Pack, pack, pack up the memories!

 Where are my headphones??.... from The Wandering Berkmans!

Here we are posing with our AWAY suitcases in the hopes that AWAY will add us to their marketing campaign.   I think they just misplaced our emails-- that call is coming soon! 

After a month in Santiago, Chile and 4 months out of the US, it's time to pack up the 4 suitcases between us (a big and a small each!) and hit the road again, US bound.  Over the 18 months we've been on the road, we've whittled it down to the essentials but there are some items we've carted around since the beginning we've found we just can't live without.  Some of them might surprise you.  And some of you might think-- really?? for real?? Just remember as you peruse this list-- we all have our quirks!

Cafeteras: Coffee is all!  We almost always have breakfast at home bc we do it better than anyone and good coffee is key.  These babies aren't light but every morning starts better with our "tea ceremony" using these beloved cafeteras. 

Frother: And there is no cafe con leche without frothy milk.  Our first frother died and we promptly purchased another in Croatia.  This is serious business.

Wine pumper: Following the food vein, we also cart around this wine pumper.  We like our wine but we normally don't finish a bottle at one sitting-- this gizmo keeps the wine fresh for days!   

Yoga mat: We're on year 3 of doing daily yoga so bringing along at least one yoga mat has become a staple.  She's on the thin side but better than a bare floor.  Finding a yoga mat in our Airbnb is a coup!

Knee pillow:  On the road, you never know what kind of mattress you'll be facing-- it's just the way it is.  I have the glimmers of back issues so this knee pillow makes its way into our suitcases... and doubles as a great picnic neck pillow!

Bose Sleepbuds: Noise at night is our nemesis and these Bose Sleepbuds save the day... I mean night.  Bring on the partying neighbors or the guy who sings from his balcony at 7 am on a Saturday and we are blissfully unaware, snoozing away.  

We'd  do a commercial for free! 

Cords: We rarely have cable TV in our Airbnbs so we bring along an HDMI cable for each of our computers so that we can watch movies or the occasional TV show (This Is Us!) streaming from our laptop onto the big screen.  They don't weigh much and they're worth it!  More of a pain-- the many, many cords we have to bring for all the electronics and the outlet adaptors for each country.  We purged a bunch recently, just to have to buy them again in the next country.  Oh well...

here's but a small sampling of the maaaaannnnny cords we cart around

Indoor shoes: We can't walk around barefoot in the house (quirk!) and ever since our family trip to Japan we take off our outside shoes in the house--- so we have shoes we use exclusively indoors.   We recently scoured Santiago to find a new pair for Don that weigh less than his ridiculously heavy former indoor shoes.  And isn't he snazzy now!

Aprons: Another quirk (so high maintenance hahaha)-- I hate food stains on clothes and we cook a fair amount as we travel so we cart around our fav aprons!  Don's fav is his mom's from New Mexico (you may have seen him sporting this baby in a prior blog post) and mine is the one Zach used in one of his first part time jobs in HS.  (We opted to leave the one with the image of a body builder in a Speedo in the storage unit-- we couldn't part with it but we didn't want to freak out the locals on our travels).  

Don's apron also conveniently doubles as a most efficient napkin

Hand scale: It only took us one time with overweight luggage (over 50 lbs) and a hefty fee to buy a hand scale that we use religiously every time we pack.  It's easy to overload the big suitcase  so we use that for bulky but not very heavy items and stuff that can't go onboard (haircutting set, manicure set-- yes, we cart those everywhere too!).  It's a game now to see if we can pack to as close to 50 lbs without going over.  We're usually right around 50 lbs-- if only we could make money off of this useless skill!

Bags o'pills:  Oy, with the amount of pills we take you'd think we were 90 yrs old.  When we're out of the country for an extended period of time we have to make sure we have enough pills to get by until we can pick up more scripts and pills (although we were able to get some prescriptions in Italy, surprisingly).  The bags of pills-- nothing short of laughable.  

Combo smoke/ Carbon Monoxide detector:  Many Airbnb's overseas don't have smoke alarms and most don't have carbon monoxide detectors so we bring a combo smoke/ CM detector along.  A small item for peace of mind.  

Ben's Bells coins:  In Tucson, I volunteer with an organization called Ben's Bells where the goal is to spread kindness.  Volunteers make and decorate ceramic coins that are then sold to the public so that they can be given out to anyone you catch being kind.  We carry around a stash of these coins to pass them out as we travel.  The tags are in English and Spanish so they've been particularly meaningful these months in Spanish- speaking countries.  

As we pack up on Tuesday, we're sure more "can't live without them" items will come to mind but this is the bulk of them.  We hope this list gives you ideas of things you might not have thought of to bring on your next trip.

We're curious- what can't you travel without, long weekend or an even longer trip?  Leave a comment or if it's easier, respond to Monica's email.  Maybe you'll give us some ideas (as if we could carry anything else!)

We hope all are well!  Thanks for following along!

Don and Monica