Yesterday morning, we headed out to the Columbia Gorge (after a hotel breakfast that left much to be desired) to visit Multnomah Falls, Vista House, and Hood River. Then it would be back to Portland for some outstanding Greek food for dinner.
Multnomah Falls is about 25 miles due east of Portland in the Columbia River Gorge. That’s about all I can say about it, other than it is a waterfall, it’s pretty, and it’s fairly accessible. I will let some pretty pictures do the talking. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
A truly beautiful waterfall
The bridge does a nice job of giving you some perspective and scale.
Photo time!
Looking back from the bridge.
Cathy didn’t walk up to the bridge.
So she waited for us and took photos for everyone who came by.
The waterfall again
And near the bottom
My favorite shot. The sun peaked through and turned the water almost blue.
After our waterfall experience, we drove about six miles back down the Gorge to drive up to Vista House. This is an old structure that perches on top of a very high point along the Columbia River and offers amazing views in both directions. I took a few shots there, and then we are off to Hood River.
Looking east up the river.
This is a merged panoramic shot looking both ways.
Our next stop was at the Cascade Locks, where the original locks were built to allow steamships to bypass the rapids on the river. Took a couple of photos there as well.
Looking west to “The Bridge of the Gods.” Not sure why it is called that but we will ask our speaker on the cruise.
Looking east. We will sail past this sometime next week.
About six months ago, my son Josh told us that he and his wife had visited Hood River and were really impressed. To the extent that they felt they could actually live there. For an urban lover like my son, that says a lot. So we had to go investigate. It turns out to be a pretty cool town. Our first stop was the pFriem Brewery, where we grabbed a delicious lunch. Here’s what we had.
I had an outstanding fish and chips and…
Kathleen had an elote corn salad.
When we emerged from the brewery, we were looking directly at the river. One of the things the Columbia is famous for is wind and windsurfing. Got a few photos of that as well.
Just beautiful blue water…
And a really nice weather day.
Not too much wind. Warm and sunny.
One of the biggest attractions (but you have to look for it) is the WAAAM. That stands for Western Antique Airplane & Automobile Museum. My son also enjoyed this, which surprised me as well, until we drove up (it’s above the city by the airport) to see it. WOW! That’s all I can say. If you even slightly like cars and airplanes, this is the place you have to visit. Here are too many photos I took there. I can promise you that for every one you see here, there are five or six more I didn’t post. There are captions on my favorites.
The outside
A collection of motors
They packed in all the cars and airplanes together.
The collection came from one man.
Read about it at the link in the text.
Just so many amazing planes and cars.
This yellow one was gorgeous. It’s a Cord.
This is actually an airliner.
First flown by PanAm.
Around the other side of the PanAm plane was…
the door where you boarded.
Not sure I want to fly far in this.
Loved this one. One of the few not restored.
It’s me!
Even motorcycles.
A whole section on military vehicles.
Cars from every era.
Love this car.
Love this old bakery truck.
Warplanes
A P-51 Mustang
So very cool.
Now we are getting into my kind of cars.
All of them are gorgeous.
These are the really fast ones.
The entire collection is amazing.
If you aren’t into cars, feel free to skip ahead to dinner. Many of you know I have a thing for hood ornaments. I just think they are art that has been lost. So when I see good ones, I have to photograph them and add them to my collection. Here are the ones I found this time. No captions. Just the art of the hood ornament.
After we left WAAAM, it was a long drive back to Portland on the Washington side of the river so we could end up in Vancouver, WA, where I need to check in with my doctor for a quick follow-up test related to some issues from the radiation I had in March. No big deal. Everything’s better now.
That night, we had dinner reservations at Eleni’s Philoxenia, a highly-rated Greek restaurant in the Pearl District. We can see why it’s well-regarded. It was amazing—fantastic atmosphere, great music, superb service, and some of the best Greek food I’ve ever had. And I love Greek food.
I had the moussaka
Kathleen had Orzo Me Arni Kokonisto. Braised lamb over orzo. Amazing.
That about covers our Wednesday. Portland is still awesome and we can’t wait to sail up the Columbia Gorge and see it from the water. Stick with us. That happens next week. Tomorrow (earlier today as I write this) we went out to the Oregon Coast.
Sometimes in L.A., we get accused of being superficial. I feel like Portland’s the opposite, in that there’s a greater depth of character, and sense of self. —Ruben Fleischer
Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with Secret Food Tours. Kathleen and I had toured with them quite a few years ago, and we are happy to report that they still do a superb food tour. That’s the whole crowd at Deschutes Brewery (but more about that later) above.
We started the day with a free breakfast at our hotel (Embassy Suites by Hilton-PDX), and it was fine. It gave us enough to get us to the tour. We were to meet up with Ken Lin from Secret Food Tours at 11:00 am beneath the Umbrella Man sculpture in Pioneer Courthouse Square in downtown Portland. And, not to be too political here, I can tell you that Portland is NOT AT WAR. It is NOT DANGEROUS. We saw no crime, just a beautiful day and a lot of really nice people out enjoying the sunshine in the heart of Portland.
I took some shots around the Square before we met up with Ken. Just some interesting architecture, people, and the aforementioned Umbrella Man statue. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping. And PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…
Taken from the middle of the square on a beautiful fall day.
Facing in another direction.
The Umbrella Man
Up close he’s kind of spooky.
This guy was doing pushups on his hands for a while.
On the edges of what look like horse watering troughs just down from the Square were a variety of animal sculptures. I really liked these otters.
These are called Benson Bubblers. They are all around downtown.
Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.
Kathleen heading into the food pod.
Stella’s Sandwiches and Bowls where we got…
This awesome Cubano sandwich.
After our food pod experience, we took the longest walk of the day from downtown into the Pearl District to visit Deschutes Brewery and sample their wonderful pretzel with cheese sauce and mustard. All I can say is that it was wonderful. Not quite up to our favorite at Valley House Brewing near us in Duvall, WA but still really good.
This is the place.
This is the food.
This is the really cool urinals in the men’s room. Like almost 6 feet high.
Next up was Nong’s Khao Man Gai. It’s an interesting place that is renowned for just this one dish. As you can tell from the name, it is an Asian restaurant. When you order the Khao Man Gai, you get chicken, rice, soup, cucumbers and one of the most amazing sauces. Truly delicious.
This is the place.
This is the food! The sauce was to die for.
From there it was on to Grassa, which is predominantly a pasta restaurant. We got to sample their Pork Belly Mac & Cheese. Absolute decadence might be a good way to describe it. Just amazing.
This is the place.
This is the food.
The last spot and the last course were, of course, dessert. We went just down the street to Petunia’s Pies and Pastries, the home of some truly delicious marionberry pie. If you have no clue what a marionberry is, think of a blackberry without all the annoying seeds. The pie, despite being gluten-free and vegan ?, was amazing.
This was the place.
This was the food.
During the entire tour, I took some street photos, mostly of neon signs, which I love, as well as others of interesting buildings. They are a good way to wind this up photographically.
Definitely a happy city.
A very cool bike sculpture.
And neon.
I love neon.
Can you tell?
Just love shooting it.
That about did it for Kathleen and me. She was exhausted from all the walking, so we dropped off Steve, Jamie, Mike, and Cathy at the Portland Rose Garden, and I took Kathleen back to the hotel to rest before going back to pick up the other four about an hour later. The traffic sucked, and that’s kind of what we get for staying in an airport hotel. We had reservations for dinner at Andina, a Peruvian restaurant Kathleen and I had visited before. However, everyone was still so full from the food tour, that I called and rescheduled them for Thursday.
Tomorrow is a trip up the Gorge to visit Multnomah Falls, Hood River and see Mount Hood. Should be fun. I will let you know on Thursday.
Portland is quickly becoming one of those lovely, lush Third World countries where kinda-rich people retire with their money. Here, they can live like kings, generating only service-industry jobs and jacking up housing prices. —Chuck Palahniuk
If you, (like my good buddy Jayesh and I) are Princess Bride fans, you know that my headline is a quote from the amazing Inigo Montoya. But that’s how I usually begin my final post about a trip.
This trip was a good one. Before we went, everyone told us it was “the trip of a lifetime,” or “the best trip we ever took.” To be totally honest, it is one of the best trips, but not THE best. It does make the top five, but it’s not number one. For me, that spot is still held by our voyage to the Galapagos on Celebrity’s Flora. Let me explain. But not before I give you my favorite African Sunset photo to break up all the text.
The things we loved
The lodging was amazing in its own way. We have never stayed in such wonderful accommodations. Starting with the only one we booked ourselves (The Radisson Red on our first night in Cape Town) to the incredible game lodges at Tintswalo. All of them were great. Two of them had rooms larger than my first apartment (The Cape Grace in Cape Town and the Fairlawn Boutique Hotel and Spa in Johannesburg). The Victoria Falls hotel was just too colonial for me. Too much of a reminder of the way the European/Western world has exploited much of Africa and continues to do so monetarily today. And eating cold food because they have no indoor restaurant is just wrong.
The lodges at Tintswalo Safari Lodge may have been bigger than my first house. But I found them dark and way too isolated. Our room onboard the Zambezi Queen was fine. A little small, but just fine. And they need either doors that lock from the outside or larger safes, along with new and higher furniture in the common areas. When you have to struggle to get out of a couch, that couch needs to go ?.
One more thing about the lodging. It is drop-dead the finest in South Africa. If you visit the websites for the Cape Grace, Victoria Falls Hotel, Fairlawn, or Tintswalo, you will find that all charge around $1200 per night for a room similar to the one we had. To be honest, the best bed I slept on the entire trip was at the Radisson Red in Cape Town. Certainly, the service at the other hotels was amazing, but we also loved the service at the Red and would have been just fine staying there at $165 per night. However, if you want the best lodging in Southern Africa, this is the trip for you.
The food was fine with some amazing standouts. The Spiced Eggs I had for breakfast three days in a row at the Cape Grace in Cape Town were easily one of my favorite dishes ever. Our dinner at Marble in Johannesburg was delicious and a great dining experience. We are glad Beverleigh talked us into keeping our reservation. A few of the dishes at Tintswalo were so good I begged for the recipes, and happily, I have all four that I loved.
This trip included some once-in-a-lifetime experiences. My favorite things we did included our helicopter ride over Victoria Falls (I was too busy being amazed to worry about being in a helicopter). Our morning game drives at Tintswalo (all but one of the evening drives were a bust) and the excellent lectures we heard. The one on the boat in the Zambezi River about Dr. Livingston was especially enjoyable. The ongoing discussion of the historical significance of the mining industry in Johannesburg remains thought-provoking. Our day in the wine country with Gen was incredibly informative in many ways, not just about wine but also about South Africa.
But my drop-dead favorite experience of the entire trip was my solo (with only Gibson driving the boat) “birdwatching” trip on the Chobe River at the crack of dawn. As a photographer, that one was special. Here’s my favorite photo from that day.
I got some great photos. A significant part of why I travel is for the photography. It always makes me happy on a trip when I get great photos that I can come back and be proud of, but Southern Africa does have its photographic challenges.
I would guess that if you asked our wonderful fellow travelers who finished the trip with us at Tintswalo what their favorite segment of the trip was, they would say it was our three days at Tintswalo. For me, that was maybe my third favorite place.
It took me a few days at home working on photos to figure out why. As I compiled my 100 favorite photos from the entire trip (for the record, I took more than 8,000 pictures), I noticed something. The area around Kruger Park and Tintswalo that we visited for those three days was monotone. Everything was brown. Everything blended together.
It didn’t help that throughout our entire stay at Tintswalo, I felt rushed. Part of that feeling is due to my expectations. I thought there would be more free time. Knowing what I know now, I would have skipped all the evening game drives except the first one. Perhaps this is related to how jaded I became about the animals by the end of the trip. I am not sure how many elephants and hippos we saw, but it must have been in the thousands, especially if you include Cape buffalo. And don’t even think about counting the impalas ?.
The one major thing we didn’t like
There is a reason we probably would not do this trip again. And this is just me. I am sure that the others were fine with it, but for us, this trip is not something we would do over. Airports and airplanes are our least favorite part of travel. It would not be an exaggeration for me to say that they are the one part of traveling that I despise. And on this trip, to see everything, you have to spend a lot of time in airports and on airplanes. When I was out for my walk with Keeley (our dog) yesterday, I suddenly realized that was the problem (for us) with this trip. So when I got home, I added up our time in airports and on planes to make this trip happen. Not counting the time it took to travel to and from the airports, we spent 75.5 hours either waiting in an airport for a flight, on the flight, getting through passport control and customs after a flight or clearing it before one. That’s hell. If I had added it up before we booked the trip, we might not have gone. You don’t realize that you can easily lose entire days at airports and on flights.
Please don’t misunderstand me, we had a great time, but when I realized how much time we spent centered on flying, it blew me away. Just under one-fourth of the entire trip was spent getting to and flying on airplanes. Sadly, I don’t know how else we could have seen everything we did in that short amount of time, but until they invent the Star Trek transporter, I don’t plan on doing another trip like that ?.
As many of you know, Kathleen and I have cruised extensively. We have always said that one of the best parts of cruising is the fact that you only have to unpack once, and your hotel moves you around for a week. While that may have been true on the Chobe River, we never really unpacked anywhere. Which also tells you that we are not the type of travelers who like living out of a suitcase. And dragging two medium-sized suitcases, one carry-on, my backpack with camera and laptop, as well as Kathleen’s backpack, was not fun. I am always envious of people like our new friends, AJ and Diane, who can pack everything they need for an 18-day vacation into two large carry-ons. One pair of my shoes would fill that backpack. And this vacation was all about layering. We needed clothes for hot weather and clothes for cold weather. And there was no real laundry service or opportunity until we got to Tintswalo. Plus, in a few places (like Johannesburg), we couldn’t send any out because we weren’t there long enough for it to come back before we left.
This vacation was just too much moving from point A to point B. We loved all points A, B, C, D and E, but getting there was no fun.
The absolute best thing about the entire trip
Hands down, it was the proud people of Southern Africa. I don’t think we met a single person who lived there who wasn’t trying to be the best they could be, even though they may have been living through horrible circumstances. The service was hands down the best we have ever received in all our travels, and all were supplied with smiles and cheerful voices.
And the openness was amazing. The willingness to discuss their countries, how they felt about what was going on in their country and the world. They had opinions both good and bad, but they expressed them with calmness and thought. They answered my tough questions and made me want to know more about the region and their country. To see the faces of our Namibian crew on the Zambezi Queen singing their national anthem for us brought a tear to my eye. But hearing from a South African that their government still has some ugly remnants of apartheid made me mad as hell. And seeing the poverty of Soweto and the wealth of natural resources, leaving the country to make a profit for those outside of it, left me seething. But as my new friend AJ told me (a very wise man), this is a generational thing that won’t change overnight. But it does need to change.
People that stood out and were amazing included the incredible Delia (this trip could not happen without her), the wine expert Gen, who gave me a five-hour education and contributed to my knowledge of her country, my birdwatching buddy Gibson, who amazed me with his knowledge of the birds, animals and fauna of the Chobe river. And he speaks 11 languages and loves his work—you can tell. Bernard, who runs the Zambezi Queen, is a great leader and so proud of his country, Namibia. Our driver (it pains me that I did not find out his name) at the Fairlawns, who had frank discussions with us on our drives. Beverleigh, who shared her perspective on her country and its foibles during one of the best dinner discussions I have had during our travels. Every single person we met at the Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto, but especially Thando Bezana. Their spirit is indomitable. They are succeeding where others have failed. They truly make a difference. Perhaps they are the beginning of that generational change that AJ discussed.
And speaking of AJ, we met and traveled with some really great folks. We missed our new friends Lorraine, Betty and Dennis at Tintswalo when they took the train as their end-of-trip excursion. Our final 12 at Tintswalo were the heart and soul of our group. AJ and Diane (who we hope to see again in the Bay Area). They did a great job of tempering my enthusiasm with their well-thought-out views. I always gravitate to people like that because they are what I need to slow me down and get me to think. The two Marinas were a total hoot. M-1 was always fun and M-2 just totally cracked us up. Riding in the back of the safari truck with her made the afternoon game drive a bunch more fun. Vicky, David, Sonnet and Fred were great people to be around, and just listening to Nancy‘s tales and Rich’s stories of cooking for her still brings a smile to my face. Look in the dictionary under “picky eater” if you want to see what Nancy looks like ?.
That about does it. We had a great time, we wish we had flown less and been able to spend more time seeing things, but Delia made it possible for us to get through airports without wanting to jump off a cliff. Thanks for coming along. Watch this space in October when the October Bunch does Portland and a Columbia River cruise.
I want to leave you with a photo that kind of sums up the end of things. I saved it for just this spot. It’s the end. Enjoy.
The only man I envy is the man who has not yet been to Africa – for he has so much to look forward to. – Richard Mullin
After completing my last trip entry (except for my review), I came across some videos that may interest you. Random videos that I took along the way, which I didn’t post on the day after I took them due to restrictions on uploading. The first bunch is from the Chobe River part of our trip. Make sure to watch this one until the end. The little guy is really cute.
Here’s an elephant taking a mud bath. It was hilarious, even though some of the time we wondered if he would be able to pick himself up out of the muck.
Later the same afternoon, we saw a long line of elephants heading our way.
They just kept coming and coming.
This one was taken the next day when we visited Chobe National Park. The elephant at the start had come up to our vehicle and then veered off at the last minute. I filmed him walking away, and then someone whispered, “You should turn around.” YIKES!
While in Chobe National Park, we saw this pride of lions. Very quick video.
That covers our time on the Zambezi Queen. Here are a few from after that. The first is from the Kliptown Youth Program we visited in Johannesburg. These boys were such excellent dancers, I had to share their performance with you.
Now it’s off to Tintswalo Safari Lodge with the last few animal videos I got. Up first is an example of what it’s like to ride in the back of one of these vehicles. I was trying to film the mom and baby rhino we had found. This shows how hard it is to hold anything, let alone a camera, when your driver is going flat out to keep up with animals.
Finally, we caught up, and our driver was able to slow down and get me a better shot of the actual rhinos.
I thought I would give you one last video showing you what a nighttime safari looks like. I’m not sure about you, but I have no idea how our tracker/spotter can see anything while going that fast. This might be the reason we never found anything after dark.
That’s it! I will be back tomorrow with the final summary and review of the trip. Would we do it again? Did we like the AmaWaterways experience? How was the food? What did we really dislike about the entire trip? What did we love? Come back tomorrow and find out.
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re the lion or a gazelle – when the sun comes up, you’d better be running. – African Proverb
I knew this day was coming. Our last full day in Africa. We had two more game drives today, followed by two days of flying, and then we would be home. This was it. If we were going to get any more of the Big Five or the Magnificent Seven, it had to be today. So again, we were up and out before dawn looking for rhinos, leopards and African wild dogs.
The morning drive started with a beautiful sunrise…
…reflecting off a local watering hole.
Where a hippo was bathing.
Then we heard from another truck that they had found…
African wild dogs.
One of the Magnificent Seven.
We rushed to the spot and found this mated pair just taking it easy.
After we had shot them for a while, we saw this giraffe…and then…
RHINOS!
A mother and baby black rhino.
The little guy was kind of skittish….
And anytime we came close to it, he took off.
But we stayed with mom and kid.
He was adorable.
Wildebeests
Zebras…and friends
More Wildebeests
Google identifies this bird as a brown-snake eagle.
We finally see Punba (a warthog). They weren’t singing Hakuna Matata.
They were just running.
Got two of the three we needed, so we headed back to the big lodge for lunch.
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
After lunch, we did it all over again. I wish I could say that we found the elusive leopard, but we didn’t. I guess I will have to go back—NOT! And to be honest, it was our worst game drive of the entire trip. We pretty much saw nothing. Here are the pictures to prove it.
A zebra.
Last Dinner
Two photos. Just two usable photos. It was a somewhat sad way to leave, but it had been a great trip. Tomorrow, I will sum things up and give you an actual review. Stick with me—only one more post. I guess it’s only fitting that this was the end of the day. I should add that some of the others went on a game drive the next morning, on the day we were supposed to fly, but my cold had worsened, so I skipped it. I would have been really disappointed if they had found a leopard, but they didn’t. They did spot a male lion, and I missed that, but with over 40 hours of flying and airports ahead, I’m glad I made that call. I’ll be back tomorrow with a final round up and review.
Africa changes you forever, like nowhere on Earth. Once you have been there, you will never be the same. – Brian Jackman
Our first full day back together with the rest of the October bunch was all about food. We had booked a walking food tour with 
Once Ken (at right) arrived, it was off on the food tour. Our first stop was a food pod. We had never been to a food pod before, but it turned out to be a really nice, fenced area with numerous food carts lining the edges, seating, and a stage in the middle. BTW: we were told that these were carts and not food trucks because they have no engines, thus they could not go anywhere. They are there permanently. If you can’t find something to eat or drink there, you aren’t trying. We got to try the Cubano sandwiches from Stella’s Sandwiches, which were drop-dead delicious. Never had one with pulled pork before (always just sliced pork) and it was amazing.
Editor’s Note: I had this post all done and ready to go last night and then I remembered that I could show you on a map what a game drive looked like. I have an app on my phone that tracks where I walk by GPS. It’s called Map My Walk. When you are done it gives you a map that shows you how far you walked and where you hit every mile and your stats. On our morning drive on the last day, I just happened to think as we were driving away, that I should turn it on. This was the result. You can see how absolutely crazy the drive is. The total miles on this drive was almost 17. We were out there for three hours and 28 minutes. Just thought it might be a fun thing for you to see.
