I visited Portland, Oregon a few years ago. It’s a really nice city to visit, with a small city center that’s easy to walk around, and plenty to see and do. But all that walking can be tiring and I found it was pleasurable to get away from the city and take a drive. I was lucky enough to find out about the Historic Columbia River Highway which passes through the Columbia Gorge. This driving tour takes the better part of a day.
The highway actually begins easy of Portland – around sixteen miles from the city center. The starting point is Lewis and Clark State Park and the Sandy River an area popular with anglers and swimmers. From there head east to the Portland Women’s Forum State Scenic Viewpoint. This will give you your first view of the amazing Columbia Gorge. If you head to Crown Point you will be able to catch a view that will take your breath away as on a clear day you can see thirty miles down the gorge. Nearby is historic Vista House where you can check out the history of the area.
From Crown Point the highway will take you down into the gorge. You will pass many waterfalls on the journey including the Latourell Falls which drops down 249 feet. You can park your vehicle and take a hike up to the falls passing others on the way.
Further along the highway you will encounter the largest waterfall in Oregon, the Multnomah Falls. This is a very popular area for tourists. Again you can walk up a trail to view the falls. There is also a lodge situated at these falls and it includes snacks, gifts and a visitors center.
Heading eastwards the highway merges with I84. You will come across the Bonneville Lock and Dam which has a visitors center where you can study the history of the dam and its fish ladder. You may be able to view the fish including sturgeon, salmon and trout. Close by is Eagle Creek which has one of the best hiking spots in the whole Gorge. You can the access the Bridge of the Gods and the site of Cascade Locks. The locks were built as an alternative to the highway for visitors to travel via steamship. Cruises are still possible on the river during the summer months – another fantastic way to view the Columbia Gorge.
Article provided by Oregon DUI Attorney providing legal assistance throughout the state.
Driving the Historic Colombia River Highway in Oregon is a post from: Travel for Pennies
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There are several ways to enjoy the sights of New Orleans with your entire family and many of the sights are free! New Orleans is not just for adult entertainment, for instance, walking around Jackson Square during the day, you and your children will be delighted with the street performers tap dancing, playing musical instruments, or you might be lucky to catch a puppet show. Right across from Jackson Square, up the steps going to the Moonwalk, an area where more street performers, like unicyclists and mimes gather crowds with their entertaining antics. Pirate’s Alley, also located at Jackson Square, has many artists set up shop and they let you watch as they work on their paintings and display their finished work.
You and your family can catch a streetcar (children ride for free) from your New Orleans hotel and head on to the oak tree lined St. Charles Avenue, where you’ll take an open-air ride through the Garden District and see all the historical, beautiful mansions with their exquisite gardens; this also is the best way to the Audubon Zoo . General Admittion to the Zoo is $13.50 for adults and $8.50 for children.
During the day, the French Market , where Mardi Gras masks and souvenirs are on display, is a great place to stroll, plus local artisans set-up shop alongside fresh fruit and vegetable vendors. The open air gazebo nearby is a great place to have an impromptu picnic with the fresh fruit and vegetables you just purchased. While snacking, you’ll be entertained with live Jazz. Afterwards, just down from the gazebo, you’re children will enjoy watching pralines being made through the shops window.
The Riverwalk Marketplace, located along the Mississippi is the best family-friendly entertainment, shopping and dining attraction in all of New Orleans; there is well over 100 eateries and shops. The Riverwalk is packed with kid-friendly retail store and food court restaurants serving an array of pizza, ice cream, fried chicken and so much more.
Family Friendly New Orleans is a post from: Travel for Pennies
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Monterey, California has an awful lot to offer any visitor, with a wide variety of attractions, and a wealth of things to do. It’s very famous for its seaside life that attracts a kind of mythic quality. There are some days of glorious sunny beach weather, and other days where there is all the aura and the mystery that the sea can bring, and it’s not been lost on a number of famous artists and writers. John Steinbeck might be the most famous resident, and it’s interesting to note that he eventually had to leave because his complex reputation made it difficult to live anywhere he was recognized.
One of its other famous sons, and no less complicated, is Frank Zappa , who was born on the east coast, but lived here for a time. Following any of these footsteps is worth a trip here, and there are plenty of fabulous hotels to make the stay a pleasant one. It’s difficult not to have a pleasant time here, and it’s even a bit hard to imagine Zappa being gloomy here. Of course, he was always a bit gloomy everywhere, or at the very least somewhat sardonic. Perhaps the sea air is a kind of balm, offering a kind of clarity to look at the world with a critical eye.
Frank Zappas ‘s time here was relatively short, having moved here with his military father, and staying for a few very formative years, before moving further south. Considering the breadth and depth of his musical canon, it’s worth wondering over his high school band years, where classical music was the music of the day, and thinking of how these notes were slowly seeping into his mind. This same mind would later proved to the world a remarkable dexterity, and a sponge-like quality that accompanies genius. Sitting on the wharf in Monterey, puzzling over how we get from one place to another, the lure of the sea continues to call, and inspire.
Zappa’s Monterey is a post from: Travel for Pennies
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Georgia is a great place to see concerts. Its rich musical history acts as a not-so-silent witness to the spectacular musical present, and it’s possible to see multiple forms working at once. There are influences here that run very deep, and it’s no wonder that so many interesting and talented artists come out of Georgia. The blues has been a long presence here, as well as jazz, Georgia being part of that essential cultural framework that gave birth to these forms. It’s also a great place for alternative rock, hiphop, r&b, and a number of other exciting musical forms.
All of this is a great prelude for the upcoming event, where all the hotels should be brimming over with Norah Jones fans. She’s coming to Atlanta this summer, and the show promises to be a very exciting evening of musical virtuosity. It’s been a couple of years since she’s had a big world tour, and it’s also been awhile since she’s had a new album, and with the Fall just released, it’s high time to get the songs in your blood, so you can hum along during the show, or politely mouth the words.
Her career has been a fast rise to where it is right now, which is pretty much right up there on top of the world. Born in Brooklyn in 1979, with Ravi Shankar as her father, she had a musical upbringing that few people in the world can lay claim to. She has worked with a stunning number of very influential people, such as Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Atlanta’s own OutKast, and Will Sheff, on a number of side projects. It seems as though she’s always working, creating new sounds and songs, and also giving time to help with charity causes. Her voice is a haunting thing on disc, and it’s an impossible thing to behold in a live setting. This is a hot ticket.
Norah Jones in Atlanta is a post from: Travel for Pennies
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Many visuals come to a person’s mind if they have traveled to, or live near by, Washington Square Park in Manhattan. The arch, the fountain, the street musicians. This is the center of it all for many in the community that is the heartbeat of Greenwich Village. It’s a smaller version, yet complete, of the whole of New York city. It has become for many, the hub, between the NY hotels and suites of the Upper East Side and those who move to the ‘Island’, the hub for what is happening, stylish and contemporary. While all in all, remaining a relaxing park, designed with paths and benches and playgrounds for the children. There are permanent chess boards and dog runs, providing the children, the animals and the ‘grown-ups’ for opportunities to get out and about and to be able to bring along those that are cared for. Ironic that the site previously known as public gallows and a burial ground for indigents, then later a burial ground for the victims of yellow fever, is now much sought after spot for real estate investments and living for the upper class.
Beatniks have gathered here since the 60′s and the part was made famous, in part, due to the artists of all disciplines, the painters and the poets and songsters. Located close to NYU, the college crowd draw has been influential. Cafes with poetry slams, and the bohemian influence of the music and the scene has added to the history the park has had for a couple hundred years. During the eighties however, the park deteriorated, structurally and culturally. Drug dealers moved in and took over. The city of New York has spent the last years restructuring the park, with cameras and occasional police supervision. Regulations have been put on the artists and the musicians performing on the sidewalk. This happened in most part under the administration of Mayor Giuliani, and while the park is safer, controversies have arisen concerning the cameras and the infringement of privacy. Much as the controversy in Chicago over the placement of cameras downtown, citizens are uneasy about the feeling that they are being watched constantly. And while that is a philosophical debate in and of itself, the result is safer environments for those that wish to walk downtown, or to escape downtown to just simply sit on a park bench.
The park enjoyed a brief revitalization following its new design, but then began to deteriorate into a center for drug dealing by the 1980s, following the decline and recession the entire city underwent at the time. In the ’90s, it was reclaimed thanks to efforts by an active local community, and a police crackdown under Mayor Giuliani’s administration. But even this success was not without controversies over the use of hidden cameras to monitor park activity, and the regulation of artists and vendors.
Washington Square Park is a post from: Travel for Pennies
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