Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park

Trail of 10 Falls is the 7.5 miles trail loop at Silver Falls State Park. This trail is a true gem in Oregon and it is always very crowded during the weekends, even during winter season. Silver Falls State Park is located East of Salem, and it is about 1.5 hours away from Portland. During this Thanksgiving Weekend with 1 day of sun shine, we decided to pay a visit to this beautiful state park.


We left around 9AM in the morning so that we can get there early to make sure there are parking space available. After reaching Salem and head toward East, we were driving through the valley with beautiful green scenery.  It was like living in the dream and the sceneries are like the ones that you would see on post card. We actually stopped by the side of the road for several moments just to enjoy it. A note here, if you want to stop on the side of the road, make sure you find a place that is safe since the shoulder of the road is quite narrow.

We got to Silver Falls State Park around 11AM and there was a surprise there for us. The admission fee is waived on Black Friday! This was just awesome! Although the daily use fee is only $5, it still made us very happy! We parked the car at the South entrance of the park and that is where most people go to. Many people brought their cute dogs, but just note that dogs are only allowed on certain trails.

We started the hike from the South Falls, which is the most popular one. Since there was a lot of rain during the winter, the volume of water coming from the Falls is enormous compared to summer season! The trail goes behind the waterfall where we could feel the water splashing against the cliff. The trail was quite wet here and we had to hop around to make sure we did not step into the water.

Afterwards, we started heading towards North Falls, which is about 5 miles away and there are several waterfalls along the trail. The trail was quite easy with limited amount of elevation gain. The trail goes along the river and sometimes crosses the river as well. At this time of the season, although the trail is slipper, most of the dangerous areas have fences along the side to prevent people from falling.

After about 2 hours of hike, we finally got to North Falls. We would say that the North Falls is more beautiful than South Falls! The North Falls was split into 2 unlike the South Falls which was like a giant white curtain. Similar to South Falls, we could also go behind the North Falls. The area behind the North Falls is much wider and dryer, which allows more rooms for people to take photos.

After the North Falls, it was time to turn back and head back to South Falls. The trail loops back along the Rim Trail, which is very easy to hike on with no difficulty at all. heading back was easy due to trail going in a straight line and only 2 miles.

Overall, the Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park is simply amazing. This is by farm one of the best trail I have been on and the difficulty is extremely easy. If 7.5 miles is too long for you, there are 2 other smaller loops with just 2 miles and 5 miles. Thus this is a great place for people to hike around with different preference on difficulties.

Class 302 Cafe

Class 302 Cafe is a popular restaurant that offers Taiwanese style food. It has many stores within the Orange County. Class 302 actually means grade 3 and second class. The restaurant is known to have use Taiwanese class room styled tables and chairs in the restaurant. People from Asia country would know what we are talking about when they see it.


We have been to this restaurant 4 years ago. This is the first time that we visit this restaurant again after 4 years and things have changed so much. It does not look like it is as popular as before, probably due to the competition from other new restaurants. The food menu does not have as much variety as before either. In addition, the restaurant is now more like order first and then find a seat kind of style, rather than sit down first and the order your meal. We were shocked about how much have changed in 4 years.

So this time we ordered a Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice, Pig Blood Rice Cake, Boba Milk Tea, and a Slush Ice. The Taiwanese Sausage Fried Rice came with a huge portion with lot of sausage in it. It was fried perfectly. The only thing that we have minor complain on is that amount of onion in there.

The Pig Blood Rice Cake might sound scary, but it is very common in Taiwan. It is usually dipped with peanut powder to add sweetness to it. We definitely recommend people to give it a try. It is really tasty and not as scary as it sounds and looks.

The Boba Milk Tea is the one that we were shocked with. When we placed the order, we were given an empty cup. Apparently the drinks are self serve. We went to the drink bar, there were different types of bobas and puddings for people to place in their cup and then you choose which drink you want to fill your cup with. It was quite an experience.

The Slush Ice is not as good as before. We felt that this is more like ice cream, rather than crushed ice. We prefer to have crushed ice since that's more like Taiwanese styled dessert.

Overall, we felt that Class 302 Cafe is no longer as good as it used to be. We wished that it could have maintained its quality as before, but the owner must has his/her own reason to change the way how the restaurant operates.

Griffith Observatory

Griffith Observatory is one of the four observatories in California. It is located North of Los Angeles. There is no entrance fee to enter the observatory, but there are parking fees with an hourly rate of $3. Since we were having a vacation at Southern California, we decided to pay a visit to Griffith Observatory.


The observatory was not hard to find. We simply just drove up the road all the way to the top of the mountain. When we got there around 3pm, there was already a lot of car in the parking lot and many car were parked on the side of the road. Note that you still have to pay for parking fee even if you park your vehicle on the side of the road.  Luckily, we were able to find a spot in the parking lot right away.

We went into the observatory and looked at the photos of the galaxies and the telescope used to observe the stars. On the outside patio, we could see the entire metropolitan city of Los Angeles. We could still see the smog among the city due to the forest fire that happened a week ago. On the North side of the observatory, we could see the Hollywood sign on the mountain.

There was a stair way on the side for people to access the observatory telescope at the top of the observatory. The telescope is open to public from 7PM to 10PM when the sky is dark. We did not get to try it since it was still in the afternoon and the sun was still bright. But it would have been an awesome experience to check out the telescope.

The observatory also had shows for people to watch, with additional cost. We did not bother to check it out since we just wanted to enjoy the view from the top of the mountain. This is one of the best place to see the sunset over Los Angeles. Furthermore, it is also the best place to see the night scape of Los Angeles.

Overall, we don't think it is a must visit place when visiting Los Angeles, but it is an interesting spot. It would be a romantic spot to spend the evening here to see the night view over the city. We didn't get to stay till the sun goes down, but we would definitely do it next time.

Hollywood

Hollywood is known for its entertainment film publication in the world! It also has this famous HOLLYWOOD sign at the top of the mountain as its landmark. Hollywood is located North of Los Angeles and it is just about 20 minutes of drive, if there is no traffic.


We drove to Hollywood from Irvine and took us about 1.5 hours to get there. The traffic is just crazy in Los Angeles region. When we got there, we wanted to park the car at Highland mall, which only cost $2 parking fee. However, we took the wrong turn and went to a valet parking place, which cost $15.

From Highland mall, we could see the Hollywood sign from afar, and most people take photos of it from here.  Originally we thought we could do shopping at Hollywood, but we found out that there weren't many fashion shops there. It was mostly restaurants and pubs. It was very much like a tourist place and there were many scammers on the street. For those scammers, we just try not to talk to them.

The Chinese Theatre is probably the most famous building in Hollywood. Many films were shot here as well, such as Iron Man 3. There were just so many people and we did not bother to enter to take a look.

As we walk on the street, there were stars on the ground and each corresponds to a celebrity. Some stars do not have celebrity's name on it and it is probably for new celebrity to fill their name there. We were trying to see if we could find Donald Trump's star, but we did not find it.

The souvenir shops were interesting and filled with Oscar's golden statues. It was quite interesting. The Oscar golden statue aware sold in the shop shows that it is for "best mom", or "best dad" award. It would be a great gift to bring back to people who are very interested in this kind of stuff.

Overall, it was an experience to visit Hollywood, but not as interesting as we have thought. There were not much stuff for us to do there other than just walking around and look around to see things. However, if you have never been there, it is worth a day trip to check it out.