D.I.Y. facial, courtesy of your hotel’s breakfast bar

by Elizabeth Seward on

A well-done spa treatment, especially a facial, during a vacation can lift a weary traveler straight out of their jet-lagged funk. But hey, lets not be so easily sold here: spa treatments, particularly those available at destination hotels, are expensive. The good news? You can work yourself up a little D.I.Y. facial with the stuff your hotel offers you for free. Call it resourceful; call it low-class. The fact remains: this stuff works.

Gather what you’ll need from your hotel’s breakfast bar and retire back to your room for some You time, courtesy of You.

What you’ll need:

Your in-room coffee maker
A packet of sugar (pure cane is best)
Yogurt
Uncooked oatmeal
Uncooked egg
Lemon or Orange
WaterOnce you’ve completed your hotel scavenger hunt, you’ll be ready for a self-made facial.

1. Wash your hands well.
2. Squeeze the lemon or orange into a cup of water. Using the corner of a washcloth, rinse your face with this mixture.
3. Spread the sugar over a clean corner of the washcloth. Wetting the washcloth just a bit, gently exfoliate your face with the cloth.
4. Rinse your face clean of the sugar.
5. Fill your coffee maker with water, but add no coffee. Turn on the coffee maker. Once the water is boiling, carefully lift the coffee maker’s water receptor so that you are exposed to the steam from the coffee maker. Place your face 5-10 inches from the steam, depending on what is most comfortable for you. Allow the steam to hit your face for a few minutes.
6. Once your face has been steamed, you can treat it with a mask. Make an easy mask by mixing the uncooked oatmeal with the uncooked egg. Spread the mixture all over your face using a cloth. Remove the mixture once it has hardened.
7. On a clean face, gently apply yogurt, focusing on the under-eye area. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes.
8. Rinse the yogurt.

And now? Enjoy. Because you really don’t have to pay top dollar to rejuvenate your skin at a hotel. In fact, skin rejuvenation can be complimentary.

Nature Valley kicks off 2011 Preserve the Parks campaign

by Kraig Becker on

As we’ve mentioned on several occasions recently, Saturday kicked off National Parks Week here in the U.S. To help celebrate, Nature Valley, in conjunction with the National Parks Conservation Association, launched their 2011 Preserve the Parks campaign in the beautiful desert near Joshua Tree in California.

Nature Valley started the campaign last year after their customers expressed how much they loved the national parks. In 2010, the Preserve the Parks program raised $400,000 for the NPCA, with those funds going directly to protect national parks from a variety of threats. The 2011 edition of Preserve the Parks hopes to raise even more money, while also taking a more direct, active role in the preservation of these fantastic natural spaces.

This year, Preserve the Parks has a charismatic and charming spokesman to help spread the word about the campaign. Josh Holloway, who played Sawyer on the television show Lost, is an avid outdoorsman who also happens to love America’s national parks. He was on hand for the kickoff event this past weekend to not only help get the festivities underway, but to also get a little dirty too. Holloway joined a host of volunteers who went to work building trails and helping to protect the habitat of desert tortoises that inhabit the region around Joshua Tree.I had the opportunity to chat with Josh on several occasions throughout the day and came away quite impressed. This isn’t the case of a celebrity spokesperson slapping their name on a project and paying lip service to it. Josh truly does have a love for the outdoors and was eager to lend a hand in the actual physical work of the day. For most of the morning he had a shovel, rake, or other tool in his hand, and was doing his part alongside the rest of the volunteers who were there to take part in a restoration project.

Despite the warm weather (temperatures approached 95 degrees Fahrenheit) the Nature Valley event drew an impressive turnout from volunteers. After a brief orientation about the area, including instructions on how to avoid stepping on a tortoise den, we were off on a mile long hike to the various work sites. Once there, we broke into teams that took on a variety of projects that included clearing trails of plants and other debris to more clearly define where to walk, as well as restructuring part of the landscape to allow water to flow naturally, without causing undue erosion. These simple efforts can go a long way toward protecting the area and ensuring that those who visit it can pass through without endangering the creatures that live there.

Nature Valley has a number of other similar events planned for the summer ahead, when the program will really kick into high gear. Those events will take place in Yellowstone, Acadia, Biscayne and several other national parks. Details on those events has yet to be completed, but you can watch the Preserve the Parks website for details on when they’ll be occurring and how you might be able to join in.

National Parks Week is a time that is dedicated to celebrating the spectacular natural beauty that exists inside America’s wilderness wonderlands. It is also a great time to acknowledge some of the threats that face the parks, such as environmental concerns, land management issues, lack of funding, and more. Organizations like Nature Valley and the NPCA recognize the importance of the parks on American culture and are working hard to protect them for future generations to enjoy as well. Programs such as the Preserve the Parks campaign are a perfect model of how businesses, non-profits, and grassroots activists can all work together to improve and protect the parks.

This trip was payed for by Nature Valley, but the ideas and opinions expressed here are my own.

Brooklyn cruise ships to plug in, finally

by Chris Owen on

When cruise ships come in to the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal they bring a lot of business, tourism dollars and people to town. They also brings some 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide, 95 tons of nitrous oxide, and 6.5 tons of particulate matter annually when they park and burn their diesel engines. That is about to change as Brooklyn becomes the first east coast cruise operation with the capability to let ships “plug in” to clean shoreside electrical power instead.

By 2012, cruise ships at will be plugged in with shoreside electrical power rather than running on diesel gas while docked.

“It will be the equivalent of removing 5,000 cars per year from the road annually,” Seth W. Pinsky, the president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation told the New York Times.

Its been a long time coming on that too. As Gadling revealed in January, it has been two years since Carnival Corp, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Brooklyn cruise terminal port authority agreed to enable cruise ships to plug in to green shore-side power. West coast ports were doing it already with San Diego going online last December.

It seems while all were in agreement, nobody wanted to pay for it.

In an agreement made this week, the $15 million project will be funded with $12 million from the Port Authority and nearly $3 million from a US Environmental Protection Agency grant. Carnival Corporation will spend $4 million to retrofit their Princess Cruises and Cunard Line ship that dock in Brooklyn.

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Flickr photo by greenbk

Video: Mississippi tornado rips through power lines

by Elizabeth Seward on

A powerful storm system that produced damaging tornadoes tore through several states over the course of the last few days. Beginning in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday, the storm moved through Mississippi on Friday and Alabama and Georgia. Eventually wreaking havoc on North Carolina and Virginia, this storm has claimed at least 35 lives in six states. With flash floods, softball-sized hail, and vicious tornadoes, homes have been demolished throughout the affected areas. The death toll is expected to rise today as the dust settles and the search for the missing continues.

This video was captured in Jackson, Mississippi–an area that was hit hard by the storm. Check out the flashes of color that erupt when the twister rips through power lines.

Reminder: National Parks Week begins today

by Kraig Becker on
Despite the fact that it was nearly shut down by the budget crisis, National Parks Week kicks off today and will run through next Sunday, April 24th. In celebration, many parks in the system will host great events all week long, and all admission fees will be waived to the parks, and dozens of national monuments as well. To find a fee-free destination near you, click here.

Some of the special events scheduled to take place during Parks Week include a celebration of nature at NatureFest 2011 in the Congaree National Park, training junior rangers at the Explore, Learn Project in Shenandoah NP, and a birthday party for John Muir at the Muir Woods National Monument in California. Muir was an early proponent of the parks and instrumental in getting the U.S. Government to protect those lands.

In addition to the official park events, a number of affiliated organizations are also offering some great deals for visitors to the parks this week. For instance, the Grand Canyon Lodges are offering a “buy one, get one free” deal on their sunset tours of the West Rim, and there are discounts available on lodging near a variety of parks throughout the U.S. Click here to view a list of special offers and discounts that are available.

As for me, I’m heading to Joshua Tree to attend an event that is being sponsored by the National Parks Conservation Association and Nature Valley. I’ve never been to this particular park before, so I’m looking forward to the visit, during which I’ll be helping to preserve the habitat of the endangered desert tortoises that live there.

So? Do you have any plans to take advantage of National Parks Week? Where are you going?