Spring break! (2 of 2)

days 6 to 8 (Mon to Wed 26th to 28th Mar)

drove to San Jose to visit a museum but it was closed on Mon! Got a small scare when driving from San Jose to Milpitas – an engine light came on, indicating a possible malfunction with the transmission system. Had to drive back to the car rental company to switch to another car (PT Cruiser – Chrysler), but not before we went shopping at Milpitas!

Tuesday was also a shopping day, this time at Gilroy, another premium outlet! On Wednesday, we returned the car and took the Cal train to SF city to catch a musical, Jersey Boys, which is about the life story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Before this, I have never heard of this name or the group (but have certainly heard of their songs as I realised during the musical). The show was really entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

days 9 to 13 (Thurs to Sun 29th Mar to 1^st Apr)

flew to Portland Oregon for this last leg of our holiday! The hotel, Four Points by Sheraton, looked a bit disappointing on the outside, but the room is comfortable and has a nice view of the Willamette River, which the hotel is located beside.

We (or rather, I) basically decided to come to Oregon because of its tax-free shopping, but Oregon has many scenic places within a few hours drive from Portland city (like the coastal fishing towns, Historic Columbia River Gorge drive, mountains like Mount Hood and Mount Bachelor etc).

1st day – we walked around the city and did some shopping (again!). Rented a car for the next 2 days and drove to tulip farm in Woodburn (some 45 min away from Portland) and more premium outlets for shopping! Also managed to get to a coastal fishing town, Newport (although it was late in the day already).

The following day, we headed east for the Historic Columbia River Gorge drive (the first scenic highway in the US to gain the distinction of National Historic Landmark), where we marveled at the 2nd tallest non seasonal waterfall in the US (Multnomah Falls - picture shown above) and took on twists and turns in the tree-lined roads...

These are the links to the pictures (you will need to copy and paste on browser) -

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