My niece is coming to visit and she has never been to Portland  before, so we are looking for all the places we HAVE to take her while she is here.  If you do live in Portland, I most certainly hope you have been to most if not all of these places Not from here?  Sit back and let me give you a quick tour of a few FREE sights of Portland.

1. Rose Gardens – Portland is the Rose city after all, and this beautiful garden makes that point. This is such a great place to go and easy access from downtown.  From here not only can you see this amazing Garden but the view of the city and Mt. Hood is worth the drive up.
2. Pittock Mansion – Confession here, I have lived in Portland for 13 years and finally made my way up 6 months ago.  Again this is another beautiful orignal house/mansion that sits up high in the hills with views of all of Portland, and you can even tour the house.  It's free to tour the gounds and see the views, but if you have family or friends that live in the area have them go to the local library and pick up FREE passes to get into Pittock Mansion.
3. Multnomah Falls – Located about 30-35 minutes from downtown Portland, but a sight not to be missed.  We have been several times.  Choose your times wisely as the weekends are packed, so if you can go during the week you will have easier time getting a parking spot and you won't have to share the trail with so many people.
4. Hawthorn District -   It is such an eccletic area, that you are constantly looking for the next best thing around the corner.  The locally owned restaurants and coffee shops are everywhere.  It's fun just to stroll the streets and check out the shops.  If you must spend money here, the one must eat location in the Hawthorne District is the Waffle Window.
5. NW 23rd – I always describe this area as super quaint or an urban sweet spot.  The restauants in this area are abundant and creative, and choosing one is not easy. The neighborhood streets that feed into NW 23rd at filled with old craftman style homes. The Czech made street cars can get you downtown in 15 minutes for only $2 and that is an all day pass. I know this is not FREE, but cheap if you decide to give it a try. Check out Portland Street Cars for more information.
6. Powells Books – How many people go all the way to Portland just to look at a book store? More than you could ever imagine.  This book store is the size of a city block.  You could spend a whole day and not get through it all.  The topics are endless and the organization is incredible.  There are plenty of places to sit down and look through the books that you come across.  And don't forget this is Portland, so grab your coffee while you look through some of your finds.  Want to get some books for FREE, just take in some books that you would like to get rid of and shop with the money you get from those.
7. Waterfront – Portland sits right on the Willamette River.  You can stroll, roller blade or ride your bike along the path right on the river.  The park that sits between the river and downtown is a great place to relax on a sunny day.  It is also home to many events during the summer, such as the Rose Festival, The Bite of Oregon and Cinco De Mayo just to name a few.  When these events stroll into town, these grassy patches give way to tents and stages. During the Jazz Festival the boats line the river to listen to the music.  Waterfront in Portland during the summer is the place to be.

There were great discoveries we made on this trip.  I love it, because she lives there and knows all the great places and then we stumble upon something so great that neither of us knew about.  It makes it like a vacation for both of us and that's fun.

Our first stop of the last day was not a new discovery, but when you live in Oregon you have to make a stop at least once when in California.

That's right, we made our token stop at In-n-Out.  I got my burger and fries, while my friend watched me eat. I am a foodie, but hey, it's In-N-Out.

Ok, once we got that out of our system, or me out of my system, we continued on with our walking and eating fest.  We decided we wanted to do the Point Loma lighthouse hike.  I can't remember how we found it and why we wanted to check it out.  We actually had other plans and kind of stumbled upon it I think.

But before we went we decided we needed a coffee.  We started looking for coffee shops and we found Con Pane Bakery.  We went in and I was disappointed to find that they didn't have my white chocolate mocha.  They did have homemade butterscotch.  I don't like butterscotch, but she insisted that I try it. It was so good.  I ordered it and drank it with no regrets.  As we were waiting in line (yes, this place was packed and the line was long) we saw a cinnamon roll that we decided we NEEDED to share.

You can see the homemade butterscotch drizzled across the top.  This was almost better than zinc.  I wouldn't get the cinnamon roll again.  It was good, but not super gooey and that's what makes for a good cinnamon roll.

Finally full of caffeine and ready for our last hour of our day before my flight.  We headed to Point Loma Lighthouse.

We did have to pay an entrance fee, that was around $5, per car.  We parked up close to the lighthouse and looked around.  It's so cool because you are on this peninsula and you can see water all the way around.  So beautiful.  We noticed people down by the water and had seen the road on our way up, so we made our way down.

You could do a really long hike if you wanted or you could just wander around the beach too.  Since I was dressed and ready for a plane ride we chose not to hike.  The amazing thing was were just minutes from the airport, but you felt like you were out far away from everything.  There were not many people there, which made it nice.  We were sad that we hadn't discovered this sooner, as neither one of us were ready to go.  We decided on our way out we would most definitely come back to this place.  My friend even said she was going to bring her family on a Staycation day.

My best friend moved to San Diego over a year ago, so I make trips down to see her on occassion.  Our trips really just end up being eating our way through all of San Diego.  But we have also found some great hikes, walks and of course EATS.

For nearly all my purchases I use my Alaska Airlines Credit Card. That way I can earn FREE miles.  I have gone down to San Diego 3 times to visit my friend and each time I have used miles, so each time it costs me $5 to fly.

We did lots of hikes

This is at Torrey Pines.  My friend has a year long parking pass, but even a day pass is not more than a couple of bucks, but it's work it, fun hike. This is the 2nd or 3rd time we have done this hike.  I love it.  It's also very easy.  Trust me, I would know.  I might look fine, but I am going in for back surgery soon, and I still did this hike.

Beach walks

We do these hikes and walks because they are FREE or nearly free. If you are in San Diego why wouldn't you do those things?

After all those great hikes and beach walks we need good food.  San Diego is not short on great food.  Before I got there my friend went online and ordered some gift certificates from Restaurants.com.   If you don't know what that is go check it out HERE and look for the latest deals. We ate really good while we were there.

Our first meal there was at Cody's.  This is such a cute place and the food was good.  Not my favorite meal, but nothing to really write home about.  We might try it again, it could be that we just ordered wrong.

Check this out.  How cute is this?  This is the owner of the restaurant Lockwood Table doing a delievery.  I love this!!  The food here was so amazing.  It was a light lunch of hummus,salad and a veggie sandwich, plus we shared a dessert bar.  We shared all 4 things, used our gift cerficiate and it cost us $6 each with tip and tax.

Everyday we would head over to Zinc and get our afternoon latte.  I make my own lattes at home, so I am super picky.  This latte was so good we kept going back.  Not only that, but before I left I bought a 1lb bag to take home.  So good.

My favorite find of the trip was this restaurant, Sbbica    The food was amazing. We each got a bowl of Lobster/shrimp bisque, we shared caramelized onion, brie, smoked salmon on toast, and an ahi tuna salad.  Again we used the Restaurant.com gift certificate and with tip and tax this meal cost us $12 each.  Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the bread and dipping sauce they bring out before your meal.  It looks like salsa, but it's tomatoes with basil, pureed and you add it to your bread.  My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

What we discovered after talking with the owner is that his sister lives in the same place I do and she just opened up a restaurant in Lake Oswego, Oregon, just minutes from my house.  She needs to know I will be comparing her to her brother.  His food was to die for.

So if you are ever in La Jolla, California look for this restaurant.  You won't be disappointed.  The view is not super great, but you can see the water if you sit outside. Plus it sits next door to a great surf shop.

Ahhhh, San Diego.  It's a beautiful place.

They have started the countdown to opening day.  April 17th is the day it all happens.  You can sign up now for a Season Pass so you don't have to fight crowds on opening day.

These people are serious about their park.  I wouldn't be surprised if the place wasn't packed on opening day.  Correct me if I'm wrong.  We have been to many parks and we try really hard to go when the crowds are low.  We went on almost the last weekend they were open.  We had come from Cedar Point, which was fairly empty (I know much bigger park) but when we hit Kings Island we were surprised.  The place was so packed you could barely walk.

So go check out their webiste and get all the latest info on Open Day and the Opening Season.

We all know the economy is bad everywhere, but at the same time we can take advantage of this.  I have heard that things in Hawaii are really cheap right now.  I have a shirt tale relative just tell me they booked a place through VRVO.com.  They had used it once before loved it and are now using the service again.

It's worth checking out.  We are taking advantage of the deals, but helping them at the same time since they rely so heavily on Tourism.  It's a Win-Win.

These steps can also be done with any amusement park, even Disneyland or Disneyworld (although they are open all year long).  I always like to get the most out of my trip, so here is how I go about it.

1.    What is the opening date of the park? Or When Does it Close for the Season?
One of the parks we go to in N. California opens in April.  Since summer vacations haven't started yet it's very very empty, thus getting the park to ourselves.  Also towards the end of the season many locals are done with the park and getting back into routines.  The end of the year strategy only backfired on us one time and that was with Kings Island.  Make sure you check days and hours, since many are only open for extended weekends at this point, not necessarily during the week days.

2.    Check the local school calendars and compare them to yours.
I like to do this because I want the park to myself or at least as much as possible to myself.  If the park does open in April and they are open for long weekends I try and go on a Friday for sure while everyone is in school, but plan a 2nd day for the Saturday so you can at least have some of the Entertainment that goes along with park.  I check our days off against theirs and usually I am able to come up with something.

3.    Check Airfare.
Again if you are going on an off time chances are even your airfare will be cheaper.  Not only that, if you have frequent flier miles they are easier to use at this time as opposed to spring break or any other Holidays.

4.    Find out the cost of a Season Pass compared to a Day Pass.
If I am flying into some place we usually plan to stay more than one day.  If that is the case often times it cheaper to buy a season pass than to purchase 2 day passes.  Although look around for coupons or discount on day passes and compare.

5.    Find out what a Season Pass gets you in to.
When you purchase a Season Pass to Six Flags you can go to any Six Flags in the nation.  Only catch is you have to activate it before going to any others.  I say this because the Park in Texas may be cheaper to buy a season pass to than the one in California.  You can purchase both online, but you have to activate it at the park you select as your main park even if it does cost more.  Once activated you can go to any of the parks.  Often times too the Six Flag season pass comes with coupons that you can use for food or even into nearby water parks.

Cedar Fairs you have to purchase a Season Pass to a specific park and then you can upgrade to other parks.  They do tend to cost more, but personally they are my favorite.

6.    Purchase Your Airfare, Buy your Passes Online and Pack Your Bags, and Enjoy!!

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I don't know that I would choose Reno as a destination for a vacation, but we did have fun.  The whole reason for going down was our friends had a special doctor appointment, so we just decided to make a trip out of it. We all had fun, but we all agreed we wouldn't rush back, it's just not our things.  But nonetheless we came away with tips to help you plan your trip if that is something you are interested in.

First off we stayed at the Peppermill.  This motel is not on the strip but is a huge casino resort all it's own.  The place was beautiful as were all the rooms and the lounges and the restaurants.  We had gone online and booked a room in the Peppermill Tower.  We wanted something in the Tuscany Tower, but it was much more expensive.  Well on the way down we decided that since 2 of us were having issues and needed lots of rest we should upgrade at least one of the rooms so we had a nice comfortable place to hang out if we needed.  When we got to the motel we pursued that option and found that the upgrade to the Tuscany Towers at the desk was significantly less than what we had found online.  And because we were in the Tuscany Towers we also got a Passport book to use throughout our stay.  It's a book with coupons it, and every time you use a coupon you get a stamp and the stamps equal free money to play at the slots.  The coupons were buy 1 get one free for meals. In the end we saved money on restaurants that we would have eaten at anyways and we earned $80 in free slots.   So the upgrade overall was well worth it.  We were glad we had made that decision and we loved our rooms.

I have been looking for quite some time.  I have checked out all the motels along the way and which ones have what restaurants in them and I have looked at the price options, but I always have a hard time finding the best locally owned restaurants in town.  But finally I found a website that has directed me to what seems like some of the best.  Not just that but the top 10 places to eat in Reno.  So you can check it out for yourself.  Not going to Reno, no problem, just punch in another city and start searching.

So here are 10 best places to eat in Reno, Nevada.  Oh but the fun doesn't stop there with this website, it also includes nightlife, activites and an events calendar.  Go check it out.  The thing that I really like about this website was that it was easy to navigate, it had reviews and my favorite part was it gave an average price point.  I really like that.

Well we leave in just a few days, so I have continued to look around for more activties besides the Toxic Audio.  And in my browsing I found this website Pioneer Center for Performing Arts.  There I found a Hypnostist that will be performing while we will be in town.  There is also a calendar of events so you can see all the other things that will be happening now and in the months to come.  You can even purchase tickets right online.

Now I have to find some good eats.  Oh, I forgot to mention on the Pioneer Center for Performing Arts you will see a link to Wild River Grille Dinner Offer.  Check that out.

Well I have been checking every website I can think of and trying to come up with some shows that we can go see while we are in Reno.  I have come across this one that I am pretty excited about.  It's called Toxic Audio.  It sounds amazing.  Its kind of a cross between music and improv comedy, and it sounds pretty high energy.  I called and talked with someone and it's general seating, so there is really no need to purchase tickets ahead of time, and while we are there we will have 3 shows to choose from.  So we will wait and see what else might be playing there so we don't end up double booking ourselves or missing out on something esle that looks great.