"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just enough baggage." (Charles Dudley Warner)
I just love vacations. Who doesn’t?
My cousin recently flew here for a visit and I was fascinated with how lightly she packed. Besides her handbag, she only had one small overhead-compartment-sized suitcase. I was amazed because she was to be here for a week! I think back to my last flight and still wonder how I managed to fit everything into one suitcase, one that would never be allowed in the passenger area of a plane.
Thankfully, most of our vacations these days are by car--though I do miss the gentle groping by TSA agents at the airport. The car allows us to bring all the comforts of home along with us. It’s hard to imagine leaving home without our pillows. How else could we survive the first night in a strange bed and wake refreshed the next morning? (Well, there are ways, but that’s another post.) And what would that morning be without our coffee maker? Yes, there is always a coffee maker in the room, but what is that stuff they try to pass off as coffee? And then there’s the fact that housekeeping never gives you enough coffee to start your day before you are forced to leave your room in search for more. It’s not as though we’re ever going to touch the decaffeinated packets, after all.
On our most recent trip, I added a power strip to our ‘must take’ baggage because there are never enough available outlets for charging phones, ebook readers, and computers. (Unplug for a week—are you kidding me?)
The hardest decisions are the clothes. My husband has a simple formula: take the number of days in the vacation and multiply by two, and that’s how many shirts to bring. Socks and underwear are slightly less. I usually wait until the last minute to decide. It works for me because, for the most part, I don’t care how I look when I’m on vacation. I have a few dress shirts, plenty of t-shirts, and if I run out of underwear, well…. Still, together, we always pack too much clothing. This time we brought back ten unworn shirts, too many socks, one pair of jeans, and sweat pants.
Beyond the toiletries and medicines, we also take snacks, bottled water (for the coffee, of course), and wine.
We’ve gotten so casual about our road trips that the only thing that goes in a suitcase are the clothes. Everything else goes in reusable grocery bags and other bags we pick up at recycling events. I feel like a homeless person while checking in; sometimes I wish they just had a shopping cart for our bags, rather than a luggage cart.
It used to be that camping was considered roughing it. Heaven forbid we should ever have to fly someplace! Then again, they do have friendly TSA agents.
What makes your vacations more relaxing?
No comments:
Post a Comment