Multnomah Falls, Oregon

When I was visiting my friends in Portland, Oregon, they showed me this beautiful place- Multnomah Falls. This waterfall is located in the state of Oregon, 45 minute drive outside of Portland.  This is the tallest waterfall in Oregon and the second tallest waterfall in the United States. The height of the waterfall is 620 feet (189m).  Its water drops in two major steps and splits into falls “upper” -542 feet (165m) and “lower” 69 feet (21m), with a gradual 9 foot (3m) drop between them.

2011 Christmas Boat Parade, Newport Beach, California

This year the 103rd Christmas Boat Parade was held in Newport Beach, California. The first boat parade was in 1908 with 4 boats, now about hundred vessels from kayaks to multi – million dollar yachts participate in the parade. They are decorated with lights, animated Christmas scenes and accompanied by music, spinning around the harbor. People who live around the harbor decorate their houses too. All this contributes to a real holiday feeling. Over a million viewers come to watch this spectacular event every year. The Christmas Boat Parade, was hailed as "one of the top ten holiday happenings in the nation" by the New York Times.

Hearst Castle, California

 (For those who didn’t read my post " San Francisco" - I recommend to start reading that post first, as the story begins there.)

But before i continue my story i want to thank Sergei Yavorskiy for providing these pictures from our trip to share them with you.

 I wanted to visit this beautiful historic place long time ago. I have been there once in Sep. 2010, but only at the Visitor Center. I didn't get inside the Hearst Castle as all tickets were sold out due to high volume of visitors. This time I didn't want to make my mistake twice and bought our tickets online in advance.
   
 We left Orange County at 7:30 in the morning after we rented a car from Enterprise. We got lucky to get an upgrade from the full size to the SUV. We got 2011 Hyundai Santafe, not a bad ride for such a road trip. When we left OC the weather was nice and clear.

 We had to be at Hearst Castle at 1:00 pm because we got our tickets for a guided tour that starts at 1:45pm. 
It took us about 5 hours to get to Hearst Castle from Orange County, CA as we had to pick up one of our friends from San Pedro, CA  who was going with us. Also, we made few stops to get gas and sandwiches.

San Francisco Nov 2011

 My friends and I decided to go on a road trip from sunny Orange County, CA to San Francisco, CA (the distance is 422mi according to Google maps if take I-5 freeway, duration 7hours). But we wanted to make our trip more memorable, so we decided to take one of the most beautiful roads in the World, highway #1 (also known as Pacific Coast Highway, or PCH) which lies along the coast. It is a little longer drive (483mi and 9hr) but the views of Pacific Ocean are totally worth it. And also we wanted to stop at the historic place called Hearst Castle.

But before i continue my story i want to thank Sergei Yavorskiy for providing some of pictures from our trip to share them with you.