Alcatraz Island is an island located in the San Francisco Bay, California and it is also known as The Rock. Durring the time the small island served as a lightghouse, military fortification, Federal Bureau of Prisons and military prison. Since 1972, Alcatraz became a national recreation area and today the island is a historic site administrated by the National Park Service, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is open to visitors.

If you are going to visit the Alcatraz Prison you should know that you can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33 in San Francisco and once arrived on the Island get ready for the cold and windy weather. Then you can begin the tour which is made by audio recordings. Helped by some headphones and the voices of former guards and inmates you are getting through the place. The narration is splendid, there are great sound effects destinated to help you see the riots that occured, and in this way the tour is very easy to follow. After a few minutes you’ll realize how awful it would have been to be incarcerated there. Unavoidable you’ll have very emotional feelings, and the audio narration will make you able to empathize with those who had to endure solitary confinement, hydrotherapy, harassment and abuse, while hearing, for example, the New Year’s Eve from across the bay, knowing what you are missing and knowing that you are trapped there. You’ll understand then why there were so many escape attemps, being within a stone’s throw of freedom.

The tour ends in the Alcatraz Prison Gift Shop, which has the most amazing, huge art deco style mugs (Save the Rock, The Alcatraz Preservation Project), tin mugs (like the prisoners used), postcards, t-shirts, ball caps, books and the various and sundry other items you would expect in the gift shop, all Alcatraz Island branded. And if you are lucky you can meet Darwin E. Coon, Alcatraz inmate (1959 to 1963) and get signed copies of his book about life on the Rock, Alcatraz “The True End of the Line”. You can find a lot of different gift shops selling Alcatraz items and also one by the dock, but the one on the island has the most stuff, educational for sure. You can even buy Alcatraz Prison soap, like you to make your own “don’t drop the soap” routine in your own shower at home.

After hitting the gift shop, be sure to go at the Agave Trail if it’s open, because since February through early September it is closed to permit nesting of Western gulls, cormorants and black crowned herons.

So, if you ever are in San Francisco, don’t hesitate to visit Alcatraz Island and the Alcatraz Prison Gift Shop, it is part of history far to rich to pass up.

The Pentagon is the largest office building in the entire world by floor area. It has five sides, five floors above the ground, two basement levels and five ring corridors per floor. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense and it is located in Arlington County, Virginia. It is also known as a symbol of the United States military and it is often used to refer at the Department of the Defense. About the building we can tell also that includes a central plaza, shaped like a pentagon and known as “ground zero” (name originating during the Cold War, based on the supposition that Soviet Union woul target nuclear missiles at this central location in the breaking of a nuclear war).

The Pentagon is one of the most popular buildings in the world and for sure many of us are trying to visit Pentagon for many years. If you’ll visit the Pentagon you should know that the main entrance for visitors is located on the southeast side, where are located the Pentagon Metro station and the bus station. In the same area (southeast side) at the second floor of the building it is located a shopping mall, named The United States Pentagon Shop of Gifts, which is offering military gifts, momentos and keepsakes in the Washington DC area. And if we mention about the Pentagon Gift Shop, we’ll present you the most interesting gift items that you can find here:

- Pentagon gifts: Pentagon “Eagles Nest” ornament, Pentagon cut crystal building, Department of Defense license frame, Official Ftam Pentagon pen, Pentagon pen and letter opener set, Pentagon die struck key chain, Pentagon die struck pewter key chain, Pentagon Eagle key chain, Vietnam war memorial key chain, Washington DC key ring, Department of defense Pentagon caps, Pentagon rubber magnet, Unique bilevel Pentagon magnet, pentagon mouse pad, Authentic Department of Defense patch (hot melth attach) Pewter Pentagon thimble;



- Pentagon memorial gifts: Pentagon Memorial coin, United we stand solid copper bracelet, United we stand silver filled bracelet, United we stand sterling silver bracelet, Mantel clock with etched glass Department of Defense seal, Pentagon All Services ornament. The products in this section are hand selected and custom made for the Pentagon Memorial and its fund. A piece of the proceeds from this merchandise selling goes to the benefit of military programs and organizations.
- Department of Defense apparel: Department of Defense Joint staff polo’s, Pentagon shirts, Pentagon cap, Kids faux leather bomber jacket, Ladies sized Pentagon t-shirts, Pentagon outwear, Department of Defense embroidered polo.



Now, you can see for yourself that Pentagon Gift Shop it is offering unique collection of items, perfect gifts for friends, family and guest visiting the Pentagon. Pay attention, that during the holiday, many of this items are disappearing.

Our journey through the United States of America takes us today into the beautiful state of Texas, and into the Nacogdoches city. And the thing that interests us from this place is the Stephen F. Austin State University. It was founded as a teachers college in 1923 and it got this name after one of the founding fathers of the state of Texas – Stephen F. Austin. There are 4 independent universities in Texas (which are not affiliated with one of the Texas’s university systems) and the Stephen F. Austin State University is one of them. Based here in the university’s campus there is also the East Texas Historical Association.
It is quite a large university and has about 12,000 students and an endowment of 13,2 million dollars. It offers more than 120 areas of study, including 80 undergraduate majors, 60 graduate degrees and three doctoral programs. Here you can also find one of the 2 schools of forestry from the state of Texas and also the only forestry college in timber production from the East part of Texas. The classes are offered through six colleges and besides the main campus the university also owns and maintains a agricultural research center. This has an area of 642 acres (2.6 km²) and it is used for beef, poultry and swine production. But this is not all, the university also owns a large experimental forest surface and also a forestry field station. The actual president of the University is Baker Pattillo. As you can notice in the image above, the official color of the Stephen F. Austin University (SFA) is purple. The university also has some sport teams, and as a tribute to the forest industry the men’s athletic team is called “Lumberjacks” while the women’s athletic team is called “Ladyjacks”. Other sports practiced here  in the university are football, cross country, basketball, baseball, golf and track (for men) and cross country, basketball, soccer, volleyball, bowling, softball, tennis and track (for women). And to support all of these teams, the university also has 2 cheerleading squads (the Large Coed Cheerleading Squad and the Small Coed Cheerleading Squad).

But enough with the talking about the university, let’s go to the things that are really interesting to us, and here we are talking about the gift shops of course. Unfortunately we didn’t found so many of them, and some kind of an online Stephen F. Austin University gift shop can be found here on this site: http://sfasu.bncollege.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/BNCBHomePage?storeId=19555&catalogId=10001&langId=-1 As you can see in the categories above, the Gifts are sorted into three big categories – Game Day / Tailgate, Accessories and Drinkware. In the first category you can find flags, banners, pennants and other accessories, all with the colors and symbol of the SFA University. At “Accessories” you can find all sorts of interesting items, and of course all of them are related to this university. Here you can find:  Auto Accessories, Sports Accessories, School Spirit Accessories, Home Accessories,  Pens, Desk Accessories, Umbrellas, Stuffed Animals, Diploma Frames, Jewelry & Watches, Backpacks & Totes, And finally at the last category – Drinkware, you can find a widemouth Nalgene bottle, a travel tumbler and a ceramic mug, all with the SFA logo. If you want to know exactly what other objects are found here, and which is the price for each one, simply visit the site, and go at the “Gifts” category.

So if you are a student here at the Stephen F. Austin University (or you already graduated it) tell us all about the life in the campus and the adventures you had!

If you are usually watching TV or any kinds of movies (and not just if you are living in the United States of America) you have definitely heard about, and seen the White House. This famous building is the official residence and the main workplace for the president of the United States of America. The White House was designed by James Hoban and it is located at this address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It was build between 1792 and 1800 so it has quite a rich history. The first president to move here was Thomas Jefferson in 1801, and since then it has been the home of every president of the United States of America.
Of course, things were not perfect for the White House all the time, and in 1814 during the War of 1812, it was set ablaze by the British army, and the interior and a large part of the exterior were destroyed. But the reconstruction began immediately and it was ready until 1817. With time the building had also expanded, and today it contains: the Executive Residence, West Wing, Cabinet Room, Roosevelt Room, East Wing, and the Old Executive Office Building. The building has six stories, but it is not that high, because two of these stories are a part of the basement. As we said it is a really famous building all over the world, and in 2007 it was ranked on the second place in the list of “America’s Favorite Architecture”.

During its history the White House had some periods when it was opened to the public, but today it is not opened anymore. So even though you don’t get the chance of visiting it, you can always buy an item to remind you of it, from The White House gift shop. This is actually an online gift shop, and it is found here: http://www.whitehousegiftshop.com/ . You can find all sorts of interesting things on this site, and all of them are related to the White House. The gifts are sorted on categories, and these are: Armed Forces, Books, Coins, Kid’s Fun, Baby Items, Knick Knacks, Playing Cards, Jewelry, Lapel Pins, Glassware, Coffee Mugs, Office Items, Pens & Pencils, Mouse Pads, Golf Items, Hats, T-Shirts, Ladies Shirts, Polo Shirts, Sweatshirts and Fleeces, Jackets & Wind Shirts, Travel, Easter Eggs and Tree Ornaments. We won’t discuss about all of these items now, and we’ll let you discover most of them, but we’ll still discuss about some of them. Let’s take for example the category of “coffee mugs”. And here you can find 6 different models of coffee mugs, each one with and image related to the White House. One shows the official symbol of the White House, another shows an old image of the building, another one shows a list with all the presidents of the United States of America and the signature of each one, and the other two are showing 2 colored and realistic images of the White House.

If you like playing cards you can choose one of the card decks with images of the White House on the back (each different model of deck has a price of 8 dollars) or a deck of cards with the flag of the United States of America and the symbol of Washington DC on the back, for a price of just 4 dollars. Or maybe you want to make a really interesting gift for someone for Easter, and for this you can buy the White House Easter egg for a price of 15 dollars. It has a really nice image of the White House on it and it looks just like it was hand painted by you . There are so many more other cool gifts that are related to the White House on this site, so whenever you have time be sure to browse through all of the categories. And if you really like a product, don’t hesitate to buy it. And if you are among the few people of the world that can say that they ever been inside the White House, please tell us all about how this building looks from inside.

Agnus Dei is a Latin term meaning Lamb Of God and it is referring to Jesus Christ and his sacrificial offering that atones for the sins of the human kind in Christian theology, hankering back to ancient Jewish Temple sacrifices. You’ll meet the phrase “Agnus Dei” on several uses of this image.
About using this phrase it is talking the Agnus Gift Shop, the place where you can find unique and clever t-shirt and button designs, some will make you smille, some will make you think, but all of them are going to deepen your faith, through fun and contemporary fashion.

We’ll present you next some of the most popular items that you can find at Agnus Gift Shop and after that it will depend only on you if you’ll purchase one of this great gifts:
-T-shirts: At Agnus Gift Shop you’ll find t-shirts destinated to help Catholics to lear about their faith, understand it, live it and defend it. A t-shirt like this it is a great conversation reason and a perfect gift: Fallow Mii (a digital avatar imagine for the Wii gaming system with Jesus as a Mii and below a citation from Luke), Lego Pope, Hoc est corpus meum (grunge), Hoc est corpus meum (text), Catholicism, Heaven’s bread, Be these, 4 marks, Faith without works;
-Accessories: With this buttons you can add some fun and inspirational message to your clothing, hats and backpacks. With them you can add stylish fun anywhere or you can collect them, trade them for fundraising, retreats, CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) and RCIA (The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) gifts, parish festivals, Wyd mission travel. The buttons feature images of Papal Coat of Arms, Our Lady, vessels and vestments, logo parodies, architectural masterpieces and over 150 other themes. We refer at this kind of accessories:

-> Pin-back buttons: Jesus Wii, Christ Pantocrator, Sacred heart of Jesus, King of Kings, Savior of the world, In hoc signo, I have accepted Jesus, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Queen of heaven, Marian stained glass, Our Lady of Saint Theodore, The original Madonna, OMG Annunciation, Madonna and child painting, Mary and Jesus, A crown of roses;
- Lapel pins: Agnus Dei lapel pins; Agnus Dei die-struck cloisonne enamel lapel pin.
->Fundraiser: This is an distinct interesting Agnus Gift Shop characteristic, which is offering you and your group the possibility to raise some money. All you have to do is to sell Agnus Gift Shop merchandise. Important thing is that there is no risk to you! And if you do that there is other beneficiary of your work: catholic schools, parishes, youth groups, church ministries, missionaries, individuals, young adult groups, boy scouts and girl scouts, groups attending world youth day.
In the end we hope that you’ll make some time and visit the Agnus Gift Shop and then spread the good news about Jesus Christ and His Church!