Winter? I'd like to bag it!

The Bag:

The book is a standard-sized paperback - it's there for scale, but I will mention that I just discovered Hiaasen this winter through my building's unofficial book exchange (aka the coffee table in the laundry room) and have been on a total kick - tons of fun!

The Big Bag:


The Really Big Bag:



Y'know, I wouldn't mind winter so much if it weren't for all the stuff!

I just finished packing for 3 days out in PA with TQ. In the summertime, that would be the first bag - "The Bag". La la la.

A winter weekend?

I could easily have gone with option #3 - "The Really Big Bag" (originally purchased for traveling to a kayak camping trip in Canada).

In the interest of rush-hour mobility, I pared things down to Option #2 - the big bag - but I had to add a small supplementary bag (daytrip size, not shown) to do it!

Ugh! I Hate Winter!

Of course the reason for the supplementary bag is that the Allegheny River is not yet frozen solid, just skim ice as of today - I've got my drysuit in the big bag because paddling IS on the weekend's program. In January! Should be fun. I won't hate that.

Still, I'm really looking forward to packing for >Hawaii by comparison. Probably looking at around 10 days, I have a carryon that's a little bigger than Bag #1 here & as long as I have some sort of laundry access, I should totally be able to avoid checking bags. Travelling to warm places is so much easier!

Oh, hey, and speaking of Hawaii - there was a fun surprise on MSN travel this week. Travel writer Beth Collins married a guy from Hawaii, loved the place so much they moved there for a a while & still visit his parents whenever they can. Usually these articles that purport to give you "Hawaii's secret places" are still giving you sort of tourist-focused spots, and pricey ones too (maybe they're secret because normal people can't afford them?) - but Ms. Collins's Oahu Exposed? Well, there are at least 5 things on her list that were already on my tentative itinerary for my trip out there, 6 if you count "eating shave ice" although I will probably get my fix at Aoki's, and it's nothing short of mindboggling to see absolute fixtures of "small kid time" memories like the Aiea Loop Trail (I feel like I did about a hundred hikes & picnics with the Girl Scounts at the Keaiwa Heiau State Recreation Area where that trail is - I wonder if you can still see the old Japanese war plane wreckage, we used to love scaring each other by saying we saw bones down there...) and the Waimalu Shopping Plaza (SHIRO'S SAIMIN YAY!) mentioned on a travel article designed for mainland consumption!