Travel Tips And Suggestions

I can't say I've become a seasoned traveler over the years. The best I can hope for is that I've managed to survive traveling. Now with the airlines cutting us down to one checked bag instead of two (unless you want to pay the fee for the second bag), things might be a little trickier for those who are traveling for more than a couple of days. So I thought I'd share a few tips that work for me (more or less). I've also collected a few articles for you as well.

I try to book a flight as soon as my travel dates are firmed up. This sometimes gives you more options for arrival and departure times. Booking early also allows more seat selections for you. This is especially important to me since I suffer from motion sickness. I've discovered the ideal spot on the plane for me to lessen the effects. I also make sure I take two 24-hour Dramanine tablets prior to my departure. If I suspect I'm going to be doing other traveling during my stay (taxis, buses, boats -- okay, any moving vehicle), I'll continue to take the same dosage every day just in case.

I check in and print my boarding pass before I leave for the airport. This allows for great ease once you get to the airport. This is easy to do when you have access to your home computer, but you might find it just as easy when you are staying at a hotel since most hotels have business centers where you can do this too.

I always dress comfortably for the plane trip, and I always take a light jacket or sweater in the event I get cold (which is frequent and unpredictable). We are restricted to those small seats for hours and the last thing you want is to have your clothes confining you as well. Elastic waistbands are wise. Shoes and socks are wise. If you are wearing sandals, there is always the risk of something dropping on your foot, someone stepping on you... Let's face it...it's just not safe. You also want shoes that will help you walk the distance in the event you have a long hike from gate to gate or gate to baggage claim.

I also try to choose a layover airport I'm familiar with. This saves stress when you know where everything is. It's much easier when you have a general idea of where the gates, shuttle trams, restrooms, and your favored food places are located.

I no longer worry about wrinkles when I'm packing since every hotel does have or can provide an iron and ironing board (generally speaking). I've discovered the small, zippered travel bags are very handy for organizing your items inside the suitcase. I'm sure it makes it convenient for security as well since the inspectors don't have to wade through your loose clothing. I try to take only what I need. The problem is deciding what I need. :) I've also discontinued use of my hard-sided luggage. Zippered luggage is more lightweight and easier to keep secured. Few things are more scary than to see your hard-sided luggage rolling down the baggage claim conveyor with half the clothing hanging out because the inspectors couldn't latch it.

Wear a fanny pack on the plane and make sure it has items in it you might want access to so you don't have to drag out your carry on -- wallet, identification, breath mints, glasses, etc. Make sure your prescription medication is in your carry on. Find an under-the-seat carry-on that rolls. It'll save your body a lot of wear and tear.

I generally stick with one airline and I've signed up for their frequent flyer miles programs. Whenever I fly on any airline, I also sign up for these programs because you can never tell when you might collect enough miles for a free trip. The same goes for hotels in which you stay. If they are a chain, check to see if they have a rewards program. Sometimes you can transfer one program's reward points to another program. For instance, Hilton Honors Rewards to American Airlines.

Here are a few other tips:

Travelers' mantra: Pack light, pack light, pack light

Get the most out of your frequent flier miles

Surviving the red-eye flight

How to pack for a business trip

Happy traveling!

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

Wildlife Sightings - April 2008

My husband glanced out the kitchen window one day while I was away and saw an usual bird. He snagged his camera and tried to get a picture. The bird was a little nervous and shy and would fly off, only to return a few minutes later. Finally, my husband was able to get a shot. It's still not as close as he wanted, but it was good enough for me to make a pretty good identification. Here's the picture. The bird is on the right edge of the bird bath.

Using A Guide To Field Identification, Birds of North America, we determined this was a heron. Most probably an immature black-crowned night heron. While some people would think this is really an amazing discovery considering we live in the Southern California desert, our area is on a migratory bird path and we get a large number of birds fly through.

Shortly after the heron visited, a friend showed my husband a large raven's nest built in the garage of an abandoned house. The nest was huge and if you look carefully in the picture below, you'll see one chick. Look in the triangle formed by the three wood studs and you'll see the beak. The size of the nest is something I would equate with an eagle or hawk. The debris on the floor is fallout from the nest, or where the raven missed when building the nest.




If you are interested in identifying birds, the field guide I mentioned at the beginning of my post is a good start. It divides birds by category (i.e., waterfowl, raptors, song birds) and has colorful illustrations to assist with identification. I've used it for years and can generally identify a bird in under one minute. :) Yes, I am truly a nerd.

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

A Visit To Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

This month I attended the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This annual conference has an attendance of between 1,000 and 2,000 booklovers (mostly women, mostly romance readers). It's a great conference for authors to connect with readers, booksellers, and reviewers. That's just a little background information for you before I talk about the city itself. :)



From the airplane looking down, the landscape was very pretty with rolling hills. Spring was just coming to the area (they'd had a hard winter). Daffodils lined the freeway. Tulips were blooming along some of the walkways as well. By the time I left a week later, more things were also starting to leaf and bud. Unfortunately, I was very poor at getting pictures.



There were many things I wanted to see in Pittsburgh, but I only had a part of one day. So, the Duquesne Incline I lusted after, the Carnegie Science Museum, and the Andy Warhol Museum all went unvisited by me. One day. I have to laugh because I can take one day and then some to go through a museum. :)



I've been to many cities in my life and I have to say that with perhaps one or two minor exceptions, everyone I interacted with in Pittsburgh was very, very nice, polite, and accommodating. This was especially pleasant considering the fact that ninety percent of the downtown area where I was is under renovation, including our hotel, Hilton-Pittsburgh. Though most of the staff was pleasant, I can't say they were very proficient or efficient. The rooms were small but nice, however, they were extremely laden with dust from the construction. Construction was occurring on all the floors and there was no getting away from it. The maids came by everyday, but the room was only semi-cleaned twice during my week-long stay. I looked under the bed once because I misplaced something, then wished I hadn't...looked under the bed, that is.



The hotel restaurant was overwhelmed by the number of guests. After the first night, the waitstaff begged guests to please go through the breakfast buffet because the kitchen couldn't handle the orders. Management was kind enough to give guests a coupon for $10 off food purchased there and also lowered the price on the breakfast from $17.50 to $13.50. They changed the regular lunch and dinner menu to a limited menu and again asked people to order from the buffet. The breakfast buffet was great, the dinner buffet not so much.



The minor exceptions to the very-nice-people comment were a custodian cursing in the bathroom that she'd be glad when we all left. And, honestly, I can't blame her for feeling the stress of 1,000+ guests at once. And the other exception was a staff member who also felt she should be given the conference giveaways the attendees were receiving. Very minor.



I have to say as well that wherever I went to eat in Pittsburgh, the food servings were HUGE! I also felt the prices weren't that bad either considering the portions. Here's a quick breakdown:



Cafe Promenade (Hilton Pittsburgh): Generally speaking, the food was great with large portions. In this case, however, it was a little high priced. They do have a cook who makes the best omelets I've ever had!



Primanti Brothers Restaurant: Their claim to fame is a sandwich piled with coleslaw and french fries, and it became a must-do for my friends. The place was packed and it was impossible for the seven of us to sit together (plus if you are not a smoker, there are no no-smoking areas). There were only two people working that night and they were overwhelmed with orders. Since I don't (and won't) eat french fries, I thought I'd be fairly safe with a salad. Wrong. They put french fries on the salad too. Price is good. Food is plentiful.



Costanza's: We were looking for someplace to eat mid-Saturday afternoon. After walking a couple of blocks and finding nothing, we happened upon a place called Costanza's. It looked like a restaurant/sports bar. Very nice staff. Food plentiful. Reasonable prices. I ordered a hot roast beef sandwich, but didn't care for it. In fact, I only managed a small bite before I asked the waiter to please take it away. I was willing to pay for it, but the waiter wouldn't hear of it. He definitely deserved a tip for his kindness and customer service and I gave him one. It's located on Market Square, but I couldn't find a website link for it.



Palomino: This was our last night in Pittsburgh. The hotel restaurant was again bogged down and we'd heard about this place so decided to give it a chance. Very nice staff. Nice restaurant. Good food. Nice portions. Perhaps a little high for a family of four, but great for one person or a couple. I'd definitely recommend this one. I understand this is a chain restaurant.

The airport also wasn't prepared for the mass of incoming and outgoing visitors. In addition to the Romantic Times Convention, Hiliary Clinton and Barrack Obama were there to campaign. Cabs were impossible to find. I ordered one for myself with the bell captain at the Hilton the night before my departure and had no problems.

All in all, my biggest doggone-it is the fact I didn't have time to see the sites I wanted to. If you are planning to visit Pittsburgh, give yourself a couple of days.

Caitlyn

http://www.caitlynwillows.com/

Looking For Something Unique To Do?

This article on CNN.com from Sunset.com list 10 earth-friendly spring things to do:

Go wine tasting
Be a beach bum
So spring skiing
Ground yourself at a day spa
Raft a river
Cross-country ski in pure wilderness
Sleep by the sea
Escape to a very quiet island
Indulge your inner foodie
Get into the wild in style

You can read the details at: 10 Earth-Friendly Spring Flings

In the article you'll also find links to Sunset.com's Top 10 lakeside resorts and Top 10 secret coastal escapes.

Enjoy!
:) Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

California Wildflowers

Depending on the winter rainfall, each spring the deserts in Southern California explode with life and color with beautiful wildflower displays. It's surprising how little rain is needed for this to happen. This year the display is wonderful!

The Joshua Tree National Park is presently a canvas of nature's artwork. The blooms started in the lower elevations with yellow flowers and then slowly crawled into the higher elevations. Yellow, purple, white, red-orange. Absolutely breath-taking. Of course the cactus are involved as well, bursting with magenta, yellow, and purple flowers. The ocotillo, which normally look like spiny, towering sticks, develops dark green leaves and red-orange flowers that the hummingbirds love.

The wildflowers are presently so abundant, a visitor to the desert might think the flowers had been purposefully planted along the roadways. Not true. This is nature at her finest moment. Seeds collect beneath the sand and lie dormant until the rains come. If the rains are heavy and the road floods, these seeds collect at the roadside.

But the present season is nothing compared to the 2005 season. Heavy rainfall from summer 2004 through winter 2005 created one of the best wildflower seasons in 100 years, with flowers and plants blooming that had not been seen in a century...according to records. We visited Death Valley National Park in the spring of 2004 and decided to go back in spring 2005. The difference was amazing. Hillsides were covered with flowers. It looked more like pastureland than desert.

I've uploaded a good selection of photos here of Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Black Canyon in the Mojave Wildlife Preserve, and some miscellaneous shots: Wildflowers - Southern California Desert



The California Wildflower Hotline (818-768-3533) is updated every Thursday from March through May on more than 90 sites to visit, including the best locations to view wildflowers.

I'd also like to recommend some field guides to take with you when you go. These will help you identify what you are looking at:

Mojave Desert Wildflowers by Jon Mark Stewart
Mojave Desert Wildflowers by Pam MacKay
Mockel's Desert Flower Notebook by Henry R. Mockel and Beverly Mockel

If you are visiting a National Park, it's always a good idea to stop at the visitor center to see what books they might have for their area. And don't forget to take lots of pictures, too.

:) Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

Mt. Kilauea

Volcanos are another of those subjects that fascinate me. I read all articles about them that come my way and watch any programs on television. I suppose my fascination began as a child when we started learning about Pompeii in school. From that point on, I couldn't get enough information about them.



I've climbed up and into few dormant volcanos -- Diamond Head and the Amboy Crater quickly come to mind -- and I'd love to be able to see Haleakala on Maui one day. Many years ago I had the pleasure of seeing the Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Steam vents and lava tubes gave me a hint of what was to come, but the actual sight of the steaming volcano took my breath away with its prehistoric look and sheer size. This visit was before a large eruption that eventually blocked the road we'd taken.



There seems to be some recent activity at Kilauea, so I thought I'd share these two articles with you:



Hawaii volcano explodes for first time in 84 years


Kilauea Volcano Blows Plume Of Ash


Stubborn homeowners live by oozing volcano

:) Caitlyn

http://www.caitlynwillows.com/

In The Chicago Area?

I just found a short blurb on what looks like a cool place to visit if you live in the Chicago area or are planning a visit soon -- 1950 Park Forest House Museum.

It's a two-story brick townhouse south of Chicago that pays homage to -- yes, the 1950s.

Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

April - Miscellaneous Links

Sometimes I come across information that doesn't lend itself to a full blog entry, so I thought I'd try to save these tidbits and post once a month.

I thought this was amazing. It just help prove the wealth of discoveries the Earth contains:
Giant sea creatures found in Antarctic search

~~~

The March/April 2008 issue of Westways Magazine has an interesting article about Old Edna, a 100-year-old, two-acre town site in San Luis Obispo County, California. It's owned by a couple, Pattea Torrence and her husband, Jeff Kocan. The town was founded in the 1800s and had all the places one would expect to find in a town of that era -- mercantile, blacksmith, butcher, saloon, and dance hall. The present owners are restoring Old Edna. Now a visitor will find a gourmet deli/cafe and a bed-and-breakfast.

:) Caitlyn
www.caitlynwillows.com

My Trip To Portland, Oregon

Recently, I attended the EPIC Conference in Portland, Oregon. When I go to conferences, I usually try to arrive the day before the conference begins so I can do a little sightseeing. Why go all that way and not see something of the city, right? There were tons of things to see and do in Portland. The transit system there was very prompt, clean, fast, and easy to use. We never had to wait very long for a train to come by to pick us up. Very, very nice. Plus it was free if you stayed within the historical district, and there were plenty of stops along the way. Because I was limited to one day, my friends and I had to make some choices. It wasn't easy when there was so much we wanted to see.

Our first stop was the Portland Classical Chinese Gardens. It was beautiful and serene. Winding walkways and foliage-draped portals beckoned you further inside and around the 8,000 square foot lake in the center. Lacy trees dipped toward the water. Everything was blooming. The rock formations and waterfalls, the quiet atmosphere and buildings made you feel like you'd been transported to another realm. An extra treat was a small Dinosaur Exhibit (going on from March 1 to May 21, 2008).


I actually managed to take some pictures while I was there. Author Adrianna Dane also has some great shots. Here are links to our respective photos on flickr:


Caitlyn's Photos From The Chinese Gardens
Adrianna'a Photos From The Chinese Gardens


Lunch was at Old Town Pizza, reported to be haunted by a young "working woman" named Nina who'd been thrown down the elevator shaft 100 years ago. Old Town Pizza sits in the original hotel lobby of the Merchant Hotel. A warren of rooms snakes through the place. The interior was darkened yet rich with color, too. Wooden floors creaked with every step and it was easy to imagine it being haunted when workers walked on the floor above us. And the ladies room...words can't describe the feeling. I'm not sure if I felt claustrophobic or if I time-traveled back to the late 1960s. The walls were completely decoupaged with magazine articles from that era. Our lunch was excellent (salads and paninis for all) and there was plenty of it for a reasonable price. The batteries in my camera had given up the ghost (yes, bad pun under the circumstances), but Adrianna was prepared and took some excellent photos (Adrianna's Old Town Pizza photos).

The last stop of the day was a trip to Powell's City of Books. This huge bookstore fills one city block and I believe it is several stories high. They also have a coffee shop. In the two hours we were there, I spent an hour-and-a-half in the children's section alone. The rest of the time I made quick run-bys to other sections to search for books on certain subjects. The staff there is very knowledgeable. If you request information on a book, they know exactly what you want and where it is. Often you didn't even need to ask. They'd come up to you and ask to help. Sometimes they'll stop what they're doing and get it for you. If you love books and you ever have the chance to go to Portland, put this on your must-see list.

:) Caitlyn

http://www.caitlynwillows.com/

My First Entry

I find it amazing that I'm actually doing a blog. I never thought I'd ever see that day when I would willingly do so. However, at a recent conference something clicked for me and I realized I could create a blog that would simply be something I would enjoy and, hopefully, interesting to others.

For years I've shared tidbits of desert life, my adventures, and general "nerd" information on my monthly author newsletter loop . My plan is for this blog to augment that fun information with more that comes my way and in a more timely fashion.

So...without further ado, here are a few interesting articles I've discovered in the last several days. I've been dying to share them! (Yes, once a nerd, always a nerd.)


Many of us have been fascinated with dinosaurs since before we were in grade school. The discoveries being made have grown by leaps and bounds since I was a child. The dedication involved in bringing these discoveries to their full scientific potential is astounding. Workers have been picking away at this particular find since 2004.

Mummified dinosaur unearthed in North Dakota


Speaking of digs...

Pre-Inca temple uncovered in Peru

I've always been loved reading about the Maya, Aztec, Inca, and Olmec cultures. I've researched these ancient civilizations extensively and have even used my research as the backdrop for some of my books. (Feather on the Wind writing as Catherine Snodgrass and Into The Lair writing as Caitlyn Willows.) Anytime I see an article about any of them, I have to stop what I'm doing and read it right away.

And now, for the diggest natural dig of all...

Beavers, sheep explore sand bars Grand Canyon left by Grand Canyon flood

This was a planned flood to rebuild beaches along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. We had the pleasure of going there a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, we didn't take the digital camera with us. (We had every other camera in the world there, but no digital.) So I presently have no photo links of my own to share with you. It was beautiful. It was deep. And we were completely unprepared for the higher altitude. But we explored a lot, even dared walking a quarter mile into the canyon just to say we went in it. We had a great time. However, I'm extremely afraid of heights and had a few problems close to the edge, even with railing. I understand there's a sky bridge over a portion of the canyon now. That's definitely something you won't catch me on.



Enjoy!

Caitlyn
http://www.caitlynwillows.com/