Travel list

Never leave your passport with someone who says they need to hold it to guarantee a car or whatever. Leave your driver's license.

1) Earplugs - great for the plane and for sharing rooms with snorers, thin motel walls and late-night discos next door to the motel. I have several sets with me, one in my pants pocket.

2) Wintergreen lifesaver mints. I never leave home without them. They are a natural stomach settler. I use them on planes, buses and crazy taxi rides. And I eat them other times too.

3) Mint gum - same thing - settles my stomach. Gives my mouth something to do when I am nervous.

4) A jacket. Even going to the tropics you can get cold in places.

5) An umbrella. We carried one in Paris and didn't use it, carried one in Costa Rica and used it every day.

6) Camera, flash cards, battery charger. Self-explanatory. (And now I just carry my iPhone and charger.)

7) A small notebook - I use this as a journal to list things we've done, write down people's names and info, motel directions, etc.

8) Flip-flops. Nice to have in places where there is a communal shower like hostels or field stations.

9) Plastic bags - different sizes. I put my garments in zip-locs because I don't want the airport apes touching them. I take a few extra to bring home treasures like seashells, etc. I took a lot of small ones to Germany in 2014. I made a lunch every day from the breakfast buffet at hotels - we saved on having to buy lunch!

10) Book of Mormon, Reader's Digest, a paperback book and crossword puzzles. I'm ADD so I have to have something to occupy me and sometimes I just want to read a little and not get into a compelling book.

11) A flashlight - I bought a small one and keep it near me at night. Sometimes I wake up and don't know where I am or if others are in the room I don't want to turn the light on. I have a headlamp for camping.

12) A water bottle. A must-have.

13) Two extra pair of reading glasses and an extra set of contacts. Two cheap pair of sunglasses.

14) Snacky things - fruit snacks, granola bars, almonds, gummi bears - my standard fare. Sometimes you just don't know when you are going to get to eat next.

15) Journal and pen. (I don't take my regular journal abroad but I carry a smaller one to take notes in, then I write in my regular journal when I get home.)

16) A hat - I usually take a ball cap for bad hair days, last day on a long plane trip, etc.

17) A little bottle of Rolaids, fiber tablets, stomach and pain meds, etc. besides regular meds.

18) When packing clothes I usually count how many days I'll be gone and take half that many shirts. Depending on where we stay I can wash things out or wear things twice. I do like one pair of socks for each day but I've gotten by with less. And I take at least two pair of pants - jeans and a nicer pair. Mix and match tops, one skirt for church or dinner, GOOD WALKING SHOES - A MUST! And a jacket - already mentioned.

19) Addresses of people I want to send postcards to.

20) Headset for the plane - sometimes they charge you to have one. I have tons and take two in case one set doesn't work.

21) Inflatable neck pillow for the plane.

22) Small pack of wipes for when you can't clean up properly.

23) All the usual bathroom stuff in 3 oz. or smaller bottles. I take them in my carry-on along with a change of garments and a clean shirt in case they lose my luggage. You have to put the little bottles in a quart-size zip-loc so it can be pulled out at security.

24) I don't wear a lot of jewelry or metal to go through security. I also wear comfortable shoes that are easy to get on and off.

25) Passport, travel itineraries. Leave a copy at home. Some say you should carry a copy of your passport photo page with you but in a different place from your passport in case you lose it. (And leave a copy of the contents of your wallet at home - xerox both sides of all cards you take.) Make sure your passport is good six months past your travel date if you go to certain countries.Have credit card phone numbers with you separate from credit cards so you can call the company if it gets lost or stolen.

26) Sunscreen - we like Bullfrog because it's clear, goes on easy and doesn't hurt your eyes. (It has to go in checked luggage because it's over 3 oz.)

27) Electrical adapters for the country you are going to. You might want several if you have a camera battery, computer, etc.

28) An extra bag or duffle to bring home souvenirs. You might have to figure this in to the amount of allowed luggage. We usually don't buy that much abroad anymore.

Call your credit card companies before you leave to tell them you are traveling. Some credit card businesses will freeze your card if it is used in a foreign country without them knowing ahead of time. AND get the PIN numbers for your cards!

When planes land from traveling internationally they have to incinerate all leftover food and drinks. Ask a flight attendant near the end of the flight (after the last food service) if you can take a bunch of items. Fill your boys' pockets. Tell him/her you know they are just going to incinerate them and you want to save them from dying a burning death. (It's so ridiculous but it's policy). 

Check all around your seats and in seat pockets before de-boarding. I lost a great England travel book because I was so groggy getting off the plane I didn't notice I'd left it behind.

Adapting to the time change. Try to take a couple hours nap when you first get there if it's during the day, then get up and stay up until 9 or 10 at night then take a melatonin. If you get there at night just take melatonin to help you sleep that night. We did this in England and we weren't tired at all the whole time we were there!

I saw some cool kid tattoos that are temporary for travel. See http://www.safetytat.com/

When you go some place to sightsee always pick a place to meet if you get separated from your kids and talk about it before you head out. I tried not to get too paranoid traveling with my kids and the first big trip with them was to Taiwan when the girls were 19 and 16. We just always stayed together. Except for when they wandered down the escalators at the Taiwan airport and I told them to stop wandering off because I thought they were going to get kidnapped. And on the little Tahitian islands they could go off on their own because I knew they really couldn't get lost. Ahhh, memories.

I carry an across-the-shoulder bag with a wide strap and a front zipping pocket for my passport and travel papers. It's easy to get in to. There are passport covers now that have metal in them for the newer passports that have electronic chips in them. The metal makes it hard for thieves to scan your info. I don't have one because I think the risk is low that will happen.

In Sweden we were alerted by a store clerk that there were pickpockets around. If Riley carried his backpack with expensive camera gear, I walked behind him. We were told to carry wallets in front pockets or pockets that zipped. Or use a small lock on backpacks - kind of a pain but thieves have gone through backpacks of unsuspecting tourists. Never flash money. Be careful at ATMs. Oh, and when Andrea was on a bus in Guatemala once her friend's purse was cut open while she sat there and the thief took everything out before she stood up. So be aware and pay attention! Kind of takes some of the fun out of traveling but we can outsmart those crafty knotheads!!!

Make sure you have fun - that's the bottom line. And make memories. And take pictures. I've been told to not post ANY photos while on a trip or someone could look you up and rob your house. Wait until you get home.

Tropical RAIN forest

We got back from Costa Rica Friday. Riley went for meetings then I joined him a week later for a field trip to the jungle. I learned some things while I was there:

1) The key word in Tropical Rain Forest is RAIN. It rains and rains and rains. It is amazingly green and lush because of the rain. You carry an umbrella because of the rain. You wear knee-high irrigation boots in the jungle because of the snakes but they help when it rains. Sort of. Mine filled with water one day. I have a video of me dumping the water out.
2) Monkeys, monkeys, monkeys! Your neck gets sore from looking so high to see the monkeys. They sit, they stroll, they swing, they yell, they climb. It is so fun to watch them, especially the babies. They venture out from their mommas a bit, then scurry back to safety. I could sit and watch the monkeys all day!
3) Seeing things in the wild is better than a store or zoo. In addition to the monkeys, there were orchids, Bird of Paradise, impatiens, toucans, deer, wild guinea pigs (Agouti), Coatis and so many tropical birds - big, colorful and loud.
4) You are never dry. Not even after a shower.
5) It still gets cold. I had to sleep with a blanket (as opposed to just a sheet) two of the nights we were at the field station. The rain cooled things off at night. It was lovely.
6) You don't need sunscreen. The canopy shades you so much you don't need it. It's quite dark in the middle of the day in some parts of the jungle. And even when you are out in the open, there is cloud cover.
7) People there eat rice and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually just ate them for dinner but I would have eaten them for other meals if there hadn't been other choices.
8) There are good people in the world saving the rain forest, like Dan Janzen, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Janzen. He is a biologist who has worked for more than 30 years to save massive areas of jungle. Thanks Dan.
9) It's fun being married to a biologist. When I'm with Riley I see things I normally wouldn't see, like the thumbnail-sized frogs or the leaf-cutter ants marching with their leaf pieces to create a huge mound of a home. And he captures things on film so we can enjoy them when we get home. I appreciate life more when I'm with Riley. Thanks Riley.

There is so much to see and experience in this world. It's amazing all the things Heavenly Father created for us to enjoy and it's so fun to go out in the world to find them. I think about the creation and how much time it must have taken to create each plant, bug, rock and animal, large and small. He must have had such fun with the monkeys - that must be where laughter started - he created a monkey and laughed at the results.

Baby kitties, again

Twelve days ago Riley saw two tiny kittens under a bush on our patio. They hung out there for a couple of days until we realized there was no momma coming around to feed them. We caught them quite easily because they were nearly dead and very lethargic. We could feel their spines and rib cages. We thought one that had little orange markings on its gray fur was a boy and the solid gray one was a girl. We fed them milk and put them in a cat carrier. Amy and I took them to our offices, trading off every few hours so they weren't such a distraction. We did this for a couple of days. I named the girl Millie and my kids in the newsroom, who loved having baby kitties there, named the other Jimi (Amy's spelling). We fed them cream and wet cat food to add some weight to their bony little frames.

Riley looked at them again a few days later and discovered the boy was a girl and the girl was a boy. It makes sense since the girl has calico markings (all calicos are females) and is smaller and the boy is bigger. They have now doubled in size and are frisky, fun, playful, loving kitties. They jump at each other sideways, wrestle and bite each other. They curl up on our laps or shoulders. They chase yarn and climb where they shouldn't. They are very cute. But we're not keeping them. They are ready for good homes so we will start looking.

These are not the first cats we've rescued at this house. The first fall we were here 11 years ago Amy found an abandoned kitten in our front bushes. She caught it and we had Pika for several years. She was the mother to our current cat Guida. She ran off for three years, came back for about a year, then left for good.

Last year our neighbors abandoned a mother and four kittens. By the time we were able to catch them the kittens were quite large and very wild. We found homes for all of them. Zuzu lives with Parkers in Colorado, the rest went to freecycle responders who have barns and needed mousers.

Chunie was another story. She came from the pit of hell, adopted herself to our house, bit us, swatted at us, ate our food and sometimes let someone touch her head. She was a rickety, patchwork mess of a cat. She gave birth to our current cat Stella, a sweet cat who shows her mother's temperament once in a while. Stella used to be meaner but getting hit twice by cars has left her nicer than the time before.

Notch was another cat we adopted. When we bought the house he was already living here. He was a bit of a mess too but he had the sweetest personality. He lived here for nearly 10 years, keeping watch on the east side of our house. He's probably also Guida and Stella's father. Kristi Parker took the last pictures of Notch, none of us knowing he would go to cat heaven shortly thereafter. Thanks Kristi!

I don't know why pathetic, needy cats end up here. I guess we are the Nelson Cat Sanctuary. I think cats, especially kittens, are some of God's loveliest creatures and someday we'll understand better the relationships we are blessed to have with them. Maybe we'll even understand Chunie.

Learning good things

I've finally gotten into the habit of reading my scriptures daily. I decided I wouldn't read the newspaper or look at the computer (two things I do every morning) until I read at least one chapter. It's been three weeks now and I started because I was looking for some spiritual guidance which I have received many times over. It's funny how I know reading the scriptures is good for my heart and soul, yet I don't make time for it. I hope to keep my habit going now.

This morning I thought of all the little people who come to my house and how they learn what to do and what not to do. Don't put things in the fish tanks, don't stick your fingers in the sockets, say please and thank you. As little kids we had to learn things by being told something over and over until it stuck. We learned one thing at a time. It's the same thing with the scriptures - we are asked to read them over and over and we learn one thing at a time, line upon line, precept on precept. Little kids become better listeners and better people by listening, learning and knowing. Big kids do too. Big kids like me and anyone else who is willing to listen and learn to become better.