We are relieved this year to not be leaving home until October. Leaving September 7 last year meant we effectively lost half of our summer to trip preparation. This year we didn't kick things into high gear until September 1, and while the past month was very busy, it wasn't as physically challenging as we've experienced in the past. Sure, there are many projects left undone but they will be waiting for us next year. They always are.
I am trying a different approach to packing medications this year. In the past I've simply mixed all the morning meds in one big bottle and the nighttime meds in another, and sorted out the appropriate pills each time I took them. That works fine for 60 days or less, but gets considerably more cumbersome when the days stretch to 90 or more. Then I thought I'd pick up my three month supply of meds when I refilled my prescriptions and take all the bottles with me; the timeframe exactly coincided with our longest possible time away. Added to those bottles the supplements I take and my carry on suitcase was filled with half-empty bottles (did you ever notice how vitamin bottles are about 1/3 full even when new? Talk about excess packaging!). There had to be a better way.
I found it on a trip to Target when I spotted little Ziploc medication bags. They were very inexpensive and worth a try, especially as I know others swear by them. Sure, it was horribly tedious setting up 91 bags for mornings and another 91 for evenings plus a few extra just in case, but the work is now done, and I won't be spending time sorting pills on the ship. Plus, they save a lot of space, fitting easily in one gallon size Ziploc bag. My doctor prescribed Ambien for the flight, and that is the only drug that I am taking in its original bottle. I'll let you know how I like this system after living with it for a few months, and whether or not I get stopped at immigration (I seriously doubt it, but I've been proven wrong before).
Though it has built in wifi, we also purchased a cable to download photos directly from the SD card in the camera to my iPad. It's instantaneous and makes viewing and editing photos exponentially easier. Gone (and good riddance!) are the days of Bluetoothing one photo at a time from one device to another so I could upload them to my blog. I won't even have to wifi or AirDrop them over. This $29 cable will save me hours- and much frustration -this season alone. Now fingers crossed for adequate photo-uploading wifi quality!
The twins got me totally hooked on the dice game Farkel this summer, and I was thrilled to find an app for it. I predict it will provide lots of mindless entertainment during our transatlantic sea days...and it might just help explain part of the summer's planning procrastination. Between Farkel and the NCAA Championships and the NBA finals and the Olympics and now football season and Will and Kate in Canada, who had time to research Korčula, Croatia?
Other apps from past years will no doubt prove highly useful again: Google Translate (which was purchased from WordLens and provides offline translations), Maps.me for offline maps and Currency XE for currency translation. You might remember that Google Translate (then WordLens) saved us in French Polynesia when we spent 10 days at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti and shopped for groceries and hair color at the Carrefour in Papeete.
Sigh.
Still, it was a rare day last month when we didn't have some kind of appointment or commitment (or several) on our calendar. We really treasured the days we could spend at home, doing fall yard clean up and packing and planning and cleaning and checking things off our many 'to-do' lists.
Packing required a bit more thought this year. This trip is not at all like our Caribbean and South Pacific cruises, but resembles more closely our Transpacific and South America cruises. We are leaving behind all of our beach gear, and that's one whole suitcase-full of items, but the clothes we are taking instead are heavier and bulkier. Still, we need a few warm weather clothes just in case we do the Caribbean cruise (Have I mentioned that I want to be home for Christmas? I know I have, but have I mentioned it lately?) We'll be experiencing temperature ranges from mild to chilly to cold to hot.
The first item I placed in the packing pile is the Goretex jacket I'd purchased in 2001 for a cruise around South America. It's accompanied me on both Transpacific cruises, our Alaska cruise and a trip to China. It's the perfect layering component. It's also one of only two jackets I own (I've told you I'm a minimalist; one jacket for rain, the other for snow. Who needs any more?). I added a headband, gloves, a fleece pullover and a travel vest and considered myself set for a variety of weather conditions.
I'm taking four pair of slacks (including evening and formal slacks) and three pair of shorts (including workout shorts), four long sleeved t-shirts and four short sleeved t-shirts. Add two three jackets for formal nights, four tops and a pashmina for non-formal evenings, two pair of shoes (I'm wearing the heaviest pair) and one two pair of sandals and that's the bulk of what I'm taking for three months of cruising.
Toiletries, as always, are my downfall. Anything that could be moved into a smaller container has been, but, for three months, I need full-sizes of most items. Still, we decided just today to pony up $100 for a third suitcase between us. There are simply too many things (portable Waterpik, Sonicare toothbrushes, neti pot and saline packets, etc.) that allow us to stay healthier that we just don't want to leave behind, and, in the end, $100 is cheaper than a sinus infection or any dental treatments. And I immediately and happily added back several other items that didn't make the original cut (cuticle cream, nail polish, Clear Care for contacts, a collapsible walking stick, sandals for formal night and my own soap). It's definitely worth an extra $1+ per day on average to have most of the comforts of home.
Oh, by the way, do you know the over the door shoe rack I swear by on cruises? I don't know why I've never realized this before, but these work just as well at home. I cleaned and restored all the bathroom cabinetry in the house over the summer and vowed to never let a damp hand touch a cabinet door or drawer again. I purchased this one for $5 on eBay, and it is hidden behind the open bathroom door. It also keeps all clutter off the bathroom counter, a very good thing!
I am trying a different approach to packing medications this year. In the past I've simply mixed all the morning meds in one big bottle and the nighttime meds in another, and sorted out the appropriate pills each time I took them. That works fine for 60 days or less, but gets considerably more cumbersome when the days stretch to 90 or more. Then I thought I'd pick up my three month supply of meds when I refilled my prescriptions and take all the bottles with me; the timeframe exactly coincided with our longest possible time away. Added to those bottles the supplements I take and my carry on suitcase was filled with half-empty bottles (did you ever notice how vitamin bottles are about 1/3 full even when new? Talk about excess packaging!). There had to be a better way.
I found it on a trip to Target when I spotted little Ziploc medication bags. They were very inexpensive and worth a try, especially as I know others swear by them. Sure, it was horribly tedious setting up 91 bags for mornings and another 91 for evenings plus a few extra just in case, but the work is now done, and I won't be spending time sorting pills on the ship. Plus, they save a lot of space, fitting easily in one gallon size Ziploc bag. My doctor prescribed Ambien for the flight, and that is the only drug that I am taking in its original bottle. I'll let you know how I like this system after living with it for a few months, and whether or not I get stopped at immigration (I seriously doubt it, but I've been proven wrong before).
White for morning, blue for evening, reusable and less than $5.50 for 200.
My Goretex jacket may be 15 years old, and some of my clothes have cruised almost as often as I have, but I have a weakness when it comes to technology, and splurged on a set of Bose noise cancelling ear buds. G actually insisted I buy them (he shares the weakness)- we have our long flight to Venice and then two more fairly long flights later in the winter- and I am becoming increasingly noise sensitive. The earbuds are quite impressive at cancelling loud humming noises and dogs barking and babies crying; however, they don't offer much relief from my husband's blaring TV. NCIS and Family Guy still come through loud and clear (grrrr...).
And, finally, leaving our iPhones on the ship means we won't have our iPhone cameras with us in port. Except for the underwater camera I bought for last winter (after its slight water leakage in Jamaica, it was returned for a full credit. Gotta love Sams Club!), we didn't have a decent one. We also didn't want to spend a lot of money, and just wanted a simple point and shoot camera. We chose the discontinued Nikon Coolpix S7000. It's 20x optical zoom and cheap price were the biggest draws, but I've had Nikons in the past and loved them.
It weighs 5 ounces and is 1 inch thick, and fits in an inside vest pocket.
Source: Amazon.com
Though it has built in wifi, we also purchased a cable to download photos directly from the SD card in the camera to my iPad. It's instantaneous and makes viewing and editing photos exponentially easier. Gone (and good riddance!) are the days of Bluetoothing one photo at a time from one device to another so I could upload them to my blog. I won't even have to wifi or AirDrop them over. This $29 cable will save me hours- and much frustration -this season alone. Now fingers crossed for adequate photo-uploading wifi quality!
Major shopping completed, we turned our attention to our usual trip preparation. The tasks are many but more familiar every year: Christmas cards were in envelopes and given to a friend on September 9 for December mailing, the grass was cut lower with each mowing, perennials and the tomatoes were cut back, security cams were programmed, the furnace ducts were cleaned and the system started, and every garbage day involved a massive purge of leftovers from summer projects. We finished up doctor and dentist appointments, bought new glasses and contacts and dealt with the unexpected medical things that seem to come up every year just before we leave.
The biggest change for us this year is that our friend Martha has moved 20 miles away (sob), and we've rearranged house watching and mail collecting responsibilities a bit (we have the best neighbors anywhere!) but after six years of doing this, even those tasks are as simplified as possible.
We've loaded up our iDevices with plenty of videos, music, books, magazines and games, not that these initial itineraries offer a lot of downtime. Friend Suzan made me aware of the fact that many of Amazon Prime's videos are downloadable. Did the rest of the world already know this? I thought it was streaming only, and had always shied away from the annual commitment due to our months of travel. Well, no longer. We purchased a membership in April and are leaving home with the limit of 25 movies downloaded on my iPad. Amazon Prime also proved to be a lifesaver in getting small things shipped to Mom for free all summer long.
Bookbub.com offered some interesting free books set in or about the Mediterranean area.
I love reading books related to our travels while on a cruise.
Other apps from past years will no doubt prove highly useful again: Google Translate (which was purchased from WordLens and provides offline translations), Maps.me for offline maps and Currency XE for currency translation. You might remember that Google Translate (then WordLens) saved us in French Polynesia when we spent 10 days at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti and shopped for groceries and hair color at the Carrefour in Papeete.
And finally, we made sure we had enough cash in the account linked to our ATM card to see us through far more sightseeing than we actually have planned. We had investigated some of the international fee-free ATM cards, but were a little scared off by what we read about their exchange rates. In the end, we're sticking with what's worked in the past, and are leaving with two fee-free credit cards and two ATM cards...and some assorted Euros to get us started.
This is the first time we've left in the fall without finishing up a major outdoor project after dark in the evenings just days before we left. It was an unfamiliar feeling, though definitely not an unwelcome one. Still, I could have predicted what would happen next. Because we pushed ourselves so hard to get everything done during the first three weeks in September, my packing was nearly done six full days before we were leaving.
This was taken last Monday. Coincidentally, the daybed cover and pillows in the spare bedroom
are also home-sewn, made in the days before threading the sewing machine needle
became almost as challenging as actually sewing.
Naturally, I got a little antsy. It wasn't that there weren't a lot of things left to do; it was simply too early to do most of them, like half days of appointments for the past two days, final laundry and house cleaning duties, one last safe deposit box run, anything related to garden hoses and the sprinkler system, a final gas fill up and all the usual last minute personal beautification projects.
With time on my hands, I started thinking about the third formal night we will have if we do the 14-night holiday cruise, and impulsively decided to sew a new jacket to wear for it. I've had this piece of fabric for 26 years- I fell in love with it when I saw it but never had a specific plan for it- so I pulled it out of a storage tub in the sewing room (also known as the packing room and a spare bedroom). Without even considering whether I had everything I needed to actually sew a jacket (i.e. enough fabric, certainly, but thread and interfacing too; I was too ambivalent about doing this to make an unplanned run to the fabric store), I was digging out a well used pattern and using a table on the deck to lay out and cut the fabric.
Luckily, I did have a large spool of black thread and was able to piece together enough interfacing to make a basic, unconstructed jacket. My nearly forty year old sewing machine and even older husband both cooperated fully, and I spent one day listening to an audio book and actually sewing an item of clothing for the first time in years. After confirming with G that he didn't want a matching formal tie and cummerbund (way too precious and prom-like for my guy), I lengthened the jacket and added side slits. The final result is a bit 'solid gold dancer meets lab coat' but I've decided it will be a perfect third jacket to wear with my pared down formal attire of black slacks and camisole this season.
Apparently I have to tackle a project of some sort in the days before we leave!
In the end, G decided that perhaps a pocket square made out of the fabric might look nice, so I was pulling fabric scraps off the top of the trash can and fashioning a little something for him to wear in his tuxedo pocket. A photo offering visual proof of my Becky Home Ec-iness might be forthcoming. Possibly.
I've also spent several hours in the past few weeks at the twins' basketball practices and games. It's nothing short of a wonder to watch their skills exponentially improve each year. It's been a long time since first grade when they would fling the ball upward toward the net and then immediately cringe and cover their heads with their arms. Some of these games were so intense that they blasted any ruminations of things still to be done right out of my head. I love watching them play! I miss it when I travel!! McGee and McGuy turned 13 this past week; though they encouraged me to move our traditional farewell dinner at Sweet Tomatoes to the days just before their birthday to take advantage of kids' pricing one last time, I didn't mind paying the teen price. After all, they've been chowing down like teens at Sweet Tomatoes for a few years now. It's payback time.
Their birthday party at a driving range at 10am last Sunday morning provided
an opportunity to practice not my golf swing but my cruising skills. Mimosa with a view!
Salad, mac and cheese and pizza...perennial favorites
The cupboards are pretty bare at our house, though you'll never guess what remains in the freezer (or maybe you will). Really. We had Hebrew National 97% lean hot dogs just once this summer (Memorial Day weekend) but somehow still had two packages on hand in mid-September. Guess what we're having for dinner tonight? But that was our only miscalculation...until two weeks ago. It helped that I had asked G (in the strongest possible terms) not to do any more grocery shopping after August 1, telling him that I'd handle the mostly produce purchases that we'd need. I was simply trying to avoid a repeat of him coming home with two 2-pound bags of shredded cheese two weeks before we leave, extolling their great sales price. "Even if they pay you to take it, don't," I begged. It almost worked. On September 12, he brought home just one 2-pound bag of cheese. Though he said they (just about) paid him to take it, I'm highly suspicious. Funny how they didn't (just about) pay him to take kale or spinach or whole wheat anything.
;-)