Packing and Bags October 23, 2008

I travel light.  I don’t like to carry stuff, so I do everything I can to leave stuff at home.  Since the days of the airline liquid ban, I have also found it more convenient to travel with those little pre-soaped cloths than a bottle of liquid face soap, which is also apt to spill all over the few clothes I do bring.  And I leave in my suitcase at all times a prepacked zippy bag of travel-sized soaps and creams, just so I don’t forget.  On my trip to Charleston, I forgot my hairbrush.  I could have bought one, but rather than acquire more stuff, I decided to experiment to see how not brushing my hair would go over.  It worked out really well (shoulder length hair), especially given the rain which was ruinous to begin with.

So that’s in my suitcase.  But what about day-tripping out of the hotel?  Take a backpack?  A purse?  I don’t like the way the backpack works, not only because the zipper is out of your sight (crime!), but because they’re so unwieldy in restaurants and small spaces.  I have banged into so many people with my backpack, I figure I owe strangers a little better than that.  A purse, however, is not large enough to carry the things I have with me: one guidebook, water bottle, umbrella, pen, paper, phone, wallet, camera (which is not small).  So today I invested in a little messenger bag.  I like that messenger bags sling across your body, redistributing some of the weight better than a hand or shoulder bag.  The big ones are too big, but this one seems like it will be just right.  I am looking forward to traveling stylishly AND functionally to Germany in just over a week.

Lasik in Travel October 8, 2008

This is only slightly related to travel, but how about that fortune cookie post, huh?! Was that related?? No.  Next week I am going to see the Lasik doctor.  I like to think that I am getting inspected, and as long as they don’t call me funny looking, I’m in.  I’ve been waiting all year, since about January 20th, to get this done, and it’s only because of the FSA money that I’ll save that I haven’t done it yet.  Over the course of a lifetime, Lasik is not “cost effective”.  I mean, if I live 70 more years, I will never spend as much in my lifetime on contacts and glasses and eye doctors as I will on this one procedure.  But there are so many perks that this luxury is totally worth it.

I want to wake up in the morning and see the clock.  And in thinking about my upcoming trips, I want to not have to pack contacts and solution.  I want to not worry about losing glasses or contacts and running around blind for a week.  I want to swim and scuba and not worry about losing a contact.  And most of all, I want this scratch right in the center of my current glasses to be gone, and I never want to hassle with another one!  I can’t wait.  I will be in the office having it done January 2nd, hopefully!

Overplanning the Overplanned September 13, 2007

It’s not long before we leave for the Caribbean! It does always seem, however, that the days get longer and become uncountably many as vacations approach. I’ve found that I’m spending of my more mundane moments at work daydreaming about not only how pretty the beaches are and what it will be like to just lay on them mindlessly, but also of what the inside of my suitcase is going to look like, packed. Since we bought the flipper/snorkel sets, I have dedicated what might amount to hours figuring out how they will fit into my suitcase or if they should become carry-ons. Questions like this one plague me endlessly even though I know that once I actually start packing they will resolve themselves within minutes.

When I’m not dedicated to my packing list or dreaming of how I will reposition myself for ultimate sun exposure I’m obsessing over where and what we’re going to eat. I’ve said before that after a few days I get sick of dining out, so I’m trying to come to a reasonable conclusion about all the facets of what I can only think of as island food. I’m very excited to be having conch fritters at some point. But how many times will I eat conch fritters? And where on the island is the best place for conch fritters? Certainly I don’t want my first conch-experience to be mediocre! Should I also have a conch salad or conch sandwich? Is it too much conch for one week? What are my other options? I’ve turned to the Fodor’s Caribbean website to help me answer these questions.

When we went to Rome I used the Fodor’s Europe website to answer many of my Roman-related questions. Since my questions aren’t exactly novel, I don’t post, I just snoop off of what other people have asked and answered. For our trip to Rome we made a short list of must-eat restaurants based on recommendations, and I don’t think we actually ate at a single one of them. So do I bother making a similar list for St Thomas and St John? There are far fewer restaurants to choose from on the islands, and part of me imagines that the bad ones would go out of business eventually, leaving behind only the yummier digs. Plus, something we learned in Rome, people are exceptionally willing to send you to their favorite restaurant once you actually arrive at your destination, so maybe there is no need for preplanning. Or overplanning.

Finally, our timeshare/hotel has a kitchenette, so part of the plan is to drop by the Kmart on the island in our Jeep to pick up cereal and other basics for the week. I’m quite excited about seeing an Island Kmart, mostly because they purportedly sell liquor. Rum is only $4 per bottle. I’ve never thought of Kmart as a purveyor of anything but cheap toys and housewares, and certainly they have never in my mind sold liquor! It will be a photo for the scrapbooks.

It’s fun to think about travel, almost as much as it is to actually travel, and I know when we return I’ll start (over)planning our next vacation. Until then, I’ll be daydreaming more and more of my days away and overplanning this upcoming, but still too far-off, vacation. Which law of physics is it that makes vacations seem farthest away when they’re so close!