Past POIs - Sequoia National Park [California, USA]

Point of Interest: Sequoia National Park
Location: California, USA
Date of visit: September 2017

When I think about National Parks for USA, I normally think of two, Yosemite and Yellowstone, however, with the experience that I had at Sequoia National Park, I wonder why it isn't higher or better known.

Sequoia National Park was ranked 65 out of 374 parks in terms of visitors in 2016 with 1.25 million visitors. It being roughly 3.5 hours away from Yosemite, if you are in the area, I'd suggest paying them a visit if you can.

The main tourist attraction here are the large Sequoia trees which are the biggest (in volume) trees in the world. When we drove in from the south, as the driver, I immediately stopped after seeing the first set of really large sequoia trees. My wife told me not to freak out over them since they were small ones, but that didn't calm my excitement for seeing them and taking pictures with them.

As you drive inside, you will see more and more of them, some that have toppled over and are actual attractions for visitors. For example, there is a tree that has fallen over and they carved an opening so that car could drive through the tree itself! Also, there is another fallen one where you can walk through it.

And then, there are the two main trees that people should look out for, the General Sherman and the General Grant.

The General Sherman is currently the largest tree in the world and you can see why. Oddly, you can't actually get up close to any of the two main trees since they are surrounded by fencing, but when I got up close, I was amazed. How could something this large exist?

The General Grant, unfortunately was missed by us due to poor signage and my reluctance to wander to see if another tree at the Grant (and it was). It isn't the largest tree, but very large nonetheless.

Admission may change annually, so, check the official website https://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm.

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Past POIs - Acropolis [Athens, Greece]

Point of Interest: Acropolis
Location: Athens, Greece
Date of visit: June 2017

If you ever visit Athens, Greece, it will be pretty hard to miss the Acropolis if you are near the city center. It is actually built on what looks like a small mountain/hill and you can see if from everywhere. We were lucky with our hotel rental because it actually had rooftop views of the Acropolis which was very nice.

The Acropolis is included in the multi-site pass and is well worth it since the Acropolis itself is 20 euros and the multi-site pass is just 30 euros. It can be a bit of a hike for those that are not in shape since there is no cable car or assistance with getting up there. You'll have to take the side roads to get to the entrance and then just follow the path and up the stairs like everyone else.

Since it is high up and not covered, I would advise you to visit either in the morning or in the afternoon/evening to avoid the mid-day sun.

Well worth a visit, there is plenty to see up there and the are plagues everywhere telling you what you are seeing (however I tend to not stop and read those for long). Unfortunately when we went, it was under renovation, which seems to be the story of our travels. I am recalling how we got out in Rome to see the pyramid and the entire thing was covered in scaffolding for renovations.

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Past POIs - Temple of Zeus [Athens, Greece]

Point of Interest: Temple of Zeus
Location: Athens, Greece
Date of Visit: June 2017

When we visited Athens in 2017, we knew that we were going to visit a lot of the historic museums and luckily for us, there is a multi-site pass that allows you to visit a majority of the sites for a low rate of 30 euro. Since the Acropolis itself (the north and south side) cost 20 euro, it is a no brainer to pay an extra 10 euro which gives you access to an additional 6 other sites. One of those sites is the Temple of Zeus.

Oddly, the Temple of Zeus sounds more interesting than what remains today (which is also true for a lot of the sites). What you see when you go today is several columns left of what was once an enormous temple dedicated to Zeus.

We went because of the name (well, I did) and because it was included in the multi-site pass, however, there isn't really much to see here. You can complete the site in under 10 minutes (depending on your interest in reading plaques and imaging how the temple must have looked).

Not to say that it is a bad site, however, if you are to visit Athens and this is on your list, I would try to visit all the other sites before Acropolis since it is the most restored site that gives you an idea of how things were back in the day.

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Past POIs - Cobble Lookout Trail [Wilmington, New York]

Point of Interest: Cobble Lookout Trail
Location: Wilmington, New York, United States of America
Date visited:

As I look at my post regarding the hike from Fira to Oia in Greece, I thought I would add some more potential hikes and one that we did while in Lake Placid was the Cobble Lookout Trail which is located in Wilmington, New York, just roughly 10 minutes from Lake Placid itself (which oddly, I don't recall if we actually saw).

Cobble Lookout Trail is a 1.3 mile hike built in 2014 which took us roughly 45 minutes each way. The trail itself has some ups and downs, but in general, not a very difficult hike. For the most part, you are trekking through forests until you reach the end where you get a great view of the surrounding area (provided that the weather is clear when you go).

There is no cost to go and there is a small parking lot right where you will see a sign, however, we did notice that there are some people who just park on the side of the road if the parking lot is full.

Have a look at the pictures and see for yourself if you think you would be interested in this hike.

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Past POIs - The Wild Center [Franklin County, New York]

Point of Interest - The Wild Center
Location - Franklin County, New York, United States of America
Time of Visit - August 2017

During our long week trip in August, we visited The Wild Center in New York state and it was actually something that I saw from Facebook and was keen on visiting but didn't expect to actually see it any time soon.

Located in Franklin County, about an hour from Lake Placid is The Wild Center which was originally called the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks. The constructions started in 2004 with the old name and when they opened in 2006, it was renamed to The Wild Center. It was funded through donations and the entire campus is now 115 acres in size!

The main attractions that people come to see are the Wild Walk which opened in 2015 where you could actually walk across the treetops of the surrounding area. Not only is there the walk itself, but there is a giant fake bird's nest that you can climb into and there is a big spiderweb that you can play in and lie in. Besides these, there is also the tree house that you can climb and there are lots of information boards spread out in the area.

Inside the center, there is also a theater, a dining hall, some animals and more. Outside, there are plenty of hiking trails that you can wander around for some peace and quiet.

Admission was $17 per adult in 2017 and is actually good for two days, so if you don't finish everything in one day, by all means, just go back. One day was enough for us, but I can see that if you have kids, they would love to come back.

For more information, visit their website at https://www.wildcenter.org/

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Past POIs - San Luis Reservoir [Merced County, California]

Located in Merced County, California is the San Luis Reservoir which is a water storage reservoir that you shouldn't miss if you are in the area. In fact, it is the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States.

Picture of the water level in 2017

If you do happen to visit, make sure to check out the free Romero Overlook Visitor Center. This center has a lot of information behind the history of the reservoir as well as a very scary picture of how low the water level was just one year ago in 2016 (we went in 2017).

Picture of the water level in 2016 (the platform is in the picture above).

For more information, visit the website http://www.water.ca.gov/recreation/locations/sanluis/sanluisvisitor.cfm

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Past POIs - Crooked Street [San Francisco, California]

While visiting San Francisco, a touristy must is to visit Crooked Street. Why would you want to visit Crooked Street? Well, take a look at the picture below.

Located on Lombard Street between Hyde St and Leavenworth St is the famous Crooked Street which is a one-way, one block street that has a steep elevation drop which consists of 8 hair-pin turns. It was actually designed this way due to how steep the drop is. If you drive in San Francisco, you will know what I mean by steep drops. There are streets where it seems like you are on a roller coaster with how sheer the drop is.

When you get here, make sure to take some pictures and video safely. It was actually a bit odd since there was an actually person that was conducting traffic flow and pedestrian safety due to how many tourists there are trying to take pictures with this street. We actually went during a weekday and was told that it wasn't even that busy compared to the weekend. I can't imagine what the insanity must be like.

We did only travel this on foot and we opted out of driving down it. Allison did ask me about it, but I didn't really care to do 5 mph on such a steep and short section of road. Plenty of people road down this street with their GoPros shooting out of the roofs of cars.

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Past POIs - Lands End Lookout [San Francisco, California]

Located on the northwest side of San Francisco is Lands End Lookout, a park with great views and some short trails all along the coast line. It is actually part of the National Parks Services and it is free for visitors.

There is free parking in the area, although it did seem to be fairly busy and popular when we arrive early in the afternoon. I imagine it would be easier to find parking earlier in the day.

At the main area of Lands End is the visitor center which you should definitely visit for some history about the place and if you have any questions, there are rangers that will answer your questions. There are also national park stamps if you collect those (the rubber stamps, not actual stamps for mail).

There is a very nice coastal hike from Lands End to Eagle's Point which has a lot of people walking along. There is a bit of an up/down hill portion, but nothing too strenuous.

It is at 680 Point Lobos Avenue. For more information, visit the official website at NPS - Lands End Lookout.

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Past POIs - Muir Woods National Monument [California]

Federally protected as a National Monument since 1908 is Muir Woods, home of the redwood trees. It is only a 30 minute drive from the Golden Gate Bridge and well worth seeing even if it is a bit short in my point of view.

The redwood trees here are some of the tallest trees in the world, although the biggest trees belong to the sequoias located in both Yosemite and Sequoia National Park, both southeast and roughly 3-5 hours drive from San Francisco.

Admission in 2017 was $10 per person, but is covered with the annual pass which costs $80 at the time. So if you plan to visit a few national parks, this may be worth getting. When we went, parking we were told, is limited and it is true, so do make sure to go ahead of time. I did notice that when I checked the official site Muir Woods, starting in 2018, parking permits will be required. I guess this is to curb the amount of illegal parking that takes place if you go late in the day. It looks like parking will be $8 (it was free when we went) or $3 per person for the shuttle. So it does add up pretty quickly.

When you get there, there is only one entrance and one main hiking trail which takes roughly 1 hour to complete. While there, we actually saw our first buck! Very cool to see wildlife in their natural habitat.

With the parking/shuttle situation, I think it will not be as busy, but at the same time, I'm not sure if it is worth visiting if you have already seen the sequoias. If I had to pick one, I would say go see the sequoias.

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Past POIs - Santa Monica Pier [Los Angeles, California]

Located in California is Santa Monica Pier, one of the most well known tourist attractions in the Los Angeles area where crowds will gather for the views, the ocean, the muscle area, and more.

Parking isn't cheap, but there are plenty of options in the area and if you grab a local tourist map, it actually tells you where the nearby parking lots are and how far it is walking distance to the pier which was great!

On the pier itself, there is a small amusement park which has a roller coaster and a ferris wheel! Definitely worth a visit and best of all, it is free!

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Past POIs - Samaria Gorge [Chania, Crete, Greece]

Point of Interest: Samaria Gorge
Date Visited: June 2017

Samaria Gorge is a must see if you are in Chania. You do need to be somewhat physically fit, however, they do allocate roughly 8 hours for you to complete the hike (and we took roughly 7 hours for reference).

The hike itself is 16km in length (14km for the gorge and 2km to get to the town where you will take a ferry back). While Allison did the research for this trip, it is possible for you to coordinate the trip yourself, however, it came out to roughly 5 euros more per person when we went with the hotel. We thought that it would be best to go with a group since they would coordinate all the transfer points and making sure that everyone makes it back. For reference, it cost us 24 euros each at the hotel, there were shops in town that cost 19 euros.

You will need to wake up really early depending on where you start. Apparently you can start at other places such as Rethymnon, but I believe Chania is the closest, so you can sleep in a bit more. For reference, we started in Chania and had to get up and ready outside our hotel for 6:00am.

There is a pit stop before you get there at the local store which has both washroom as well as final items that you might have forgotten or need (such as hiking shoes, poles, snacks, etc). We got to the pit stop at 7:20am and had 25 minutes to get ready with our hike actually starting at 8:00am.

The beginning of the hike is basically all downhill at the beginning and it evens out about half way through. Bring hiking poles if you like, I didn't find them useful, but Allison did.

Note, we made it to the ferry at 5:30pm and we ended up at the hotel at 8:30pm.

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Past POIs - Donnelly's Ice Cream [Saranac Lake, New York, USA]

Point of Interest: Donnelly's Ice Cream
Location: 1564 NY-86, Saranac Lake, NY, 12983, USA
Hours: 11:00am - 9:30pm daily
Cost: from $3.00 and up
Date Visited: August 2017
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Donnellys-Ice-Cream-219558278055451/

I normally don't write about food, but this place was definitely a highlight of our visit to Lake Placid and I thought I would write about it. When I saw the picture, I knew that I needed to pay this place a visit.

At Donnelly's, they use a very old ice cream maker and they actually only have one flavour daily. It is a mix of the flavour + vanilla, you don't actually get a choice. So if you are particular about your flavours, check their website ahead of time.

At the time of visit, it cost $3.60 for a regular sized cone which is roughly 5 swirls above the cone. The baby sized cone was $3.05 for roughly 3 swirls above the cone. We got the strawberry and vanilla the first day, which was good, and mountain almond with chocolate on the second day we visited which was absolutely amazing.

Well worth the detour if you are in the area to give it a try. It was pretty hard to miss since there was a line out the door both times we visited.

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Past POIs - Adirondack Wildlife Refuge [Wilmington, New York]

Point of Interest: Adirondack Wildlife Refuge
Location: 977 Springfield Road, Wilmington, NY, 12997, USA
Hours: 10:00am - 4:00pm, Thursday through Monday, closed Tuesday/Wednesday
Cost: free parking, no admission, operated by donations
Date Visited: August 2017
Website: http://adirondackwildlife.org/

During our stay in Lake Placid, I thought it would be neat to visit the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge which is located in Wilmington (which we happened to be staying at). Wilmington is roughly 15 minutes away from Lake Placid itself, so, it is not very far, best of all, it is free and all they ask is for a small donation if you enjoyed your time there.

The Adirondack Wildlife Refuge's main attraction is the Wolf Man, Steve, who gives everyone a talk first thing in the morning at 10:00am (but check their website for more details) about the 3 wolves that are there. He will actually go into the wolf pen and interact with them while talking to you about them. It was a very neat experience, since, as Steve says, wolves are portrayed as violent animals on TV and movies, but they are actually very friendly.

He spoke for about an hour before we headed off to see the other animals there, but he was still talking by then. During our stay here, we got to see a bunch of eagles, some foxes, coyotes, just to name a few animals. All the animals there are ones that individuals found and told them about and are in their care if possible.

If you are interested, there are also walking/hiking trails on site as well. We did one, but there wasn't much to see for us. So your hiking may vary.

For more information, visit their website at http://adirondackwildlife.org/

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Past POIs - Akrotiri Lighthouse [Santorini, Greece]

While in Santorini, make sure that you rent an ATV and drive around the island. When we were there, it seemed like there were actually more ATVs than cars! All the tourists seemed to do it and it was fairly inexpensive (roughly 25 euros a full day).

With our ATV in hand, we drove it down to the Akrotiri lighthouse which is the southwestern tip of Santorini. Which is a great spot to watch the sunset (or at least that's what we were told). Unfortunately, when we went, it was cloudy and the sunset didn't happen as nicely as expected. However, it seems like a nice place to visit and hang around.

Like a lot of the places in the area, it seems like most people just park their vehicles wherever they can and hope for the best. There is a small parking lot there at the very end, otherwise you would just park on the side of the road and walk to the lighthouse.

Both the parking and the lighthouse is free to visit in 2017, however, you aren't actually able to go inside the lighthouse which I thought would've been neat, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. If you say for the sunset, make sure to stay a bit longer because the lighthouse is actually a working lighthouse and the light will come on shortly after the sun has completely set.

The surrounding areas has some nice views of the island and it is nice since it is not as busy as Oia would be for watching sunsets.

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Past POIs - Fira to Oia Hike [Santorini, Greece]

During our trip in Santorini, Greece, we did the hike from Fira to Oia which is a 10km hike with an estimate time of 3 hour hike. You can also do it from the other direction (Oia to Fira), however, it is easier from Fira to Oia since you'll be walking mostly down instead of up.

Signage from Fira about potential hikes and duration.

The time it takes is really dependent on your ability and I would say how many stops and detours you take. It took us roughly 5 hours to do the full hike, but we got sidetracked by things like Skaros Rock which took us about an hour to do and just where you decided to take breaks and enjoy the scenery.

Skaros Rock (view from the bottom looking up at Fira)

I would say that as long as you are in okay shape, you can do the hike. We saw all types of people doing the hiking and nobody seemed to have any issues doing it.

Skaros Rock (looking down from Fira)

Note, the hike itself is out in the open for the full hike, so do prepare yourself accordingly. Make sure that you bring enough water for yourself since there really aren't many shops that you can just stop at on the way. For the most part, once you leave Fira, it is fairly empty with no shops until you get to Oia. Bring sunscreen or an umbrella depending on the weather.

Panorama between Fira and Oia

Overall, I'm glad we did the hike, it was a great experience.

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Past POIs - Athens Central Market [Athens, Greece]

As someone who is used to how Canada and United States work where you buy your groceries from a grocery story, going to visit a market in foreign countries is always a treat since you get to see how things operate elsewhere. Mind you, they do have grocery stores as well, but the atmosphere, price, and quality differ significantly.

The Central Market is about a 15 minute walk from Syntagma Square, you'll find fresh meats and fish in the Central Market. It is a market open to the public and you will see stalls upon stalls filled with what I assume are the catches of the day. Mind you, you will walk past 5-10 stalls that all sell the same thing with the same prices, but still worth seeing my mind. Note, the market isn't for the faint of heart. You will see a lot of blood (and liking be walking in blood soaked tile), and some recently killed animals that they are butchering on the spot. We did notice that there weren't fresh seafood, which was a bit odd.

When you are done, just across the street is the fresh produce market which is outside and not covered, however, you can find all the fruits and vegetables that you desire, as well as shops that sell essentials like oils, spices, herbs, etc.

Sorry for slacking off, I'll try to maintain my usual schedule again. Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!