What to Wear on Your Cruise

Bob Levinstein from www.cruisecompete.com here, where agents compete to offer you the best cruise deal. Packing light for any vacation has always been a challenge. And considering most cruise lines now offer a mix of formal, informal and casual evenings at sea, it has become that much harder to pack light for a cruise. What exactly does resort casual mean? How formal is formal dress? Do you really have to bring an evening gown, cocktail dress or tuxedo on a cruise? Is there any place on board where you can dine wearing sun dresses and sandals, shorts, t-shirts and bathing suits? Here are some answers. For women, formal attire means evening gowns, cocktail dresses and dressy resort wear—at a minimum, think a sparkly top and black pants. Formal attire for men refers to a tuxedo; a suit and tie; or sport coat, tie and slacks. Business Casual, Resort Casual or Country Club Casual all mean similar things slacks and shirts for men. Polo shirts are OK on most lines, though some like to see button-down shirt. For ladies, skirts/dresses, slacks and sweaters. Casual basically means that pretty much anything goes. Its a good idea for women to plan to mix and match separates to create different outfits to avoid over-packing. A simple black dress can also be dressed up with a jacket, jewelry and accessories. The little black sandals with a casual skirt and a white blouse easily transform into cocktail attire with jewels on the sandals and a fancy blouse or top and more jewelry, so do ...

"Snow Cruise" Pt 1 with Allie the Mtn Dog and Nutnfancy

Today's recipe for adventure: one female black lab, four to five feet of snow with more falling, a good shoeshoe hike in and out, knife and axe testing while setting up a survival shelter, and snowy firemaking in a remote area high in the Rocky Mountains! Taking place again in the "Nutnfancy Knife Clinic" (hey we haven't been here in awhile), the solitude we achieve in this winter wonderland is breath taking. But the work sure wasn't! Making a survival camp a reality in these conditions takes a lot work (hard to appreciate really until you do it!). Allie and I simulate a stuck-out survival situation in these harsh conditions and set up a survival campsite (using the portable Coghlans® brand orange plastic tube tent). This scenario was realistic and provided good gear testing opportunities. As I've done before, I show a lot of the work necessary to find and process standing deadwood into useable dry firewood with sharp edges that ignite more readily. We fall several dead trees in the process with the Cold Steel Trail Boss axe, Norse Tomahawk (very good performance for weight), and Sawvivor backpack saw and split a few other blades too (like the Dow Coated 3400A Ontario RAT-7 knife shown!). Some may say thinner wood could be used to build a fire but usually it is rain and moisture soaked therefore is an ureliable fire STARTING source. Once your fire is hot and self-sustaining then these unprepared wood sources can be used. Be careful with these bladed tools as they can very ...