Luggage, Travel: Packing List, travelbunny

PACKING LIST:Super-cool reusable Trader Joe’s Grocery Bags



Super-cool reusable Trader Joe’s Grocery Bags, originally uploaded by pondblue.

Remember in Friends where they all go to the beach and Joey shows up with a paper bag…?

Joey: (walking up carrying a brown paper bag) Hey!

Monica: Oh, hey! Oh good, you brought food!

Joey: No, it’s just my luggage.

yeah well this particular packing list is sort of like that…but with a Trader Joe’s reusable bag.
They are the perfect size, sturdy, cool looking and are wonderful even if you can’t really sling them over your shoulder (but really, if I was THAT concerned with it, I wouldn’t be using Joey Luggage.)

For a last minute “Hey! let’s jump in the car after work run off down the coast this weekend!*” like in college. (yes you are allowed to stock up on munchies at Trader Joe’s on the way out.)

  • Trader Joe’s grocery bag
  • Trader Joe’s citrus sampler kit
  • towel
  • swimsuit
  • yoga pants
  • polar fleece sweatshirt
  • bandanna

*We’ll assume you don’t have prior commitments, your cell phone is charged and you don’t have pets that will starve without you there.

Travel: Packing List

Packing List:3 days in a car with my cousin

Clothes

  • Orange Crush Tshirt (jammies)
  • orange flip flops
  • Nick and Nora Ports of Call jammies
  • Polarfleece v-neck sweatshirt
  • REI Denali quick dry pants (dark khaki)
  • 2 black tshirts
  • white tshirt
  • fish t-shirt
  • jacket (haven’t decided which one yet)
  • Keen’s
  • socks and undies

Stuff

I will probably be hyperventilating being away from Bunny for more than 12 hours, Tex will be with her, but I keep going back to the point that it is several days of the rest of her life that I am missing out on…Maybe I should add Prozac to the fucking list.

Backpacking, Ooooooh!, travelbunny

Relevant ;)

from Mystic Bliss:

WHAT TO BRING FOR A TREK IN BHUTAN

PERSONAL CLOTHING: Strong normal clothing (according to season). Preferably cotton even for summer, woolen clothing for the evening and winter.

FOR TREKING ONE MUST BRING:
1. Sleeping Bag (down, 0-5 O C)
2. Strong comfortable trekking boots-water resistant for the rainy period (June-August)
3 .Sunscreen
4. Flashlight
5. Rain Coat (especially for rainy period-June-August)
6. Head gear/hat./cap; sun and rain protection
7. Water pills- for extra caution in purifying stream water: (boil water is provided a times during the trek)
8.Aspirin- in case of altitude sickness
9. Lots of socks
10. Warm undergarments

OPTION ITEMS TO BRING:
Sunglasses
Headgear
Folding umbrella (only for wet months-July and August)
One Towel
Pillow Case
Wet-packaged tissue paper

Texas, travelbunny

If you don’t like the weather in Texas

just wait 15 minutes.

I arrived Saturday to 75 degree weather and stopped by to see Kramer’s parents (who fed me the most amazing Mexican food) before I headed up to daddy’s house.
Sunday was lovely as well.
Sunday night we decided to cover the rental car with tarps (folded for padding) to prevent a repeat of what happened to one of my cars in college-serious hail damage. I wasn’t interested in the rental company trying to stick me with a large bill. It was fine, rainy but fine.

The next day (after a long icky night full of snot and tornado warnings – I did get sick – I’m totally sexy right now – honk.) I woke up and put on flip flops and a tshirt and looked at the weather station my dad has and noticed that it was about 40 degrees and dropping steadily. So I put on more than that and we went out to lunch.

That night, we watched the weather on the web show us a monster cold front moving all over the part of North Texas we were in. After letting the dog in we watched as big, fat flakes of snow started to fall.

We got about 3 inches in the few hours before I went to bed. I woke up to the rental covered in about 5 inches of snow and the weather about 68 degrees again.

Gotta love it.

Today I wore my orange flip flops and my new orange and red tie dyed shirt from a local pub while I ran out for Starbucks and breakfast burritos from Taco Cabana (breakfast of champions, baby.)

To date its been a lot of sleeping, knitting, and hooking Pam II on knitting (she isn’t in love with knitting at this point, but its only been about 2 hours for her so far-though I think she wants to love knitting because the yarn is so lovely to play with.) There are cats to snuggle with, a farting dog and lots of mexican food and brisket.
Not too bad.

Off to grama’s tomorrow and then on to Kermit. I’m looking forward to the road trip.
😉

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.

travelbunny

17/50 (34%)

Where have I been?

1. Times Square, New York City, NY: 35 million visitors every year

2. National Mall & Memorial Parks, Washington, D.C. (Washington Monument, Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials,the war memorials): About 25 million 1999.

3. Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Lake Buena Vista, Fla.: 16.6 million

4. Trafalgar Square, London, England: 15 million

5. Disneyland Park, Anaheim, Calif.: 14.7 million

6. Niagara Falls, Ontario and New York: 14 million

7. Fisherman’s Wharf/Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco, Calif.: 13 million

8. Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea, Tokyo, Japan: 12.9 million

9. Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, France: 12 million.

10. Disneyland Paris, Marne-La-Vallee, France: 10.6 million

11. The Great Wall of China, Badaling area, China: About 10 million

12. The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina: 9.2 million

13. Universal Studios Japan, Osaka, Japan: 8.5 million

14. Basilique du Sacré-Coeur de Montmartre, Paris, France: 8 million

15. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France: 7.5 million

16. Everland (amusement park), Kyonggi-Do, South Korea: 7.5 million

17. The Forbidden City/Tiananmen Square, Beijing, China: At least 7 million

18. Eiffel Tower, Paris, France: 6.7 million

19. Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure at Universal Orlando, Fla: 6 million

20. SeaWorld Florida, Orlando, Fla: 5,740,000

21. Pleasure Beach (amusement park), Blackpool, England: 5.7 million

22. Lotte World (amusement park), Seoul, South Korea: 5.5 million

23. Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, Japan: 5.4 million

24. Hong Kong Disneyland, China: 5.2 million

25. Centre Pompidou, Paris, France: 5.1 million

26. Tate Modern, London, England: 4.9 million

27. British Museum, London, England: 4.8 million

28. Universal Studios Los Angeles, Calif.: 4.7 million

29. National Gallery, London, England: 4.6 million

30. Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY: 4.5 million

31. Grand Canyon, Ariz.: 4.4 million

32. Tivoli Gardens (amusement park), Copenhagen, Denmark: 4.4 million

33. Ocean Park (amusement park), Hong Kong, China: 4.38 million

34. Busch Gardens (amusement park), Tampa Bay, Fla.: 4.36 million

35. SeaWorld California, San Diego, Calif.: 4.26 million

36. Statue of Liberty, New York, NY: 4.24 million Well, I sailed past it on the ferry

37. The Vatican and its museums, Rome, Italy: 4.2 million

38. Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia: More than 4 million

39. The Coliseum, Rome, Italy: 4 million

40. American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY: 4 million

41. Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Hollywood, Calif.: 4 million

42. Empire State Building, New York, NY: 4 million

43. Natural History Museum, London, England: 3.7 million

44. The London Eye, London, England: 3.5 million

45. Palace of Versailles, France: 3.45 million

46. Yosemite National Park, Calif.: 3.44 million

47. Pyramids of Giza, Egypt: 3 million

48. Pompeii, Italy: 2.5 million

49. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia: 2.5 million

50. Taj Mahal, Agra, India: 2.4 million

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]

Paris, Travel: Europe, Travel: Packing List

PACKING LIST: Backpacking around Europe

cafe in paris
I studied in Paris in college (oh the things we did… ah youth.) and then my cousin and I traveled around for a month or two after I got out of classes.

Bag:
Granite Gear Vapor Pack
or
Eagle Creek Voyage 65L Travel Pack or a Eagle Creek Switchback and daypack or purse like the EC Drifter*

*remember you have to carry this comfortably even when you have your full pack on, so a daypack that doesn’t attach can be a tedious chore and I tend to hand things that I have to work to carry to the nearest busker as a tip.

Clothes:

  • Black pants
  • Khaki Cargo pants
  • Really good walking shoes (I use Keen’s or my Merrell boots-I’ll leave it to you to decide yours, just remember that you need good foot/ankle support as you are carrying all your stuff (perhaps 20 pounds) on you for long distances on hard surfaces.)
  • black tshirts
  • sleep shirt or light sweatshirt (you can always buy clothes when you are there… I actually prefer this… especially on beaches, the roadside vendors always have the coolest clothes.)
  • a skirt
  • shorts
  • Socks (smartwool)
  • Undies (ex
    officio magic undies    )
  • 2 scarves (I use the pashminas-useful as a blanket or a scarf)
  • Jammies/hotel wear (I tend to go with yoga pants as mine are quick drying and can double as another pair of pants.)

Stuff:

  • swimsuit – for the beach and less-than-private shower facilities
  • crocs/ flipflops / shower shoes – I like Crocs because I can walk in them for long distances, but they can be a bit bulky (though for the ladies, the Mary Janes are much more manageable). However, they are waterproof and if you are staying in hostels (or skeevy hotels 😉 ) you want to wear these in the shower. Really.
  • Camera+charger and spare cards
  • A book (and just trade someone for a different one when you are done. Works on the AT, works in the rest of the world.)
  • journal
  • A thumbdrive (and portableapps configured***) for internet cafes -card adapter for your camera** card + place on the web to upload them (flickr or XDrive, etc)
  • Silk Sleep sack (good for both hostels or when the harsh chemicals that they wash sheets in hotels in burn your skin as they do mine. This is also good for adding another +10 degree rating to your sleeping bag without adding a ton of weight or having to buy a new one.)
  • toiletries

**or, instead of chargers, bring along your USB cables (bonus if multiple things you have charge off of mini USB) and bring a Solio [My review | Amazon] and its wall charger. You can tie to the top of your backpack and let it charge in the Cezanne-esque light of the valleys in Central France or plug it into the wall where you are staying.)

***just install portable apps to a directory on your WIN machine and start using it. After about 2 weeks of regular use you will have all your bookmarks and setup about like you like it (actually, I recommend you do this anyway as a backup). Then just copy it to your thumbdrive and go play! Another sneaky trick is to double up on the adapter and put a memory card in it to hold your portable apps instead of buying a thumbdrive (and portable apps sits quite happily on a 512M card, so you can use old cards that aren’t big enough to hold your larger pixel depth images from your camera.)

….or you can just put a bunch of clean underwear in a backpack and go! (As a matter of fact, my cousin put two skirts, two shirts and clean undies in a carry-on bag and did just this.)