Tag Archives: Packing

Packing To Travel For A Year

Before we left on our trip, one of the first questions friends asked was “What will you bring with you?” – usually my (women) friends and usually incredulously.

This post is a long-overdue answer to that question and also because my friend Peter challenged me that even with all my careful shopping the contents of our packs will be completely different by the time we get back to Seattle. (Full pack lists are at the bottom of this post.)

We packed four days worth of clothes each. The boys each have four pairs of convertible pants, four t-shirts, undies and socks. Murph has a shirts rather than t-shirts. My wardrobe is a little more varied: I have one dress, one skirt and two pairs of convertible pants; I have three t-shirts and two light wool tops from Ibex. We each have a set of thermal undies, flip-flops, low hiking shoes, a fleece sweater and swimwear. In the specialized gear category we each have a silk sleep sack, a large travel towel and either a bandanna or a hat. We all have Petzl headlamps (extremely useful) and a light rain shell jacket.

We bought almost everything at either REI or ExOfficio – OK, except the Ibex tops I have which were a splurge. We did have some gear (such as long undies and rain jackets) already, but since both of the boys had grown a lot in the past twelve months, they needed new clothes and shoes anyway. Shoes were our largest single expense at about $100 each. It didn’t help that my kids are both in adult shoe sizes.

Even though I know that you can buy clothing in every country, I did go out of my way to research products in advance with two things in mind: CAM is notoriously difficulty to dress (this is a kid who has previously had year-long phases of wearing just one particular brand of jeans); specialty gear such as convertible pants are very handy when traveling but can be ridiculously expensive to buy outside the U.S.

One small fashion note: I a-g-o-n-i-z-e-d about wearing convertible pants. There’s just no way to make them look anything but dorky. In the end, I couldn’t justify packing both pants and shorts and so I went looking for the least offensive pair of convertibles that I could find.

The total approximate cost to kit us out for a year? $1500.

We also have a bunch of electronics – camera, netbook, kindles, iphone – most of which we had already. The kids started with a school packet each containing workbooks, paper, a fully-stocked pencilcase and a journal notebook. (Since BigB’s backpack was stolen in Arica, he’s skipping math until we can get a new copy of his math book but we’ve replaced everything else). We’re using backpacks that we had already. We have a basic medical kit which I re-stocked from our local drugstore before we left and basic toiletries.

So there you have it. We’ll see if Peter is right and we’re all wearing completely different clothes by the time we get home.

Full Packing Lists
BigB: 4x REI boy’s convertible pants, 2 cotton t-shirts, 2 technical t-shirts, 1 Eddie Bauer fleece sweater, 1 pair of REI boy’s thermal underwear, Lands’ End swimsuit + swimshirt, 1 Sierra Designs light rain jacket, 3x ExOfficio men’s briefs, 3x Thorlo hiking socks, 1x Merrell low hiking boots.
CAM: Almost identical to BigB except his pants are REI men’s small and the swimwear is Quicksilver.
Murph: 2x REI men’s convertible pants, 2x ExOffico pants, 2x ExOfficio long-sleeved shirts, 2x Columbia short-sleeved shirt, 1x North Face shell, 4x ExOfficio undies, 1x thermal undies (no clue what the brand is, we had these already), 3x Smartwool socks, 1x Merrell low hiking boots.
Me : 1x North Face convertible pants, 1x ExOfficio Amphi pants, 1x REI Pinyon Peak skirt (black), 1x ExOfficio travel dress (black), 1x North Face printed t-shirt, 1x REI OXT t-shirt, 1x ExOfficio ExO Dri t-shirt, 2x Ibex fine wool short-sleeved tops, 1x Lowe fleece, 1x REI rain shell, 1x Teva light hiking boots, 3x Smartwool socks, 4x ExOfficio undies, 1x Snow Angel thermal underwear.

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Teen Packing

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Teen Packing

Teen boy. 14 years old. Three-day school trip. Mom late for work. Bag assumed ready to go for drop-off at 8am. Obviously we need to work on the differences between what “ready” means to me and “ready” means to him!

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Mountainsmith Modular Hauler: A Rave About A Bag

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I never thought I’d rave about a bag. I mean, there are legions of people who rave about fashion bags and I, in my jeans-and-t-shirt-wearing, geek gal style, am not one of those. But I have a weakness for things utterly practical – my husband likes to joke that Storables is my favorite shop – and so today I’m unashamedly raving about the Modular Hauler Bag by Mountainsmith.

This bag is the ultimate road trip accessory for any traveling family.

We usually road trip in the winter, driving three to five hours to ski. Skiing is an expensive hobby so I’ve tried to keep costs down in two ways: by bargain-hunting for accommodation and by bringing everything we need with us – even to the point of bringing the fixings for a turkey dinner for eight with us when we spent Thanksgiving in Whistler last year. Similarly, when we take a weekend away in the Pacific Northwest at any time, I usually start my trip by menu planning and stopping by the grocery store.

But, packing food for four as well as all the other things you need for a weekend away is a non-trivial exercise. A standard cooler is great for keeping food cold, but it takes up a large chunk of valuable space in the trunk – much of which is wasted if you really only need to keep a small amount of meat, fish or chicken cold. Coolers are also rigid which can make them difficult to pack in a standard trunk and difficult to tuck other bags or equipment around.

The Mountainsmith Modular Hauler has some great structural features such as reinforced side-access and haul handles and a waterproof and abrasion-resistant rubber bottom. This is nice because even though the sides and top of the bag – which are quilted – are less rigid, the base of the bag is solid making it easy to pack around. But for me, this bag’s pièce de résistance is the three interior “cubes” (I don’t know why they’re called cubes because they’re distinctly non-cuboid in shape): each cube is a separate top-loading bag with internal foam padding and a full zippered top with tote-style carrying handles. So essentially you have four bags for the price of one with a whopping 5500 cubic inches of total storage.

I tested this bag on our trip to the San Juan Islands for Labor Day using a bag provided by Mountainsmith (thanks!). For a four-day trip, I used one of the interior cubes as a cold sack liberally lining it with cold packs from my freezer and then adding food. I packed dry foods in a second cube and used the third for games and toys. All neatly held together in the main compartment. My OCD-heart thrilled at such efficient organization After we unpacked in our rental house, I was able to use one of the cube/totes as a day bag and on our way home, I folded up two of the cubes (since we had significantly less food to carry home with us) and used the main compartment for dirty clothes.

At $129, this bag is not cheap but if you road-trip frequently it’s a worthwhile investment.

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Handheld Video Games, Kids And Travel

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My kids travel with their Nintendos
I’m not particularly proud of this fact, but that’s because I have a love-hate relationship with video games in general. I love the way they keep my children entertained – sometimes for hours at a time – but I can’t stand the way they keep my children occupied to the exclusion of everything else that’s going on around them.

That said, there is no doubt that in today’s world of over-booked flights, flight delays and other such traveling silliness, I have personally experienced how a good Nintendo game can be a parental life-saver. We were flying from Seattle to Puerto Vallarta via Phoenix. Our two-hour layover became four, then six hours. We boarded and de-planed twice. We shuffled on and off the plane through dinner time and the kid’s normal bed time. They were completely unfazed. CAM, at 10, had a new game for his Nintendo DS. BigB, at six was utterly fascinated watching his big brother play. We just lugged our baggage (carry-on only) on and off the plane and let them at it.

Managing video game use while traveling

The uneasy bargain that I have with my children with respect to their beloved Nintendos and my love of immersing them in new cultures and new places is that I try to enforce a “video games are for playing while we’re in transit” rule. There are subtle nuances to this rule: I’d prefer if they only used their Nintendos on the flights to and from our destination; they’d prefer if they could use them every time they sit in a plane, train or automobile. You can imagine the ensuing negotiations. But, even though CAM once exclaimed “Of all the moms in the world, why did I get stuck with you?” specifically because this particular rule, it does work most of the time.

I have been known to hide the Nintendos once we arrive at our destination. Ssh, don’t tell my kids. They always magically reappear when we’re about to board our return flight. And in the time in between, I pay for my choice by being soundly beaten in Scrabble and Set by CAM but also having many raucous games of Uno or Rat-A-Tat-Cat with both of the boys.

Managing video game accessories while traveling

The games are tiny, the power cords have an annoying habit of being left behind in our rented accommodation and the devices themselves are frequently rescued from pockets just in the nick of time – barely escaping the over-sized washing machines of laudromats all over Europe. (I have discovered that Nintendo games can survive the washer and the dryer and still function quite well).

We’ve lost way too many games while traveling. To me, this is one of those parental trade-offs which we make in the hope of teaching life lessons: if my children are responsible for their own games the benefit is that they will learn to look after their own games. The risk, of course, is losing games and the expense of replacing those games. Unless there’s really special circumstances, if CAM or BigB lose a game when we’re on the road, they chose whether or not they want to replace it out of their own savings or pocket-money. No discussion. So far, consternation and lamentations aside, that’s also worked out pretty well.

I find that game cases such as the CaseLogic Nintendo DS Game Case are a great tool to help your child keep track of his games, his DS and all the other DS paraphernalia while traveling.

What do you think?
Do you have a rant or rave about handheld video games for kids in general? Have you allowed your children to use them at home or while traveling? Do you perhaps allow them for traveling but not at home? And if so, how do you get your child to go along with that??

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