Travel Monkeys

Australia Trip Report: Day 4

July 20, 2025: Singapore (Author: J)

Singapore 60th Anniversary Inflatable at River Wonders

When we last left off, we had finished a wonderful dinner at the top of Marina Bay Sands and settled in for a good night’s sleep at the Pan Pacific. The following day, a Sunday, was our last in Singapore. Our plan was to visit River Wonders and the Night Safari at Mandai Wildlife Reserve. The Mandai property currently has 5 wildlife parks. On our last trip to Singapore, we spent the better part of a day enjoying the Singapore Zoo. On this trip, our priority was the Night Safari. We decided to pair it with River Wonders because we had been told that combining those two parks would make for a long, but manageable day.

Following advice to avoid overextending ourselves before our zoo visit, we stayed close to the Pan Pacific in the morning. We slept late and then started our day with breakfast in Suntec City. Now that we understood the layout of the upper-level pedestrian bridges connecting the Pan Pacific to other buildings, getting to Suntec City was a snap. In just a few minutes, we were strolling past Don Don Donki, singing their theme song. Everybody: “Don Don Don… Donki!” So catchy! And so embarrassing to your tween-son when you sing it in a mall!

Suntec City has plenty of dining options, which made it hard to choose. We ended up eating at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. This was a nostalgia pick for me. I treated myself to a vanilla latte from Coffee Bean every Friday when I lived in Los Angeles, but there aren’t any Coffee Beans in the Northeast US where we now live. The Coffee Bean in Singapore had a vanilla latte that tasted exactly like I remembered, but the food menu was quite different from LA. D ordered a hot breakfast of pancakes, while P and I kept things economical with muffins. My beloved cheese Danish was not a menu option.

After breakfast, we went to the Premiere Football store so that P could purchase a local jersey. Most of the available football jerseys were for Thai teams, but the helpful staff found a single Tampines Rovers jersey in P’s size. He is therefore prepared to root for Tampines for as long as the jersey fits – so, perhaps as long as eight or nine months.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing and reading in our room. Around 1 pm, we headed back to the mall for a late lunch. There are a number of vegetarian food stall options in the malls near the Pan Pacific. We wound up at E. Veg. By this point, we had come to the realization that our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, so we shared two dishes between us. I ordered vegetarian duck rice, and D picked a combo meal that came with noodles and some sort of mock chicken dish. The staff made sure to clarify that everything was vegetarian — so that we weren’t disappointed by the lack of meat, I presume.

The duck rice was wild. I have never eaten real duck, so I can’t comment on whether the flavor was right. But the “duck” had “skin” that was really reminiscent of the texture of poultry skin. D and I were in awe. P has never eaten meat, so he didn’t get the fuss. (He did like the food, though). Overall, we were happy with our meal. It was inexpensive, satisfying, and felt somewhat healthy. The vibe in the mall, which was filled with locals enjoying lunch with families, was also nice.

After lunch, we topped off our sunscreen and bug spray and called a Grab to take us to River Wonders. The drive to Mandai took about 30 minutes, time that passed quickly as we enjoyed the views from our windows and admired our Grab driver’s extensive collection of dashboard décor.

From the passenger pick up area at Mandai East (which houses the Night Safari, River Wonders, and Singapore Zoo), it is a short walk to the River Wonders entrance. Because the Night Safari has timed entrance, I had prebooked our combo tickets to ensure that we had the earliest entry time: 7:15 pm. It took just a minute to scan the tickets on our phones and pass through the turnstiles into the park.

River Wonders is dedicated to the animals that live in and near the world’s great rivers. The habitats are organized river-by-river and looped together with a walking trail. We took the loop in a counterclockwise direction because it was the quickest route to the Amazon. P’s attention span seems to be decreasing as he gets older. He hurried us past the manatees and giant otters in the Flooded Forest so that he could reach the monkeys in the Amazonia Encounters exhibit. Amazonia Encounters is a walk-through habitat exhibit similar to our favorite exhibit in the Singapore Zoo: The Fragile Forest. Once you enter the biodome, there are no walls separating you from the wildlife. This provided a nice opportunity for P to enjoy the squirrel and saki monkeys, as well as some of our favorite South American rodents, the agouti and capybara.

After Amazonia Encounters, we queued up for Amazon River Quest, a log flume type ride through the habitats of some of the South American wildlife. This ride requires a separate ticket, which I had pre-purchased. You can also buy tickets from machines near the ride entrance (which had their own queue that we were able to bypass). I had mixed feelings about this ride. The boat itself was fun, but the habitats along the riverbanks seemed a bit small for some of the animals. Consistent with my view of the entire park, I felt that this attraction came up a bit short when compared to the Singapore Zoo.

By this time, we were feeling hot and cranky, so we headed to the Panda Forest. This forest is home to both giant and red pandas. But the star attraction for us was that it is well air-conditioned to simulate the pandas’ mountainous home. We watched the pandas for quite a while so that we could enjoy the air conditioning. Then, we popped into Mama Panda Kitchen for more A/C and a snack. I could not resist the panda shaped bao filled with chocolate custard, and P supplemented the bao with an ice cream float.

After our rest break, we backtracked to the Flooded Forest to look at the exhibits that P had been too impatient to look at before his monkey fix. I was glad we did so because the giant otters, which had been napping during our first visit, were now swimming about. We were able to walk through the tunnel in their tank with the otters swimming past us – exactly the iconic view we had hoped for when we visited the park.

Finally, we completed the loop, taking in the animals of the Mekong, Congo, and Nile Rivers. We were finished with the park by about 5:15. I would say that if you are planning to visit River Wonders and the Night Safari together, entering River Wonders around 3 is about right if you are not going to see the Once Upon a River show. If you are going to see the show (which requires reserving a free ticket online), then you will need more time.

The Night Safari does not open until 7:15, but the Ulu Ulu Safari Restaurant next to the Night Safari opens at 5:30. We joined a long queue for the restaurant, which moved quickly once the gates opened. Note that we needed to show our Night Safari tickets to enter the restaurant area.

Ulu Ulu is set up like an outdoor hawker market with stalls selling different types of food. After milling around a bit to see what our meal choices were, we decided to share the huge Vegetarian Makhanwala Banana Leaf Rice meal. We each picked out of own drinks from the drink stall.

I was initially disappointed that Ulu Ulu was outdoors (and therefore not air conditioned). That changed with the appearance of a troop of wild macaques. They lined up along the rooftops overlooking the dining area, and it soon became apparent that they were planning to stage a raid. One of the restaurant staff was deployed to fend off this attack. Armed with his monkey-poking stick, he kept a close eye on the animals in front of him. Unfortunately, although the staffer proved adept at poking the monkeys in front of him, he was less skilled at anticipating the movements of the troop. This provided an opening for several monkeys to sneak behind him, hop down, and grab food from a patron’s plate. We decided that the safest course of action was to finish our meal and dispose of our rubbish before we became the monkeys’ next target.

While we were watching the monkey show — coconuts and beers in hand — a line was beginning to form for the safari tram ride. We decided we were happier in our seats than standing in line, so we kept our table until the park gates opened. By this point, there was quite a long queue for the tram ride. I had read that the line gets shorter as the night wears on, so we started our visit with the walking trails in the park.

As one of the few nocturnal zoos in the world, the Night Safari has lots of animals you won’t find in other zoos from pangolins to palm civets. The highlight for us, as anticipated, was the Tasmanian Devil enclosure. They were a chatty bunch, and Looney Toons definitely gets the sound effects right.

River otters: one of our few wildlife photos before it got too dark to capture images.

It takes a bit of patience to find the animals in their habitats, so we explored at a slow pace. As we walked, the sun set and it became progressively darker. Even though the paths are lit well enough to avoid injuries and I knew in my logical brain that we were perfectly safe, my lizard brain couldn’t help feeling a bit of fear as we saw a pack of hyenas looming above us in the dark.

By the time we finished the walking paths, the line for the tram was – indeed – much shorter than it had been. So, our plan worked just as intended. However, P was feeling quite run down, so we honored his request to skip the tram. Instead, we headed back to the passenger pick up area and called a Grab back to our hotel. (There were also plenty of waiting taxis, but they were charging double the going fare on Grab).

Overall, the River Wonders/Night Safari combo was a bit too ambitious for us given that we hadn’t quite recovered from jet lag. Without the extra zap of energy that P got from the wild monkey troop’s visit to Ulu Ulu, I’m not sure he would have been up for the Night Safari at all. If you are planning to combine the Night Safari with another park, my recommendation is to schedule the zoos later in your trip so that jet lag is less of a factor. And I definitely don’t recommend combining Night Safari with any of the larger parks in Mandai.

Up next in the trip report, we’re headed to Sydney on Singapore Airlines’ budget arm: Scoot.

Australia 2025 Trip Report: Day 3

July 19, 2025: Singapore (Author: J)

On our last trip to Singapore, we were fairly successful at defeating jet lag within the first few days of our trip. So, we revived our jet lag playbook on this trip. On our first evening, we stocked our room with some snack cakes from 7-11 in case anyone woke up in the middle of the night hungry. (These proved a better choice than the wasabi chips we picked up in 2022). And we all committed to staying in bed until at least 5 am, even if it meant laying there with our eyes closed.

We executed the plan as well as could be expected. While I won’t say that anyone had a great night of sleep, we did all manage to sleep for large chunks of the time between 10 pm and 6 am. At 6 am, I made a cup of coffee using the hotel coffee machine and enjoyed it with some pandan cake while reading my book. Because our room at the Pan Pacific was small, my activities eventually woke everyone else up (despite my best efforts to read by phone flashlight). We all got ready for the day, and then headed to Marina Square, one of the malls attached to the Pan Pacific.

Armed with directions from the concierge, it was quite easy to find the entrance to the mall. There’s an exit on the 2^nd floor of the hotel that puts you directly outside a door to the mall. At 7:30 on a Saturday, the shops were all closed, but we weren’t there to shop. We headed directly for Ya Kun Kaya Toast to order breakfast. For those who are unfamiliar, Ya Kun Kaya Toast is a chain that serves a common Singaporean breakfast spread of toast with butter and kaya (pandan and coconut) jam, soft-cooked eggs, and coffee (kopi), along with some other breakfast items. Because we had breakfast included in our hotel stay in 2022, we didn’t get the opportunity to try kaya toast then. It was time to remedy that now.

The Ya Kun Kaya Toast location in Marina Square is a little island in the mall with a counter and open kitchen, and some dinner style seating. After you order at the counter, they set up your tray and slide it along as they fill it with your food. We quickly learned that you shouldn’t grab the tray until your number is called; it seems like the way the tray is set up tells the cooks what to put on each tray.

I had a kaya toast set with regular kopi (coffee with sweetened condensed milk). D had a French toast set, which was served with kaya jam, soft-cooked eggs, and kopi. P had a muffin and some water. There was a bit of a wait for our food because there was initially only 1 cook on duty, and the French toast order disrupted his efficient toast and eggs assembly line. When the rest of the kitchen crew arrived, the restaurant turned into a well-oiled machine with dine-in and delivery orders going out at a quick clip.

We enjoyed our food. I was a little worried about the eggs because gooey textures are not always my favorite, but they were cooked enough that I could enjoy them with the contrast of the crunchy toast. D was happy with his French toast and especially delighted by the kopi. P’s muffin was a muffin.

After breakfast, it was time to attend to the highest-priority item on our agenda: finding P some monkeys. (P has loved monkeys since he was a toddler, and his lifelong dream has been to become a primatologist. So, over D’s grumbling, I always prioritize monkey-watching on our trips). We liberally applied sunscreen and bug spray, and then I called a Grab to take us to Thomson Nature Park. The park is part of the Central Nature Park Network a group of nature parks that abut the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, which is Singapore’s largest nature reserve. I chose Thomson for our hike because I assumed that more popular hiking spots like MacRitchie would be quite crowded on a Saturday.

I enjoyed the Grab ride to the park. It gave us an opportunity to locate the metro station that had so eluded us the night before and see the preparations for Singapore’s National Day that were going on near Marina Bay. Our driver dropped us right at the main entrance to Thomson Nature Park. We did a quick study of the trail map and then made our way towards the Langur and Macaque Trails.

I am pleased to report that the monkeys complied with the park’s signage. As soon as we stepped onto the Macaque Trail, we saw some movement in the bushes and D located a family of macaques. We spent some time taking photos of the monkeys, which were close enough to watch, but not so close as to be too close for comfort. After visiting with our primate friends, we hiked a bit more to explore the ruins of the Hainanese village that formerly stood on the site of the park.

On our way out of the park, as we stopped to take some pictures at the park entrance, one of the park caretakers approached to ask if P was interested in wildlife. We said, “yes,” and he used one of his brooms to carefully move tree branches revealing some snakes taking their morning snoozes. All in all, we had an excellent experience at Thomson Nature Park. It’s a small park, easily enjoyed in 1-2 hours, but it packs a lot of interesting things into a small area. Plus, it has a caretaker willing to go out of his way to make sure kids can enjoy the local fauna.

We finished with our hike around 11 am, so we decided to head directly to lunch. I called another Grab, and, after a wait of about 20 minutes, we were on our way to Little India. Our destination was Gokul-Raas, another vegetarian restaurant serving vegetarian versions of local dishes. Happily, Gokul showed no signs of winding up its business operations. Indeed, the menu was so large that we had trouble narrowing things down. We ordered vegan chicken 65 (meatless chicken in a spicy batter), rojak, meatless mutton rendang, butter chicken, naan, and roti. It was way too much food, but we made every effort to eat it.

After lunch, I had planned to walk around Little Indian. But when we waddled out of Gokul, we decided to instead head back to the Pan Pacific for a rest and swim before our evening plans. We took the metro back to the Pan Pacific and walked back to the hotel without incident. There really is no need to cross any streets if you simply come out the door nearest the Pan Pacific when exiting the metro.

Our plan to nap first and then swim failed because we hadn’t hit the “please make up room” button. Instead, we swam first while our room was being cleaned and then lazed about in our room. Forgetting to ask for housekeeping became a theme for the trip. So, definitely look for a make up room button at your hotel if you are traveling in Singapore or Australia.

That evening, we had dinner at Ce La Vi restaurant, which sits atop tower 3 of Marina Bay Sands. When I asked P and D what they wanted to do in Singapore, I was very surprised to learn that going to the top of Marina Bay Sands was high on their list – particularly because none of us is a fan of heights. I was also vaguely annoyed about devoting an evening to MBS because I would have preferred to explore areas of Singapore that we had not yet seen. It turns out that P and D were right on this one and I was wrong.

Our dinner at Ce La Vi was excellent. The food and service were both exceptional. While there are not that many vegetarian options on the menu, the options they had were delicious. I particularly enjoyed the miso eggplant. We were also lucky to have perfect weather, which meant that we could sit in the outdoor area with panoramic views of the city. Finally, because we were there on a Saturday in late July, we were able to watch the National Day Rehearsals during our meal. That meant that we were treated to military aircraft flyovers and a fireworks show after dark.

The whole dining experience took about 2.5 hours, and it was magical. It was also quite expensive. All of the money we saved by staying at the Pan Pacific and then some went towards the meal. In short, D and P were right to insist on dining at the top of MBS. By the end of dinner, P was flagging, so we called it a day as soon as the last firework lit up the sky. It had been a wonderful day.

Australia 2025 Trip Report: Days 0-2

July 16-18, 2025: Travel to and Arrival in Singapore (Author: J)

The pre-trip logistics for this trip were somewhat more complicated than usual. In addition to our flights on Singapore Airlines, we had two flights on budget airlines. Those airlines, JetStar and Scoot, both have combined weight limits for your carryon bag and personal item. As long-time carryon only travelers, we are used to packing light. But a 10kg per person limit for a trip that includes both tropical and cooler destinations posed a challenge we had not faced before.

Our usual method of fitting everything in a carryon is to pack for a 1-week trip and do sink laundry as we go. For this trip, D and P packed 4 short sleeve shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a flannel for layering, 2 pairs of shorts, and 2 pairs of pants. I packed 5 short sleeve shirts, a button down and a cardigan for layering, and a sundress. We each packed 7 days’ worth of socks and undies, a warm jacket, a sun hat, a winter hat, a dressy outfit, sandals, and lightweight dress shoes. We also cut back on the toiletries we packed, bringing only 1 tube of items like sunscreen and bugspray that I usually pack 2 of.

Even with all that cutting back, we each had about 12 kg of total luggage. (My last pre-trip errand was purchasing a real luggage scale to confirm our status as light packing failures). Although my pre-trip YouTube viewing had been replete with videos suggesting ways to avoid overweight fees by cleverly secreting items upon your person, we decided a more reasonable option was to just hope that no one weighed our bags. If they did, we would have to pay to check one of them. Not as much fun as fastening a neck pillow out of undershorts, I know. But we were happy with our plan.

By mid-morning, we had said goodbye to our cat and started the drive to New Jersey. We arrived at my parents’ house in time for a late lunch and an uneventful afternoon of sitting around their house. The following morning, my dad drove us to Newark Airport. Because we had checked-in online and had no bags to check, we were able to proceed directly to security.

We were at the gate about 2 hours before our flight. The terminal that Singapore Airlines uses in Newark is, unfortunately, boring as can be. There are a handful of restaurants, a few airport newsstands, and that’s about it. There are only so many times that you can do a loop of the airport to admire the newsstand mint selection, so we wound up spending most of the time leading up to our 18-hour flight sitting near the gate.

Singapore Airlines flights SQ 21 and 22 use specially designed Airbus A350-900 ultralong-haul planes that have about 1/3 fewer seats than their regular long-haul planes. This apparently makes the A350-900ULR light enough to fly halfway around the world without a refueling stop. To make the flight economically feasible to operate, the plane only has business and premium economy classes. The upshot of all of this is that boarding goes quickly.

The premium economy cabin has a 2-4-2 seat configuration except for the last few rows. Those have a 1-4-1 seat configuration. The single seats have a little storage bin next to them, which adds a bit more legroom because you don’t need to store your personal item under the seat in front of you. When we flew SQ 21 and 22 in 2022, we chose to sit next to each other, with 2 of us near the window and 1 on the aisle in the middle of the plane. P and I found the arrangement comfortable enough, but D struggled to sleep with an aisle on one side and a stranger on the other. For this trip, I decided on a small splurge and paid $100 extra for D to sit in one of the single seats in the back of the plane. By the time I decided to pay for this upgrade, the 2 seats in front of D were booked, so P and I sat several rows in front of him.

In 2022, Covid rules and low demand meant that service was a little different than “normal,” so I was excited to get the full longest flight in the world experience. It began before our flight when we were able to select our meals using the “book the cook” feature. If you have special dietary needs like we do, you can set special dietary meals as your default and then modify individual meals to select book the cook. However, the side dishes for book the cook meals will not necessarily meet your dietary needs. On our flights, the sides included shellfish, gluten, and dairy, so anyone with food allergies should probably avoid book the cook. P and I are vegetarians for ethical reasons, so we were willing to risk booking one book the cook meal each.

Also back were hot towels upon boarding, and a post-takeoff drink service with wine, champagne, beer, cocktails, and soft drinks. (All of these drinks were available in 2022, but the crew minimized contact with passengers by limiting in-aisle service. That meant that there was bottled water waiting in each seat at boarding and drinks weren’t served until the first meal service). During this initial drink service, the crew also came around the cabin to check in with folks who had ordered special meals to confirm our dietary needs.

As we flew north towards the Canadian Maritimes, I reclined my seat, extended my leg rest, and started my first movie with a glass of champagne in hand. Things were off to a comfortable start. Before long, our first meal of the flight was delivered. I had a vegetarian eggplant meatball option through book the cook. It was served with a shrimp salad, a roll, cheese and crackers, and a dessert. P had the lacto-ovo vegetarian meal, which had a mozzarella, tomato, and greens salad, a roll, cheese and crackers, a vegetable and grain dish, and a dessert. D had ordered the Indian vegetarian meal, which he ate without providing any details for this trip report. This would have been a decent meal on land; by airline standards it was excellent. One of the cabin crew even came by to offer P an alternative meal option after noticing untouched items on his tray.

After dinner, I watched another movie. Then, I washed up for bed, taking advantage of the toothbrush kits in the bathroom. Even in my aisle seat, I was able to get about 7 hours of fitful sleep thanks to the generous recline and leg rest. 9 hours down, 9 to go. I passed the rest of the flight watching movies, reading, eating 2 more meals (a snack of pizza and a lacto-ovo veg meal very similar to the one that P had received as his first meal), and walking back and forth to the bathroom – because where else is there to go on a plane.

Despite the length of the flight, the only time that I felt restless was when we encountered turbulence towards the end of the flight. While the turbulence was relatively mild, it seemed to go on and on. As a nervous flyer who may or may not have extensively researched turbulence related injuries before our flight, I was impressed with the safety precautions the captain took, including briefly suspending service to ensure crew safety. While service was suspended, the captain made several announcements reminding everyone to remain seated. This frightened P, who assumed the announcements were a forecast of worse to come. From my vantage point in the aisle, I was able to see that each of the announcements was prompted by someone on the plane ignoring the seatbelt sign to go to the bathroom. (I did tell P this, of course, but aerophobia doesn’t always respond to logic).

18 and ½ hours after taking off in Newark, we landed at Singapore’s Changi Airport. With the time difference, it was now approximately 5pm on Friday, July 18. Disembarkation was efficient, and we were soon thanking the cabin crew and walking down the jetway.

Immigration in Singapore is now even more efficient than it was in 2022. If you have already submitted your arrival card, you can proceed to gates where you scan your own passport. I arrived at the gates with P and D behind me and quickly proceeded through. It was at this point that I realized that D had also cleared the gates, leaving P struggling to figure out how to properly scan his passport. The immigration officials would not let me move back towards P to help him, so I was left ineffectually shouting instructions from 6 feet away. (Incidentally, the immigration officials would prefer you don’t do this). P eventually figured out that reading the instructions on the gate was a good idea, scanned his passport, and reunited with us.

It’s about a 20-minute taxi ride from Changi to the Pan Pacific Marina Square, our hotel for this trip. We chose it because, unlike some other 5-star hotels near Marina Bay, the Pan Pacific considers a 12-year-old to be a child. We therefore saved a “3^rd adult fee” of approximately $100 per night by staying there. We hit a bit of a snag at check-in because the hotel did not have a record of the room request I had made; however, they quickly fixed the issue and moved us to a room with two beds.

Our room category was a deluxe twin, which – much to our relief — had two beds that would be considered double beds here in the US, and not twins. Overall, the room was a bit tired, but it was well-designed with everything we needed for our stay. Indeed, there were so many hidden cubbies that I didn’t find the one with extra pillows until I was checking for stray items as we packed up to check out. My favorite feature of the room was the mango scented shampoo and conditioner provided in the rain-style shower. It has my pick for best shampoo of the trip.

After getting cleaned up, we headed out for our dinner reservation at Clover in Kampong Glam. I pulled Google Maps up on my phone and entered the restaurant’s address. Then we started walking. I quickly realized that Google Maps assumed that we knew where the metro station was. The first part of the directions simply said, “go to Promenade Metro Station.” I set our new destination as Promenade Metro Station, and we were back in business. The only problem was that a multi-lane street with no crosswalk lay between us and the station. After multiple ineffectual efforts to find a way up to the 2^nd story pedestrian bridge over the intersection, we made a mad dash across the street and took the escalator down to the metro.

We had an easier time finding our way from the metro to the restaurant, largely because Kampong Glam is much more walkable than Marina Square. Kampong Glam, Singapore’s old Muslim-Malay quarter, is one of the neighborhoods we didn’t visit on our last trip. Folks on the Tripadvisor Singapore forums recommended it as a nice neighborhood to walk around in the evening, and I was delighted to find a vegetarian restaurant serving local Singapore specialties in the neighborhood.

What I did not realize was that Clover was in the process of closing. And they were winding down their business by slowly selling off the food in their fridges without replenishing anything. We arrived at Clover to find a few tables in an unairconditioned foyer, a menu of the restaurant’s 4 or 5 worst selling items (with other items crossed out), and a drink menu that consisted of tap water (number of glasses – your choice!). It was a bit of a disappointment, but our jetlagged brains didn’t have the ability to formulate a new plan. We ate what they had and hit the streets to explore.

Kampong Glam is a lovely neighborhood of historic shophouses that would be fun to explore at any time. On a Friday night, it was buzzing with people out enjoying the evening and restaurant-workers touting their establishments. Though the many no-touting signs in the neighborhood suggest to me that touting may be illegal, I quite enjoyed our interactions. It felt more like a warm, friendly welcome than hard-selling tactics. While we weren’t in the market for a second dinner, we did have some teh tarik and Turkish ice cream as we wandered. “I think it was worth coming here even though dinner wasn’t great,” I said hopefully.

Soon enough, we were exhausted and ready to head back to our hotel. We easily found the metro and made the short trip back to Promenade. At this point, the night took another turn. The Promenade stop has multiple exits and we weren’t sure which one to choose. Google maps was no help, so I suggested that we exit towards Suntec City Mall, which is connected to the Pan Pacific. What followed was a 1-hour slog through one of Singapore’s largest malls. At one point, we did succeed in following a shop keeper’s directions to the bridge that connects Suntec to the Pan Pacific – but we took a wrong turn somewhere and wound up at a different hotel.

Faced with the prospect of beginning a new life as itinerant mall-dwellers, we decided to go back outside where we found ourselves once again separated from the Pan Pacific by multiple lanes of traffic.

“We’re going to have to make a run for it,” D said.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” P asked.

“It’s definitely not safe,” I said. “We could be hit by a car, or, worse, banned from Singapore for jaywalking.”

“I’m not going back into that mall,” D said.

“We can’t go back. We’ll never escape,” P agreed. So, please forgive us people of Singapore, but we made a run for it.

We were sweaty and barely standing by the time we made it back inside the Pan Pacific. I headed straight for the Concierge and explained our plight. He pulled out a tourist map and patiently drew a route to the metro station. Had we simply made a left out of the Pan Pacific driveway instead of a right, we would have found a metro entrance a half-block away – no street crossing or malls required. Just for fun, he also drew me a route to Suntec via a 2^nd story pedestrian bridge.

As we were getting ready for bed that night P asked, “Do you think tomorrow will be better?”

“Yes,” I said without a moment’s hesitation.

Australia 2025 Trip Report

July 17-August 6, 2025

Earlier this month, we returned from a 20-night trip to Australia via Singapore. As in my previous trip reports, “we” is me, a 40-something professor; my husband, D, a 40-something teacher/pet sitter; and P, our 12-year-old son. It tends to take me a while to finish these trip reports, so I will start with an overview of the trip and some general thoughts. Then, I will add each day of the report as I write it.

Itinerary

Day 0 – drive to New Jersey

Day 1 – Singapore Airlines flight 21 from Newark to Singapore, one of the longest flights in the world

Days 2 -4 – Stopover in Singapore staying at the Pan Pacific Marina Square

Day 5 – flight to Sydney on Scoot

Days 6-9 – Sydney, staying at the Intercontinental

Day 10 – flight to Yulara

Days 11-12 – Uluru & Kata Tjuta

Day 13 – Bus to Alice Springs

Day 14 – Alice Springs and Kangaroo Sanctuary

Day 15 – Board Ghan train to Darwin

Day 16 – travel on Ghan, arriving in Darwin around 8 pm

Days 17-19 – Darwin staying at the Vibe

Day 20 – flight home on Singapore Airlines with a layover in Singapore

Why travel via Singapore?

If you are looking for the most direct way to travel from Boston to Sydney, driving to New Jersey for a flight to Singapore isn’t it. So, why this flight route? The short answer is that we flew flights SQ 21 and 22 in 2022 and enjoyed them. The longer answer is that there’s really no comparison between the level of service on Singapore Airlines and any US-based airline.

In 2024, we had a particularly bad experience flying Delta, the airline that offered the most direct route to Australia. The seats were so uncomfortable that we were not able to sleep at all for the entire overnight flight, the vegetarian meal was literally unseasoned white rice – and just white rice, and the customer service was offered with the apparently-standard attitude of US-based airlines that “you’re lucky we even allowed you lot to buy a ticket for this plane.” In comparison, Singapore Airlines offers comfortable premium economy seats, exceptional customer service, and multiple hot meals that actually taste good. And our premium economy tickets cost less than economy seats on a Delta flight to Sydney.

To illustrate how much Singapore Airlines cares about customer service, in 2022, I completed a survey about my experience on our flight. I rated everything excellent. In the comments section, I asked them to consider offering ice cream to those who order special meals because it was only offered to those with standard meals on our flight. Within a day, I received a phone call apologizing for this deprivation. In contrast, when I suggested that Delta consider serving actual meals to vegetarians, I was told that I should know better than to expect food on a flight and it was on me to buy something in the airport before boarding.

So, why Singapore Airlines? The better question is why did I spend even a minute considering the Delta flight.

Why this itinerary? (Or why didn’t you visit the Great Barrier Reef?)

When putting together this trip, I first considered the weather. We were hoping to avoid both extreme heat and real winter weather (snow, gloom, etc.). Sydney was a must see for me. From there, I added Uluru – a place I had long wanted to see that is best visited in winter. Darwin made the list because it was on the way back to Singapore. From there, the task was to figure out how to string these locations together with minimal flights. That’s how I discovered the Ghan as a travel option. Booking it necessitated traveling to Alice Springs, so our itinerary was set. We skipped the reef – something that shocked many Australians we spoke with – for the simple reason that it would have required 2 additional flights.

Why the fixation on avoiding flights? We really don’t like flying. D and I have always been afraid of flying, and P developed a new fear of flights after all of the bad news about planes over the past year or so. Skipping the Great Barrier Reef meant that two days of our vacation that would have been fairly miserable for us were instead spent happily enjoying Australia.

Overall thoughts on trip and itinerary

We loved Singapore when we visited in 2022, and we loved in just as much the second time. We’ve now spent a total of 8 nights there, and there is still a ton we haven’t gotten to see and do. I don’t think we would stay at the Pan Pacific again because we didn’t love the neighborhood. (After staying on the river at the Fullerton during our first trip, being essentially in a shopping mall was a bit of a letdown.) But we are already looking for another opportunity to return to Singapore.

We also loved Australia. During our trip we enjoyed excellent food, met lots of friendly people, and saw amazing landscapes and wildlife. The itinerary we chose might not be for everyone, but it worked well for us. We prefer to take it slow and see the sights at a leisurely place – even if it means we can’t see everything. So, skipping some of the big-ticket sights like the reef in favor of a route with less internal travel was the right choice for us. Hopefully, we will have an opportunity to visit Australia again and see some of what we missed.

General Tips

I recommend looking into transportation options before booking hotels, especially if you are going to more remote places. Just because there is a plane, bus, or train between two locations doesn’t mean it runs every day.
Also check availability for any tours or activities that are must-sees for you before finalizing your itinerary. Two of tours that we did (a day trip to Kangaroo Valley, and the Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs) don’t run every day. So, we mapped out our itinerary based upon a combination of the transportation schedule and the schedule for these two tours.
I had multiple fellow-Americans tell me that Australia is really expensive. It’s certainly more expensive than travelling in some parts of the world, but we found that it wasn’t any more expensive than travelling in the US. (Don’t forget to account for the exchange rate and the fact that there is no tipping when looking at prices). That was particularly true for things we booked in advance. When we were in Uluru, for example, the cost for a room at Sails in the Desert popped up on my phone – and it was 2x what we paid for the same room by booking it a year in advance.
The instructions on the e-Visa app for scanning US passports are incorrect. Look up where to find the chip in your passport before starting the application, and save yourself a headache.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip

As is probably apparent from my long hiatus, I decided to stop blogging about our US National Parks road trip. I write this blog because it’s fun for me and hopefully helps other travelers from time to time. Given the recent cuts to funding for our National Park Service and efforts to censor the history that can be told at these sights, I was no longer finding any joy in writing about this trip. And I suspect that my experiences in 2024 are not an accurate reflection of what traveling to these parks is like now. I’ve thus abandoned this trip report and will be starting a new report about our recent trip to Australia soon.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip 2024 – Day 6

Charlotte, NC to Columbia, SC – Monday, July 28, 2024 (Author: J)

Several of the major attractions in Columbia are closed on Mondays. I didn’t anticipate this being a problem because we planned to visit Congaree on our only full day in Columbia. But as I mentioned in Day 5 of the trip report, we scrapped that plan and visited Congaree on Sunday due to predicted rain. So, when we woke up on Monday, the second order of business (after more instant oatmeal) was figuring out what to do with ourselves.

The weather forecast for the day now called for showers instead of downpours, so we decided to risk an outdoor activity. From the Hilton, it was a short drive to the Columbia Canal and Riverfront Park. The park has several miles of walking trails along the river and canal.

The first thing that we noticed about the park was how very Southern it looked — from the vegetation to the historic waterworks buildings. The second thing we noticed was that the humidity was back. Withing minutes of leaving the car, we were sweating. We still managed to enjoy our walk by keeping a slow pace and turning back when P started to get testy.

Our next stop was the University of South Carolina. The University’s McKissick Museum has permanent collections on natural history, culture, and decorative arts. More importantly, it is open on Mondays. When we arrived at the university, we were welcomed by a member of the museum staff who chatted with us about our trip and gave us an overview of the current exhibits. The highlights for us were a display of presidential campaign memorabilia and an exhibit on the logging and furniture making industries in South Carolina and their connection to the founding of Congaree National Park. Seeing the latter just a day after visiting Congaree drove home how miraculous it is that the park still exists in its untouched state. The McKissick Museum isn’t large. We saw what there was to see in under 2 hours. That timing was perfect because we were done by lunchtime.

Lumber company scrip (company currency issued as pay to employees)

At the Fireflies game the previous evening, we had received coupons for discounted meal combos as Rebel Dogs, a hotdog place. My first instinct was to pitch the coupons because I assumed they would be useless to us. (If I haven’t yet mentioned it, P and I are vegetarians and D is pescatarian). However, I decided to check the Rebel Dogs menu before throwing out the coupons. I was surprised to see that they had a menu that catered to a variety of different dietary needs from vegan to gluten-free. So, after the museum, we headed to Rebel Dogs with coupons in hand.

D and I ordered pimento chili cheese dog combos with meatless dogs and meatless chili. P had a plain veggie dog. The combos came with a choice of sides and drinks from a drink station that let you mix and match lemonade, sweet tea, and fruit punch. It was a fun, tasty, and reasonably priced meal.

By the time we finished our hotdogs, the forecasted rain had started. We ran back to the car and returned to the hotel to wait out the storm. We didn’t have long to wait. After a lobby reading break (while we waited for housekeeping to freshen our room), we returned to our room and peeked out the window to find clear skies. For P, clear skies meant just one thing: swim time.

After pool time, our thoughts turned once again to food. Monday is a popular day for restaurants in Columbia to close, so our options were somewhat limited. We ultimately decided to visit the Columbia location of Mellow Mushroom, a pizza chain founded in Atlanta. The primary appeal (other than pizza) was that Mellow Mushroom was a short walk from the Hilton on Gervais Street. Gervais Street runs through Congaree Vista, a historic industrial neighborhood that was redeveloped in the 1990s without compromising the area’s historic character. Unlike the sleepy street the Hilton sits on, Gervais Street was jumping. We were still seated at the Mellow Mushroom immediately, though, mostly because not many people eat dinner at barely 5pm.

We enjoyed the Mellow Mushroom. It had comfy seats, a nice drink menu, and pizza that was good enough for my New Jersey tastebuds. (We also had some salad because pizza and hotdogs does not a day of balanced eating make). As we finished our pizza, we debated ordering dessert, but my gut told me we could do better than Mellow Mushroom’s limited menu. I asked Google Maps to find me some ice cream. That’s how I learned we were just a block from a dessert café called Kaminsky’s.

At Kaminsky’s, we were again seated immediately. D and I shared a slice of Hummingbird Cake, a pineapple spice cake with cream cheese frosting. P had cheesecake. Then we waddled back to the Hilton to watch the Olympics before bed. It had been another good day. Unlike some places I have visited, I didn’t fall in love with Columbia at first sight. Once I took the time to explore, though, the city won me over.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip 2024 – Day 5

Cyprus trees and their knees (roots that protrude up from the ground as little points) at Congaree National Park

Charlotte, NC to Columbia, SC – Sunday, July 27, 2024 (Author: J)

I was up before the rest of my family as usual, so I used the opportunity to visit the Ballantyne’s fitness center for a short workout. By the time I had finished my workout and gotten ready for the day, D and P were up. We packed up and then headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, which was included in our room rate.

The Ballantyne serves weekend brunch in its Gallery Restaurant. The restaurant has a classy, casual vibe and serves elevated versions of standard American breakfast fare, e.g., not just French toast, Fancy French Toast. The meal started with a pastry basket. For our mains, I had the French toast special (pear and cream), P had pancakes, and D had the crab cake benedict. How do I remember everyone’s meal orders 6 months later? It’s because P and D are very repetitive in their ordering patterns. The food was delicious. It turned out that “breakfast included in package” meant that we received a $75 credit to spend on breakfast. The credit just about covered the meal; we wound up paying a portion of the tip out of pocket.

After breakfast, it was time to check out and head to the grocery store to restock our picnic supplies. D vetoed stopping at the Harris Teeter near the hotel, and insisted we drive a bit further to shop at Food Lion because it had a “better name.” I rolled my eyes and went along with it. At Food Lion, we purchased fruit, cheese, bread, and chips. Then, we continued our journey south.

As we were driving, I checked the weather in Columbia and saw that rain was predicted the following day – the day we had planned to visit Congaree National Park. We decided to reroute and head directly to the park to take advantage of the dry weather.

The drive from Charlotte to Congaree is just over two hours. Before too long, we were crossing into South Carolina and D was shouting, “Holy s*!+.” I looked up from the weather report to see a tremendous Confederate flag billowing over the highway. Holy s*!+, indeed.

Congaree National Park was established to preserve one of the last remaining tracts of old growth bottomland hardwood forest in the United States. At about 11,000 hectares, it is one of the smaller national parks. And despite its proximity to a state capital, it is one of the less visited national parks. In my pre-trip research, I learned that it is also one of the more reviled national parks; indeed, we were warned against visiting in the summer because of the humidity and mosquitoes.

I am glad we ignored the negative reviews because we really enjoyed the park. While the other 4 parks we visited on this trip are undeniably amazing, they all have very similar habitats with similar fauna and flora. Congaree was something totally different. (It certainly helped that we visited on a summer day that somehow had low humidity and few mosquitoes).

The famous Mosquito Meter offers good news.

We began our visit with a picnic in the parking lot. It was nicer than it sounds. The lot is in a wooded area with lots of shaded picnic tables to choose from. After lunch, we changed into long pants (in the restroom) and generously applied insect repellant. We were then ready for a hike.

The most popular hike in the park is the Boardwalk Trail, a 2.6-mile loop that starts near the Visitor Center. It’s just the right length for getting a taste of the park without inducing too much whining from children, so I knew it was the right trail for us. We picked up a guide for the trail at the visitor center and started our hike. Along the way, we saw an interesting variety of wildlife, including water birds, turtles, and racoons. The trail guide that we picked up helped us to also appreciate the plants that we were seeing, which really are what makes the park special. There are markers along the trail that indicate points of interest. They match up to entries in the trail guide that explain what you are looking at.

As we approached the end of our hike, we heard the distinctive grunting of a pig. Wild boars are not native to Congaree, but they have invaded the park in recent years. Indeed, the park was closed to camping while we were visiting for several nights of hunting to try to reduce the boar population. We got excited and followed the grunts. They led us to … a guy wearing a speaker around his neck that played boar sounds. I don’t know if he was there to entice the boars ahead of the hunt or to disappoint tourists who were hoping for a glimpse of a hog. He certainly succeeded at the latter.

more wildlife along the trail and some Cypress knees

After our hike, we spent a bit of time in the small museum in the Visitor Center. Then, we purchased our magnet and ornament and made our way back to the car. Before too long, we were arriving in downtown Columbia and checking into the Hilton.

My initial reaction to the Hilton was confusion. The hotel advertised itself as “downtown,” but the neighborhood seemed almost deserted. And the low, industrial buildings that surrounded the hotel didn’t match my expectations of “downtown” anywhere. Wrapping my head around downtown Columbia would have to wait, though. We had tickets to a Columbia Fireflies game.

We changed out of our hiking gear and piled back in the car for the 10-minute drive to Segra Park. Attending a minor league baseball game was another suggestion that we took from the Tripadvisor Road Trip forum. We weren’t able to see the Rocket City Trash Pandas in Huntsville because they were on the road during our visit to town, so we chose to see the Fireflies instead.

We don’t go to many sporting events, so the restrictions on carrying bags into Segra Park came as a surprise. The little paperback novel sized bag that I brought to carry my phone and wallet was slightly over the size limit. However, the security guys let me off with a promise to invest in a clear bag for future games, and we made it to our seats behind home plate before the first pitch was thrown.

This evening, the Fireflies were playing the Lynchburg Hillcats. Though some members of our family felt that Lynchburg had the better mascot, we agreed that rooting for the home team was the right call. P went so far as browsing the Fireflies jerseys, but he ultimately decided against making such a pricey purchase.

I wasn’t sure how P would feel about minor league baseball after attending a major league game earlier in the summer. (I know that I said I don’t go to a lot of sporting events, and that’s true. It just so happened that P and I saw our first major league game and our first minor league game in the same month). The good news is that P enjoyed the minor league game almost as much as rooting for the Red Sox. The ability to sit right behind home plate and the antics of Fly Guys, who show off their dance moves while grooming the field, compensated for the weak pitching. Both teams did have some very solid hitters, which led to a high scoring game that went into extra innings. P gets very invested in the team he is rooting for, so it was a great relief when the Fireflies clinched a win in the 10^th.

When the game ended, we speed walked back to our car in a successful bid to beat any traffic leaving the park. Back at the Hilton, we squeezed in a swim in the hotel’s outdoor pool before heading to bed.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip 2024 – Day 4

Shenandoah National Park to Charlotte – Saturday, July 26, 2024 (Author: J)

Because of the bizarre aerobics of our nocturnal upstairs neighbors, we woke up on Saturday happy to check out of Skylands and start our journey to our next national park. Congaree National Park is about an 8-hour drive from Shenandoah, so we spread the journey out over two days. But we still had a 6-hour drive ahead of us, so we wasted no time packing and hitting the road.

We turned in our keys, bought some overpriced lattes (and our traditional souvenirs – an ornament and magnet) at the Skylands Visitor Center, and continued driving south along Skyline Drive. Even though it was now the official weekend, there weren’t many cars on the road. That meant we could stop off at a few more viewpoints as we made our way through the park. We exited at the Swift Run Gap entrance. This put us on the most direct route to the Carolinas but meant that we did not explore the southern 3^rd of Skyline Drive.

It took a little over four hours to reach our first planned stop of the day – the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. We learned about the zoo via the recommendation of a poster on the Tripadvisor road trip forums. (Their advice was along the lines of, “If you insist on going through with your silly plan to skip the Blue Ridge Parkway, then you can stop at the North Carolina Zoo.”) The zoo advertises itself as the largest natural habitat zoo in the US. Its exhibits on North American and African wildlife are spread across 500 acres, with animal habitats set in the natural landscape. The whole concept sounded like it was right up our alley. Once we learned that the zoo was part of the reciprocal admission program with our local science museum, stopping was an easy choice.

As we approached the zoo, we debated whether to start in North America or Africa. That turned out to be a moot question. If you arrive at the zoo in the afternoon, the North America lots will be full, and you will park near Africa. After some initial confusion when we presented our out-of-state museum card, we received our admission tickets and entered the zoo. (If you are doing a US road trip, it’s worth checking whether your local museums and zoos offer reciprocal admission. The free and discounted admissions we got with our museum pass on this trip were enough to cover the cost of the annual membership).

The Africa section of the North Carolina Zoo

A summer afternoon is not the ideal time to visit the North Carolina Zoo. A visit entails a lot of walking – something that poses a challenge in the summer heat and humidity, even on the zoo’s well-shaded paths. We explored most of Africa and then decided to take a tram to North America to cut down on walking. Unfortunately, everyone else who had entered the zoo that afternoon had the same brilliant idea. The line was long. The trams were slow to arrive. We soon regretted our decision. When 20 minutes of waiting hadn’t put us much closer to the front of the line, we gave up and started walking.

P’s energy flagged before we reached the first exhibit, a glass-domed building full of desert plants and animals. We agreed that we would peek inside and then head back to our car to finish our drive. The desert exhibit turned out to be a highlight for us. It had free-flying birds, interesting reptiles, and adorable sand cats. After seeing how well-done the desert was, I was a little disappointed to miss the exhibits on local Carolina wildlife. I consoled myself with the knowledge that we would have the opportunity to see some of the same animals in their natural habitat at our next national park.

From the zoo, it was only about a 90-minute drive to the Ballantyne, our hotel in Charlotte. (Although Asheboro was the halfway point in our drive to Columbia, I decided we would push on to Charlotte because it had a broader range of accommodations and restaurants).

The Ballantyne was our favorite hotel of the trip. However, it was also the most expensive hotel of the trip. So, although we got what we paid for, we also paid for what we got. The hotel sits in a neighborhood of the same name on the outskirts of Charlotte. It sits next to “The Bowl,” a redevelopment project that converted a corporate park into a mixed-use project with a lovely park, restaurants, shops, and apartments. It was a great place for a one-night stopover because everything we needed was a short walk from our hotel.

As we were approaching Charlotte, I put our name on the online waiting list for Postino, one of the restaurants in the Bowl. Postino, a chain with locations in the South and on the West Coast, specializes in bruschetta and cheeseboards. It was quite popular on a Saturday night, so we had plenty of time to check in, get cleaned up, and relax in our room before we made it to the top of the waitlist. Once we were in the top 5, we made the short walk to the restaurant so that we wouldn’t miss our table. D and I shared an assortment of bruschetta, a cheese board, some crispy cauliflower, and some sweet potato wedges. P got the kids grilled cheese board. It was too much food, but we did our best to eat it. After dinner we returned to the hotel, where we had a swim in the beautiful indoor pool before turning in for the night.

Overall, we really enjoyed our little peek at Charlotte. It certainly beat my trip to Charlotte earlier in the month, when I was stranded at the airport during the global IT outage. We would consider revisiting to see more of the city.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip 2024 – Day 3

Shenandoah National Park – Friday, July 25, 2024 (Author: J)

After a fitful night of sleep in our vibrating room at Skylands, I woke up to a beautiful morning in Shenandoah. The park recommends keeping food locked in your car to discourage late night bear raids of your room, so my first order of business was heading to the car for breakfast. Our breakfast provisions were an assortment of individually wrapped muffins and donuts, instant oatmeal and cream of wheat in disposable cups, juice, and fruit. I carried a selection of items back to the room, used the hotel coffee pot to make coffee and some hot water for my oatmeal, and went out on our balcony to enjoy my breakfast.

The private balconies overlooking the valley are, without a doubt, the best feature of the hotel style rooms at Skylands. I had a peaceful breakfast with my dining companion, a cute little bird who was apparently accustomed to receiving handouts from tourists. Unfortunately for him, I don’t share food with birds – or anyone else for that matter. By the time I was done with breakfast, P and D were up and about. We decided that we would make our way to the Big Meadows area to see the Visitor Center there and maybe join a guided hike.

For anyone who is not familiar with Shenandoah, the park is long and narrow. Skyline Drive runs the length of the park. If you enter the park from the North, as we did, then Skylands is the first lodging area you will pass. But the second major lodging area, Big Meadows, is only about 10 miles further down Skyline Drive. Even driving slowly and stopping at outlooks along the way, it didn’t take us long to reach the Byrd Visitor Center at Big Meadows.

The exhibits at the Byrd Visitor Center focus on the history and development of the park. D was quite taken with the display on Herbert Hoover, who has a retreat in the park during his presidency. Hoover is, of course, remembered as one of our worst presidents, but “if he’s good enough for Lindy, he’s good enough for me.” At least, that’s what the campaign jingle they play in the visitor center told me.

We finished with the exhibits well before the start time of the ranger guided hike of Big Meadows. Rather than wait, we decided to ask a ranger for his advice on a good day hike. He gave us suggestions for hiking to summits or waterfalls. We made what, in hindsight, turned out to be an unfortunate decision to head for the water.

Given the amount of time that has passed since our trip, I no longer remember the name of the hiking trail that we selected. I do know that it was between Skylands and Big Meadow, so we backtracked to reach it. I also know that – after parking – we crossed the road to the trailhead.

Our hike started out pleasantly enough. It was an easy downhill hike on a shady trail. Because it was early in the day, there were relatively few people on the trail with us. Things took a turn when we reached a stream. D went down by the water to sit on a rock – something that he does as a matter of course whenever he sees water on a hike. P and I stopped for a moment to examine a hitchhiking bumble bee that had climbed into P’s pocket and was steadfastly refusing to leave. One minute we were laughing, the next P was screaming like he was being murdered.

“What’s wrong!” I screamed.

“He bit me! He bit me!” P shrieked in reply.

“I don’t think bumble bees bite.”

“Not! The! Bee!” P shrieked again as a second black fly bit his hand.

It took some time to calm P down, a feat made more challenging by my own panic (spurred not out of concern, but rather fear over what other hikers would think of my hysterical child screaming “No, don’t hurt me!” on the trail). In the ensuing panic, D was also attacked by black flies. We did eventually convince P that he would have to hike back to the car on his own power. And once he got going, he really went. We made it to the road in no time.

At the top of the trail were two barrier poles with a metal chain between them, presumably designed to prevent cars from driving onto the trail. P and I walked around the poles. D decided he would go over the chain. His first foot made it over without incident. The second foot caught on the chain and D pitched forward. D has a real talent for falling; his head has been in contact with the ground on multiple continents! This time, though, he caught himself with his hands.

“Why didn’t you go AROUND the poles!”

“Mom, why are you sympathetic when I fall, but mad when Dad falls?”

“I, uh, let’s just cross the street. Please no one get hit by a car.”

Back at the car, as I used our first aid kit to bandage P’s bitten finger and D’s bloody hands, I realized that we hadn’t even managed to find a waterfall.

It was now lunchtime, so we drove back to Big Meadows for a picnic of peanut butter sandwiches and potato chips. Then, we returned to our room to recover from our morning’s misadventures. It wasn’t until late afternoon that P agreed to another hike on the condition that we go somewhere with no water in a several mile radius. We drove to the Stony Man Trail (which is walking distance from Skylands).

The Stony Man Trail is a 1.6-mile hike to a scenic overlook. It’s a popular trail, but we had no trouble finding parking because those who had started their hikes just after lunch were leaving as we arrived. The trail was crowded, but not enough to detract from the hiking experience. More importantly, no injuries were sustained on this hike. Indeed, it was not until we returned to Skylands for dinner that D took his next tumble. How he managed to fall on the smooth paved trail between our room and the restaurant is beyond me. However, because his hands were already bandaged, his new injuries from the second fall were minor.

After dinner in the dining room, we went to a ranger talk in the Skylands amphitheater. It was a slideshow about nocturnal wildlife. In keeping with the theme, an owl and a group of bats fluttered around the amphitheater as the talk started. After learning about the sounds of Shenandoah’s nocturnal creatures, we went back to our room to turn in for the night.

“I hope the elephants upstairs have checked out,” I said as I turned out the lights. As if on cue, the shaking started.

Southeast National Parks Road Trip 2024 – Day 2

Gettysburg, PA & Shenandoah National Park – Thursday, July 25, 2024 (Author: J)

Thanks to a great night’s sleep at Hotel Gettysburg (which has very comfortable beds), we woke up on Thursday refreshed and ready for more exploration. The first order of business was deciding whether to eat some of our road trip provisions or splurge on a hot breakfast. Once we realized that we were only half a block from the Lincoln Diner, our decision was made.

The Lincoln Diner is, well, a diner. And it’s a diner in the old school sense of that word: basic menu options at affordable prices. The bill for our three breakfasts – pancakes, an omelette, and an egg and cheese sandwich with juice and coffee – just barely exceeded $20. Our meal was quick and tasty, and we were soon back at the Hotel Gettysburg to complete the always tedious task of packing up. The upside of a short stay is that there isn’t much time to make a mess, so our bags were soon repacked. Then, we replenished the ice in our cooler and checked out.

The plan for the day was to explore more of the National Military Park and then continue on to Shenandoah. We decided to start at the visitor center so that our explorations would have more context. The visitor center has all the basics (maps and information, a gift shop, a cafeteria, restrooms) along with three paid attractions: a film, museum, and cyclorama. We sprang for the combo ticket that included all 3 paid attractions. It was well worth the $20.75 for adults and $15.75 for children.

We were lucky to arrive just a few minutes before the next movie screening, so we headed directly to the theater after purchasing our tickets. The movie, A New Birth of Freedom, provides a 22-minute overview of the Battle of Gettysburg and its place within the larger war. It is narrated by America’s most prolific source of fatherly-sounding voiceover work: Morgan Freeman.

After the movie, you proceed directly to the cyclorama. A cyclorama is a 360° painting. Apparently, cycloramas were popular entertainment before movies were invented. Lighting and sound effects, music, and narration were used to convert the paintings into a multi-sensory experience. The cyclorama at the visitor center is Paul Philippoteaux’s 1883 painting of Pickett’s charge on the 3^rd day of the Battle of Gettysburg. I was expecting to just look at a painting, but the cyclorama is presented with light and sound effects just as it would have been in the 1800s. You are on a platform in the middle of the painting during the show, with freedom to walk around and take in the details of the painting. I haven’t had an experience quite like it anywhere else. Together, the movie and the cyclorama provide great context for exploring the battlefield; we were glad that we decided to see them.

A soldier’s haversack, in which he wrote the names of battles in which he fought.

From the cyclorama, we proceeded into the museum. The museum covers the events leading up to the Civil War, the War (with lots of detail on the Battle of Gettysburg), and its aftermath. There are relics from the war, interpretive displays, and lots of interactive touch screens that allow you to explore things like maps and primary source documents (such as the Declarations of Causes for the Seceding States, all of which more or less say, “cause we want to keep owning other people”). I most enjoyed learning about the civilian experience during the Battle of Gettysburg. That’s where I learned about my new hero, Elizabeth Thorn, who – 6 months pregnant with 3 young children to care for – helped the Union generals scout their position for the battle by walking next to the general’s horses and pointing out places of interest.

After exploring the museum, we made an obligatory stop in the gift shop and then used the NPS App to start a driving tour of the battlefield. The app is really well done; it provides GPS directions between stops on the tour and narration at each of the stops. We made it as far as the Virginia Memorial (coincidentally the location of Pickett’s charge, shown in the cyclorama) before we decided that it was time to head towards Shenandoah. We had a quick picnic in the car, fueled up, and then continued our journey south. To my surprise, P and D had really enjoyed their time in Gettysburg. We all agreed that a day was not enough time to spend there. Hopefully, we will be able to return and give the town and Military Park the time they deserve.

Scenes from our driving tour of the battlefield.

It takes about 3 hours to drive from Gettysburg to Skylands Resort, our next homebase. In the interest of time, we made the tough call to skip a planned stop in Harper’s Ferry, but we did notice how picturesque it looked as we sped by. After about 2 hours of driving, we entered Shenandoah National Park at the top of Skyline Drive. (There are entrance booths here where you either buy a park ticket or show your pre-purchased park ticket, available via the park website about a week before your trip.)

I was in for a couple of surprises once we entered the park. First, P wanted to stop at every scenic viewpoint we passed in the park. And he got out of the car and took pictures at each one. Second, Skyline Drive was nearly empty. I had been expecting crowds, so having the park to ourselves was a treat. We were able to stop at each viewpoint and then easily merge back onto Skyline Drive. Along the way, we also saw our first wildlife of the trip, a groundhog waddling along the side of the road. We all love chonky animals, so this was a real treat.

Around 5 pm, we arrived at Skylands and checked in. It was at this point that I realized that my research on park accommodations had not been thorough enough. I booked a hotel-style room instead of the cabin that P requested because I expected the hotel rooms to be near the restaurant. However, Skylands’ rooms are located in multiple motel-like buildings, many of which are some distance from the dining room. Needless to say, P was disappointed by the clear lack of cabin at this stop, especially when we later walked past some of the cabins on our way to dinner at the restaurant.

After settling into our room and relaxing for a bit, we headed up to the restaurant to eat. Skyland has two choices for a sit-down meal: the Taproom and the Pollack Dining room. The dining room has big windows overlooking the park, but we chose to eat in the Taproom because it features live music every evening. We enjoyed veggie burgers and local beers/root beers while we listened to the evening’s music act. The food quality and ambiance made the relatively high price of our meals worthwhile.

After dinner, we walked back to our room to turn in for the night. It was at this point that our room began to shake. The people staying above us were on the move, stomping back and forth across the room. We made jokes about staying underneath elephants, but those jokes were unfair to pachyderms, who apparently walk quite quietly. It is unlikely, then, that our upstairs neighbors were elephants. Whatever they were, they walked back and forth in their room for hours, quite literally nonstop. It was hard to sleep with the noise and vibration, but I eventually succumbed to a fitful sleep. That brings us to the most important tip of the day: listen to my son and book a cabin at Skylands. Don’t risk sleeping below a herd of elephants in the hotel-style rooms.