I'm writing this post from the American Express Lounge in the Toronto Pearson International Airport. At 6:00 AM, J and I got into our car and drove down to Orlando to fly up here. The flight was pretty uneventful, though in the past year or so, I have noticed that children and teenagers tend to use their tablets/phones to watch movies and play games without using headphones, and parents don't do much about it. So, I was reading my book (Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, to get in the mood), listening to the wonderful sounds of Angry Birds.
Anyway, this past week has been pretty crazy at work, as it seems that everyone decided they needed EVERYTHING from us before we left. We were only too ready to get out of town and away from it all. However, J was not able to finish everything on Friday and spent a GREAT DEAL of time at his office yesterday, which resulted in a last-minute frantic packing session (for him) which terminated at approximately midnight. When we had to leave the house six hours later.
Fortunately, I am not as much of a procrastinator as J, and earlier this week, I decided to try a "test run" with my new backpack to see how everything fit. I bought the Osprey Farpoint 70 backpacks for J and I to use, and I have to admit, I haven't looked at them in a while. I read a ton of backpacking websites which all said that 70L was HUGE, that you should only bring a 55L pack MAX for a trip which would last for MONTHS, and basically, anything this big was completely unnecessary. So in my head, this backpack looked much like a Harry Potter tent--small on the outside, but endlessly roomy on the inside.
My. Mistake.
In fact, a backpack does NOT fit that much stuff, no matter how big it is. J only brought one regular pair of shoes (that he is wearing), and a pair of flip flops. I have one pair I'm wearing, another pair and a pair of Havianas in my bag and it was a tight fit.
One of the neatest packing tricks I picked up from reading all my blogs, however, was the use of packing cubes. These amazing inventions help keep your clothing/items very organized in your backpack, and also help compress everything down. Behold:
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| J's packing cubes |
All of our stuff is neatly compressed in these cubes, and the cubes can be rearranged like jenga pieces in the backpack. We found that our backpacks were able to hold one large cube, one medium cube, and three "slim" cubes. We have a couple of small cubes that we are using in our carry-ons for electronics and toiletries. We are also using the eBags "pack it flat" toiletry kit, which holds a surprising amount in a very flat package.
At the end of the day, this is how much luggage is coming with us to India for two weeks:
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| Sadly, the cat did not come with us |
I also have a large purse with me. But not too bad for a couple who brought enormous spinner suitcases on a week-long jaunt to Washington DC last summer!
Anyway, I will get back to enjoying the wares of the lounge (there is a great espresso machine here) as we wait for our flight this evening. Next time I write, I will hopefully be in India, enjoying this great adventure!
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| Our first official trip selfie from the Orlando airport |
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