Packing Light? A Test Run

We're going on a trip in the spring which will mark our return to flying after more than three years (don't tell Mal). The environmental impacts bother me, but we're going far enough away that we can't afford (time or money) to drive up, spending more nights in hotels and having to take more time off of work.

Because of how expensive it is to check bags, and because we're going to be relying on public transit to get to our hotel and back to the airport, we do not want to take anything more than a carry-on and personal bag for each of us.

The past couple of trips we've taken, I've tried paring down what I pack. This time, we took half of the clothes we'd "need" if we were wearing new clothes every day. I also had some Febreze to freshen everything up at night, and some laundry soap if we encountered stains. I didn't have to wash anything, but I did have a couple of "wardrobe malfunctions" that I hadn't anticipated.

Getting undressed the first night, I realized that the seam of my (many years old) leggings had worn through. Again. I've sewed them probably three times. They just gave up the ghost this time. So there went one pair of pants I couldn't rewear.

A couple of days later, as I was changing into pajamas, I realized that the jeans I'd worn that day had a quarter-sized hole in the right buttock!! I'd worn them so much, they'd gotten "concrete butt" and had just rubbed straight through. (James assures me that it wasn't visible when the pants were on, but he's also not super observant, so I'm skeptical.)

Finally, one of the shirts I'd worn has elastic around both sleeves. The elastic came untacked from the seam on the right arm. I have a small sewing kit in my purse and was able to darn 2 holes in socks while we were there, but this is more of an operation than the tools I had could handle. So I did rewear that shirt, but it felt weird with one fitted arm and one loose one.

My lesson: Closely inspect clothes before packing them! Also, I needed to replace the clothes I discarded. When we were packing to leave, I realized that I've also worn the bottoms of my sneakers through in a couple of places, and have worn the tread down the rest of the shoe. As much as I hate spending money, I needed stuff. So I ended up buying shoes from the same brand I am replacing (Keen) when I looked and saw that I'd bought those shoes in July 2021 and have worn them walking almost every day since about a year ago, when I had to take my Skechers out of rotation because the bottoms of those are worn out, as well.

Galveston for the holidays

After we opened gifts at the house last Sunday morning, James, Mal, and I drove down to Galveston to spend the week. We had a great time! 

On Monday, I got up and walked along the beach, then we tried to go to East Beach. The road out there was flooded, so we hung around Fort Jacinto point and enjoyed the shore birds (and a couple of stray cats) then took Mal to Schreiber Park to burn off some energy before we visited Galveston Island State Park. Mal wanted McDonald's so, we took him there and James and I got take-out from Sunshine Bakery. Our energy rallied, we walked up and down Broadway a bit to admire the architecture.

Tuesday, we saw rain in the forecast do decided to try to do some outdoor stuff while it was nice (spoiler alert: the weather ended up being beautiful the whole week, though we did experience some fog). We visited the Tall Ship Elissa and the "Ship to Shore" museum, about the immigration experience in the 19th Century. Mal kept calling the Elissa a "pirate ship," and after correcting him twice, we just let him have at it. He loved it and had so much fun. He kept wanting to walk back through it and explore more. Next, we walked The Strand, then got take-out for lunch and rested up for the evening activities: Iceland ice sculptures and the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens! We ended the night with several trips down a big sledding hill they had, and Mal declared this "The best day of my life!"

This is D and then Mal on the same staircase of the Elissa, both age 8!

Wednesday, we went to the Galveston Children's Museum first, then toured Bishop's Palace. They're both old houses, but one had a basement that has been converted into kids' space and the other a gift shop. We then had a fabulous lunch at Gaido's. We'd rested a bit in the hotel room until we'd gotten hungry, and on a whim I placed a reservation for 2:00 PM, even though I didn't expect it to be that busy. It was. They had a wait of 45 minutes to an hour, and their reservations were booked through until 8:45 that night by the time they arrived! After lunch, we went to the Galveston Railroad Museum, then finished the day at Seawolf Park, where Mal played on the playground while James and I enjoyed an amazing sunset.

Thursday, we went back to Moody Gardens and walked through the Rainforest, then went to the Discovery pyramid where they had a musical exhibit. James could have stayed there all day. After lunch at Darlene's Shrimp Shack, we went back to the hotel to rest. Mal and I went to the beach for a bit later, but otherwise, we just had a low-key night at "home."

Friday morning, instead of walking on the beach, I walked through town to tour the tree sculptures. In 2008, Hurricane Ike killed a bunch of mostly very old oak trees. Many homeowners took what was left of the trees and had artists turn the losses into something beautiful. Later in the day, we drove around and I showed James some of them; he just has to be careful on trips because we walk so much more than usual and his Achilles tendonitis threatens to flare up. We want to keep it at "threat" level because if it progresses, he's basically immobile.

After breakfast (we were grateful that it was included with our hotel stay), we went to the Galveston County Museum, which is in the courthouse. Then we went to the Bryan Museum. I'd warned Mal that it was something James and I wanted to do and that he'd probably be bored, but they ended up having hidden elves throughout the building, and Mal got to hunt for them. He was very tenacious and found them all! As a reward, he got an iron-on patch that I'm going to put on his coat later today. 

We had a super tasty lunch at Shykatz, then the guys hung out at the hotel while I retraced some of our steps and got some souvenirs to bring home. We ended the day with dinner at Ben and Jerry's, which makes me concerned that Mal will have nothing to dream about in his future. 

We drove home yesterday, stopping at the Galveston Bagel Company and Hruska's (for kolache) for New Year's Eve snacks. D took great care of the cats, house, and plants while we were gone. And we came home to Christmas gifts for Mal from D and Ace. So thoughtful of them.

Happy New Year, everyone!