Art in Stone, Rome Italy

This past week I was at a building in AZ and noticed the fantastic mosaics that had been installed on the walls into the entrance of the building.  I thought about how mosaics are such a lost art form and how beautiful they can be.

Then I remembered this mosaic that is in the Vatican.  Each stone couldn't have been larger than 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch.  And even smaller in some of the fine detail areas of the piece.  Always loving peacocks, I loved how they were included in such detail.  (My mosaics made out of paper squares in third grade art class were generally discernible blobs on color on paper.)

I think that is why this art on the floor stopped me in my tracks.  

300 Peaks National Park, Thailand

As I mentioned here, we went on a short boat ride to arrive at 300 Peaks National Park.  Or Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park for short.  When we arrived, there was a sandy beach and a little visitors center where you could get a bite to eat or sit in the shade.

There are many things to do here, but one of the items I recommend is to check out some of the caves nearby.  So you walk up a mountain on one of the well marked trails.

And once you've walked up, you can start to walk down into one of the large caverns.  The trail is well defined, but be careful with loose rocks as others may be walking on the trail below you.

And when you arrive, you just might see a little something like this inside.  It is huge inside of here.  And yes, that is a bunch of trees growing inside of a mountain.  Check out the people walking in the middle of the beam of light to get a better idea of the scale of this place.  I had never seen anything like it before in my life.  Our group was giddy as we walked around and checked it out.

According to what I've read, there was a service in this space which was attended by the king.  He was bit by a mosquito and died of malaria shortly after.

Northern MN

There is really no better place to be than Northern MN on a beautiful summer day.  After spending time in the middle of a desert, this part of the world feels like it was built in technicolor.

The landscape is filled with small towns.  I wish I could say this is one of the smaller towns in the area, but I have noticed a handful of signs showing town population in single digits.

But I love this sign.  I would expect it on the outer ring of a major city.  Instead this sign marks the 483rd Avenue from the epicenter of some town that likely has the population of 47 people.

Yuyuan Garden, Shanghai

Yuyuan Garden is a beautiful garden in the middle of the Old City of Shanghai.  The garden was built in the mid 1500s and finally declared a national monument in the 1980s.  The garden is filled with traditional buildings that I've wanted to see ever since I was a kid.

The details of the buildings are amazing.  I love the tile roofs.  I noticed that some hadn't been cleaned in awhile.  So little green plants were growing between the tiles.  I loved how the light highlighted some of the plants.

I loved my time in this garden.  If I ever return to Shanghai, this is one place I will visit again in a heartbeat.