktails, again based on some reviews we had read. This was the only bad choice we made. Wine would have been a better option. Our drinks were terrible, mostly coz I am not a huge fan of coconut milk and yet I chose a coconut based cocktail, so that was my bad. The food more than made up for it though. I got the grapefruit gnocchi (excellent) and DH got the grilled Mahi Mahi cooked n served on a hot volcanic lava rock. We ended the meal with the lava cake which turned out to be better than the one we had at Fare Manuia. Again excellent but expensive meal! Ride back to hotel was uneventful. We got a couple of Bailey's to wash off our cocktail experience and sat by the pool. I got some interesting night time shots. Another lovely day ending with a lovely meal and drinks.

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Le Meridien Bora Bora

After a 3 hour wait in Tahiti Faaa airport, we boarded the Air Tahiti Nui propeller plane to Bora Bora. The flight was about an hour over picturesque turquoise water. Absolutely breathtaking postcard perfect. I managed to get a couple of shots (sitting on the left side of the plane was a smart move) of the islands and the over-water bungalows (that I'd only seen in pictures up until now)!!!! The view from every angle at the Bora Bora airport is nothing short of stunning. Inside the airport we were greeted by a couple of Le Meridien employees. We got our luggage tags, picked up our bags and were escorted to a waiting boat to be whisked off to the hotel. The ride was about 15-20 mins and we were supplied with water while we enjoyed more breathtaking views of the surroundings. We got our first view of the over water bungalow as we docked at the Le Meridien hotel dock. It was pretty exciting to walk through the hotel glimpsing the infinity pool, lotus pond and the lagoon to get to the reception. The staff was extremely courteous. Every where I looked a photo opportunity awaited! :-)

We were checked in right away while we sipped on some complimentary tropical juice. While DH sorted through our room arrangements, I took the opp to take some pics with my new 7d (super excited!!).... one of the staff, Jonathan, then took us on a tour of the property. We got our room right away (probably due to DH's preferred status coz others had to wait for 2-3 hours).... we were taken to our room in a golf cart... again, the room did not disappoint. It was everything I expected and more....over water bungalow with glass bottom, balcony with a view of Mt. otemanu...beautiful! We had to hurry to catch the breakfast buffet, so we headed back to the hotel lobby. Breakfast buffet at the hotel is till 10 am - we just made it in time - and freaking expensive .. about $45 pp (3800 xpf)...our eyes have been popping out getting used to prices in 4 digits! :D after a hearty breakfast, a good relaxing shower, we headed back to the activity center hoping to figure out how to get to the main island of Viatape to do some biking. Alas! Every thing here is kinda dead on Sunday, so we headed back to change into our swim clothes and went snorkeling at the hotel lagoon. We spotted some fairly mid-sized and smaller fish... the water wasn't as warmed as I had hoped. Then I got nibbled by an extremely energetic yellow fish which looked very playful but freaked me out! I all but yelled into my snorkel....:P..that was it for me! I soaked in the infinity pool for a bit, then headed back to our bungalow. While I sun bathed in the balcony with some complimentary champagne, DH went swimming around the bungalow...

We booked dinner at Fare Manuia thru our hotel concierge. There is free drop off at 630 pm from the hotel to Viatape, where a taxi picks you up and drops you off to the restaurant. All of this is complimentary only if you book it thru the concierge for that time. I had read good reviews about this place but unfortunately they were out of tuna for the evening! So all the best/recommended dishes were not available. I ordered a salad with mashed potato with goat cheese which turned out to be excellent and DH got the grilled fish of the day which was quite decent. Folks at our neighboring table got the seafood platter and steak, which made them very unhappy! We had a nice glass of wine, topped off with some great dessert - chocolate leave cake...yummm! As with everything dinner was expensive...over $100 but we were getting used to sticker shock!

We had to wait for the ride back to the dock. Boat was waiting to bring us back to the hotel. We retired by around 1030 pm. The night sky looked stunning and I really wanted to get a star trails picture...maybe tomorrow! :-)

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Headed to Tahiti

On board Air France from LA to Tahiti, FP. Reached lax by 730 pm for our 1030 pm flt - way too early as I soon realized. We parked in Park Air Express near the airport. Online reservation got us a lower rate than the regular rate. The only hitch with the parking is that if you block another car while parking you have to leave the keys there. Check-in at the airport went smoothly. The wait to board the flight was annoying but DH gave his business class seat to me and all was well in the world!!!:-) Air France business class might be good - I wouldn't know coz I slept all 8 hours of the flight! :-P Arrival and immigration through Tahiti Faaa airport was smooth. At 4 am they had local singers greeting us at the entrance! Our bags arrived without any issues. We had to wait for about half hour before the Air Tahiti counter opened for our check-in to Bora Bora.

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Back in Barcelona

May 20, Friday....wow! Just like that our 7-day cruise is over. Our ship docks in Barcelona around 8 am and we start disembarking around 9:15 after we collect our passports. Like on every cruise ship we packed our bags the previous night, left them outside our cabin so they could be delivered in the baggage collection area of the cruise terminal. After breakfast in Bora Bora cafe we headed over to deck 5 to collect our passports. Exited the ship right after that on deck 6 (no waiting, yaaay!) and found our bags right away in the baggage claim area. No lines, no waiting! It was the smoothest disembarkation process in all my cruising experience!
A cab ride and €30 later we were at the Barcelona Renaissance Marriott by the airport where we were to spend a night before heading back to SD. Our room wasn't ready. So we took the hotel shuttle into town (for €5 pp). The shuttle dropped us off at the port near La Rambla and we walked north through La Rambla once more. We had to make a pit stop at Dunkin' Coffee (DS asked for chocolate donut).....a coffee and a chocolate donut later we walked the cross street towards the Cathedral. The street had many wonderful shops and window shopping was very enjoyable. I've completely lost interest in going to malls in the US but this was actually fun! Maybe walking the narrow alleys looking through unique stores and not worrying about parking is the charm! Nevertheless, bought a few things...took tons of pics...walked over to the cathedral which presented more photo ops. Unfortunately entry into the cathedral was €6pp which I didn't feel like paying! :(
Instead we went to this cafe, got some tapas & wine, then headed back to the port to catch the shuttle back to the hotel. On the shuttle bus, my neighbor was taking pics with her Nikon dslr through the bus window. I am no pro photographer or even a very good amateur photographer but I am sure anyone who has looked into photography at least a tad bit seriously can relate to this: I cringe every time I see anyone using flash in broad daylight or indoors against glass, especially if the camera is a DSLR!! Yikes! I have to contain myself from leaning over and saying, 'err, excuse me, but u have the flash on and if u take a pic against glass, its gonna reflect the light and u will ruin ur pic!'....but hey, its not my pic, who am I to say anything...and yet I cannot stop from cringing! She wouldn't shut her flash while taking the pics....argh!...:(
After getting refreshed at the hotel, we headed back to town via the shuttle. We walked along an inner street in the Ciutat Villa area on the east side of La Rambla and came upon this chic looking restaurant called Sensi (www.sensi.es). Our pick was perfect....the dinner, wine and dessert were the best I had on this trip! Perfect ending to our vacation! The cute waiters didn't hurt the experience! :-P ....I actually ate tuna tartar, duck, ham, sausage and thoroughly enjoyed it! The ravioli with spinach was out of this world! I ended with chocolate fondant I.e. lava cake and it was certainly one of the best I've ever had!! Yummmmmm! Pix of DS & me in Sensi!

Back to the hotel, quite buzzed and happy, called it a night! Tomorrow, onto SD....truly adios Barcelona!
Random thots: In Spain (at least the places we visited), if you ask in a restaurant, what size is the pizza, they'll say "normal"....err, what is 'normal'???...First response for everything is "not possible" especially on the cruise ship! Almost like the ship was run by the mafia and all employees were just scared to do anything without permission!

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

May 19, Thursday.... we docked at Palma around 11 am. We had decided to go to Dragon caves (Cuevas del Drach) in Porto Cristo which is on the east coast of Mallorca. So as soon as we exited the port of Palma (which is a fairly huge port) we started looking for taxis. Unlike in Italy, taxis were very strict about the number of passengers in each car I.e. 4 in each and there are no taxis that will take more than 4. So we had to take 3 taxis for the 11 of us at €160 per cab for about 5 hours. We got this really cool cabbie called Francisco (Frank in Ingles :-) ) who knew a little bit of English. (Ugh, I wish I knew Spanish...I know, Gabe, u tried to teach and I think that needs to be my resolution for the year!)... we started out towards Porto Cristo winding our way through Palma, took a pit stop at a gas station on the way, went past Manacor (where Francisco pointed out that this is Nadal's home town and what an awesome guy he is!!!), and reached Porto Cristo in about 50 mins. The cabbies took us to this restaurant near the Dragon Caves called Ca'n Toni serving local Spanish cuisine. I had some amazing mixed salad, Spanish omelette and even loved the vegetarian paella that my friends got. I am not a huge fan of paella but the one served here is excellent. Tickets to dragon caves is €11,50pp (free for kids under 7) and tours start every hour. We started our tour at 3 pm. There are no words to describe how stunning the caves are. What makes the 2 km long caves of stalacmites (????) even more stunning and beautiful is the amazing lighting, planned and carried out by Dr. Buigas. The apparent highlight of the tour is the classical music (concert!) played by boat-bound musicians floating across Lake Martel, one of the largest underground lakes in the area. The show was definitely nice but for me the highlight were the caves themselves and the absolutely breathtaking feat of nature. Its a shame photography is prohibited....there was so many instances, due to the gorgeous lighting, of perfect reflections that they would have made amazing subjects for photographers!

We then headed to Manacor where we stopped at a pearl factory on Carrer de Majorica. Majorica pearls are made by replicating the natural process of pearl creation by the oyster. DH surprised me by buying me a gorgeous pearl necklace/ear-rings set. Once back in Palma, the driver took us through old town - which is an intricate alleyway of narrow roads. The one thing immediately noticeable about any street, any alley way in Palma is that its spotlessly clean. This is because tourism is the primary source of income on this island and the locals take this very seriously. The city is kept incredibly clean and inviting. The driver also brought to our notice futuristic looking contraptions on every street - gold colored bins which were garbage disposal chutes. Garbage went down this chute to be sucked by vacuum to the central disposal area somewhere underneath in the middle of old town. Every street also has bins for recycling different articles...very impressive! The old town is very charming. The drivers dropped all of us off near the cathedral. Its a beautiful building just like any other in all of Europe. We walked around the cathedral, through the town visiting stores and looking around. Around 6:30 pm, we split up - my friends decided to head back to the ship and took DS along with them while DH and I decided to continue our exploration of the city. We walked into narrow streets from the main avenue and looked at many interesting stores. On the main avenue (???need name), we sat down at a cafe called cappuccino for some coffee and drink which seems to be the past time for most locals around 7-8 pm everyday. Dinner doesn't happen till much later in the night, so one sees a lot of people sitting down in street side cafes sipping on beers, wines, drinks or cappuccino/coffee! The city had free Wi-Fi and we were able to surf so much faster than on the ship! I was most impressed by the city....dare I say, I fell in love with it! I would love to come back to experience the charm on a more day-to-day basis..live here for a week or more...after that we walked along the marina, found an interesting street side restaurant called Gotic and sat down for some tapas and wine. Tapas were the usual, nothing outstanding but we enjoyed our dinner. Our waiter, Ganeshwar Singh was originally from India and settled in Mallorca. We had an interesting conversation with him and were amazed at how fluently he spoke Spanish....

The walk from the cathedral area to the ship was several miles - we had underestimated the distance but we had a slow and long walk along the marina. The city is extremely beautiful and the coastline is dotted with hotels and restaurants catering to tourists. Lots of Indian restaurants as well.

Once on the ship we had to pack our bags for disembarkation tomorrow. Once that got done and kids were settled in, I went to deck 15 with my tripod and camera to get some night time shots of the lit up cathedral. But even with 200mm zoom, the shot wasn't tight enough. There was a party going on in deck 14 by the Aqua Park...we hung around for a bit and then retired early for the night.