Traveling recommendations

For a good book about traveling or to read while traveling, I really have a favorite in "Zig Zag" by Ellen Wittlinger, about a young woman's cross country road trip.

I don't know much about cameras, but love my iPhone camera and my Kodak digital camera.

Portable DVD players are terrific but remember to bring the charger. When I tried to watch Titanic, it died right after the ship hit the iceberg.

Always remember odd things like nail clippers, Band-Aids, and bobby pins.  Bring more than one pair of sunglasses.  And always bring extra contacts AND your glasses. 

If you like to pack half of what you own and sit on your suitcase to get it to close (like me), but don't want the risk of losing anything if luggage gets lost, do what I do and pack some light, squishable things in your purse/personal item bag/carry on bag.  I've stuffed everything from pj's to swimsuits to dresses to shorts and shirts in there. This also makes for a fast, easy, and cooler change of clothes when you arrive. 

For Type A and OCD people like me, follow my packing motto: POE. Prepared, organized, and effective. It works every time.

Destination Tuesdays

The Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) or simply the Tower of Pisa (Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its unintended tilt to one side. It is situated behind the Cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa's Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo) after the Cathedral and the Baptistry. The tower's tilt began during construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure's weight. The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was completed, and gradually increased until the structure was stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) by efforts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the low side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees,^[1][2][3] but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees.^[4] This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from where it would be if the structure were perfectly vertical.<sup>[5]

Information from Wikipedia and photo taken by me.</sup>

Shore excursion advice

When choosing a shore excursion on a cruise, you may be tempted to opt for the most expensive, do-a-lot one offered, as I was.  But, as I learned from experience, you can actually do the on-your-own option. 

In every big city visited, there's usually an on-your-own excursion that's cheapest and you do everything in the city on your own.  You pay for the transportation to and from the city, which in my experience was $99, and you do your own thing the rest of the day.  In a big city like Rome, it really can be done.  Just research maps, know exactly where the bus is dropping you off and picking you up, and figure out the route you're going to take to see what you want to see.  You're free from being confined in a group and hurried along before you're ready, and you can adjust your plans spur of the moment and spend as little or as much time as you like on something. 

My mom convinced me we could do Rome on our own, and I'm so glad we did.  Not only did we save money, but we found our way around flawlessly, saw everything we wanted to see, and still had time for gelato.

Rome :)

5 Reasons I Love Rome

1. The famous landmarks-can you beat it?  The Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps, the Vatican, the Roman Forum, the Sistine Chapel, and on and on.

2.  It's an ancient cornerstone of modern civilization and the birthplace of Latin-the language of academics, success, and medicine.

3. It's grand and imposing, even two thousand years later.

4. It has all the characteristics of a great European city-winding alleys, tiny shops and restaurants, and lumpy cobblestones.

5. Gelato, Italian boys, and sunshine-does it get any better?

One of my favorite paintings

This is a series oil painting I did of the Eiffel Tower.  A series is when you break the picture up into sections and make each one different-in this case, I did the tower at dawn, mid day, evening, and night, going across the picture from left to right.  My favorite part is the blended sky at dawn-hard to get right, but I feel like I did it. 

My art teacher was very...cold kind of, and she didn't like me.  So when I got my first A+ and it was on this painting, I knew I'd done a decent job.

Here's the painting beside the picture I drew from:

Destination Tuesdays

Angkor Wat (Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត) is the largest Hindu temple complex and the largest religious monument in the world. The temple was built by a king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yasodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ, present-day Angkor), the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum. Breaking from the Shaivism tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious centre since its foundation – first Hindu, dedicated to the god Vishnu, then Buddhist. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia,^[1] appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors.

Information from Wikipedia.

I would like to see this sometime.  I've seen aerial shots where you can see that the jungle is very close to Angkor Wat, and it looks like a lush, dense place.