Category Archives: Travel: The Americas

Texas, Travel: Packing List, travelbunny

Packing details

So, I used to be able to pack 2 weeks before a trip and just grab my bag and go! Everything was great! I had pants! (and under pants!) but now, not so much.
For some reason I seem to get a little distracted by the right shirt (or 4) and I lose sight of the whole “what to wear over my butt” issue.
Sure, I have what I wear on the plane, but when I go with a purple/black theme on the plane and end up packing a whole khaki/red/orange theme in the suitcase, it looks a little like clown college in a bag.
My new approach is to casually sneak up on the packing and then pounce right before I leave so it doesn’t know what hit it.
I wear my clothes as the weeks pass and then when I wash them and think “Oh this shirt is my BFF!” I fold it and toss it in the suitcase for the pre-leaving sanity check.
This time my packing list deviated from my previous list (and I’ll make a new one if you care), but essentially, I looked at the weather and decided zip off shorts and the new cute jammies as pants would be a good weight. I did put the plaid ones that go with my Monterey sweatshirt in there, but I also lost my tiny little mind over some travel jammies from Nick and Nora at Target last weekend that with just a slight shift in t-shirt color will work with most everything else.
I figure with the weather as it is, I’ll probably end up in shorts the whole time anyway. (cross your fingers nothing crazy happens to the weather, I am leaving my down jacket at home this time).

New Texas packing list:

clothes:
-EBags weekender
-black zip off pants/shorts
-orange long sleeve shirt
-purple long sleeve shirt
-white long sleeve shirt
-purple/grey patterned sweater (the artist formerly known as “new sweater”)
–black vneck merino wool sweater
-*grey short sleeve shirt with silkscreened fishie
-*grey hoodie sweater
-*jeans
–Nick&Nora “ports of call” jammies
–Monterey sweatshirt
-plaid pink/orange jammies
-*10 year old (but still the best damn jacket I own) Eddie Bauer parka**
-socks/undies
-Keen’s
–black flip flops, possibly the red ones, too. orange flip flops

things:
-Nano/broadcasty/car power
-Solio/cables/charger
-PSP/earphones-microphone/power/cards
-2G Firefly with Portable Apps/external drive
-Treo 650/headset/keyboard
-camera/charger
-eBook***
-knitting
-fold up cooler

*plane wear
** the word parka intimates that it is super warm. It isn’t even insulated. But it is long (comes to mid-thigh on me), I can scotch guard it and walk around in Paris drizzle and stay dry, it has a waist cinch, a hood, sleeve snaps to keep the wind from going up your arms and the best pockets ever. I’ve worn this in weather as low as 20 degrees F and in rain and after it gets really ooky, I wash it, scotch guard it again and wear it for several more trips.
***I wasn’t going to bring this, but then I got into a book and realized I didn’t want to leave it til I got back.

…and oh crap, I think I’m getting sick.

Texas, Travel: Packing List, travelbunny

Packing List: Texas crawl (Northeast to Northwest style)

This trip includes a plane trip to Texas (need accompanying amusement), a trip to my dad’s, mini road trip to my grandmother’s, actual road trip across the state to my other grandmother’s (if you do the travel math its easier and cheaper to drive) where I meet up with mom being her own airline and then return trip home.
So there are some things I am taking that I wouldn’t necessarily need for something like the Green Bay excursion or a Kailua-Kona foray.

Clothes:

  • eBags Weekender Convertible (+ REI duffle* in case of extra stuff.)
    eBags Weekender Convertible
    New Sweater
  • EBay sweater find (I don’t have a nickname for this sweater yet…though I have been calling it "new sweater" which after the other weekend at Target, it really ain’t)
  • purple long sleeve shirt
  • white long sleeve shirt
  • sage long sleeve shirt
  • black vneck merino wool sweater
  • black long sleeve shirt
  • jeans*
  • khaki zip off pants (pants/shorts)
  • yoga pants
  • layering shirt
  • hoodie I got in Monterey last weekend
  • pink/orange plaid jammie pants to go with Monterey hoodie
  • jammies
  • socks and undies
  • Keen’s
  • Mary Jane Crocs
  • scarf
  • jacket
  • miscellaneous goops and oinkments

Stuff:

  • PSP + cards (I use this for Skype and movie watching)
  • Nano + radio broadcast-y
  • Solio (this covers all of my recharging needs, though I do take my PSP wall charger for convenience.)
  • Treo + keyboard + headset
  • camera + charger
  • collapsible ice cooler (great for hotels and beach trips… or in this case road trips so you don’t feel guilty about buying one and getting rid of it.)
  • Various CD’s and DVD’s of computer files and music since I am not taking a computer but will have access to several.
  • Granite Gear shopping bag, Method Plastic Bag Rehab

 

*The REI duffle is what I used to pack my backpack in on the plane ride out for the AT and it is checkable. The EBags weekender I would prefer not to check so if I bring extra stuff home, as I always end up doing when I visit family, I can just put everything into the big REI one and check it without having to worry about it being scuffed or manhandled.
They are pretty militant about 2 carry-on things now and I know myself about having to carry and manoevre things on the plane… I get too crabby to deal with it.

Central Texas, Ooooooh!

We used to camp here when I was little

A torrent of water from an overflowing lake sliced open the earth in 2002, exposing rock formations, fossils and even dinosaur footprints in just three days. Since then, the canyon has been accessible only to researchers to protect it from vandals, but on Saturday it opens to its first public tour.

“It exposed these rocks so quickly and it dug so deeply, there wasn’t a blade of grass or a layer of algae,” said Bill Ward, a retired geology professor from the University of New Orleans who started cataloging the gorge almost immediately after the flood.

The mile-and-a-half-long gorge, up to 80 feet deep, was dug out from what had been a nondescript valley covered in mesquite and oak trees. It sits behind a spillway built as a safety valve for Canyon Lake, a popular recreation spot in the Texas Hill Country between San Antonio and Austin.

[Yahoo News]

Texas, Travel: Packing List, travelbunny

PACKING LIST: Fredericksburg, Tx

I was gone for a long weekend, and in Texas you can get a range of weather in a very short time. There’s a saying that “If you don’t like the weather in Texas, wait 15 minutes.”
Well, yeah, it happened.
I stepped out of the airport in San Antonio and started sweating – it was in the 70’s. I shucked off my down jacket and scarf (and pondered if I should have brought shorts in addition to the lightweight yoga pants that do almost as well as shorts.)
Later on that weekend it was in the upper 20’s and they shut down the airport just shortly after I flew out due to ice and freezing rain.
So saying that, I was actually completely comfy just having brought a backpack like this for the whole weekend (but mine cost $14 at Ross. The shoe pockets on the side are very handy since I put a pair of tennies in there and wore my Crocs on the plane).
I really liked this for the plane since the new regulations for the liquids in a ziploc bag rule is making me re-think my packing technique for toiletries. I put the ziploc in the top most zipper pocket so I can hand it to the stern looking security guard and I put my somewhat girly flowered half moon dry goods bag (well, whatever is left that isn’t liquid) in the mesh area previously defined for a basketball. Heh. Fits really well actually.
I also had a Longhorn’s cap in the mesh pocket, but somehow it ended up on Bud’s head instead of mine as I flew back home, so it wasn’t there on the trip back. =)

4 days in the Hill Country:

silk sweater (worn on the plane)

black Mistral pants from REI (worn on the plane)*

white tshirt

black yoga pants

khaki quick dry pants

wool zipper neck long sleeve shirt

long sleeve black t shirt

long sleeve grey shirt

bright orange long sleeve shirt

black button down short with skulls (jammies)

a pair of black long underwear (doubled as jammies)

socks and undies

down jacket

pashmina scarf

I know it seems like a lot, but frankly when I visit my mom (even for a 24 hour stretch) I have to have clothes from anything as dressy as dinner at a really posh restaurant down to running around in the mud with the poopers.
I also managed to fit all of this because all of these items by themselves are rather thin. I layer them for warmth when it is cold and leave them single when its warm. It doesn’t hurt that I tend toward the wool stuff from REI. Yes, its an investment, but I find them and snap them up when they are on sale and I wear them non-stop, so I think I am getting my moola’s worth.
The only thing I thought might have been good was one more of the white tshirts (Hanes vnecks) and my khaki yoga pants as well since I live in them.

*These are great because they have about 12 gazillion pockets to put my plane tickets, ID for security. Then later I can put my Mylo and plane toys in the pockets so I don’t have to get into my bag when I’m trapped in my seat by a sleeping, drooling person.