Inspiration
Self Care to Go
Before Amanda Hesser founded Food 52, she wrote a memoir of her engagement to a man she styles “Mr. Latte”—wince—because before he meets Amanda, he doesn’t know it’s wrong to order a latte as an after-dinner drink. (Amanda teaches him he must switch to espresso.)
Trust, I too read Cooking for Mr. Latte to be schooled. Here is a story that has stayed with me a long time.
Amanda takes a transatlantic flight, which she’s done before, so she knows the score: Don’t eat airline food. She brings her own dinner, and with it, cloth napkins and real silver.
She asks for red wine from the flight attendant, but he’s so impressed with her devotion to Making Things Nice that he brings her a good wine in a proper glass, a wine they serve in Business Class.
Now, I doubt this kind of un-asked-for upgrade is given out on many airlines. And I don’t think you can make it happen these days by whipping out your own flatware. But! This story contained an important clue for me.
Make Things Nice for yourself
It’s no secret my own education in self-initiated upgrades was lacking. My parents, bless their memories, were products of the Depression. (Also orphanages and the Marine Corps, in my dad’s case.) Both were schooled in certain forms of self-sacrifice.
And it was a different time. A time of zero transatlantic flights. Vacation in my family was driving to the Nantucket ferry—in the off season, before Nantucket was fancy, if you can believe that.
This is all to say, the future Mrs. Latte blew my mind. She taught me this: Travel and home comforts can coexist.
Unlike some, I don’t care what kind of glass I drink my wine out of, as long as it doesn’t have a handle. (No cold drinks from a mug, please!)
But I do, asymmetrically, care very much about what kind of mug I drink my coffee out of. SO: I just bring one with me when traveling or use the excuse to get a souvenir.
I also bring a framed picture of my kids, four separate journals, knitting and backup knitting, and multiples of the comfy sweats* known as The Real Housepants of Marblehead.
Obviously no one wants to travel like a Victorian archaeologist with a 20-mule train carrying her steamer trunks. But there’s a middle way, and I feel I am closer to it these days.
Speaking of going places
I hear there’s an MDK live-in-person wingding brewing: the Nash Yarn Fest. You can sign up here to get notified about details and updates.
And in the meantime I would love to know how you do it. How do you offer yourself home comforts on the road? What should we think about packing, when we plan our next trip? Tell your fellow travelers in the comments below!
*Vuori, if you’re curious. Have you tried their joggers? They are SO comfy! I’m not affiliated, just a hardcore fan who is now ruined for life.
Image credit: Going into the World, Evert Jan Boks, 1882. Public domain.
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why is it wrong?
To the best of my knowledge… mostly because in the distant past the milk might spoil in the heat of day. Hence milky caffeinated beverages were served for breakfast. Same explanation holds for Weisswurst, a bavarian breakfast staple not to be served after – noon.
I like this science-based explanation much better than the snobbery-based explanation! Thank you Petra!
Me love latte too! But as Amanda explains in her book—which btw I loved—a milky drink, to a European, is only appropriate for adults at breakfast, and then only in the home. To drink a whole glass of milk, even a caffeinated one, is to be an ignorant American, and so Amanda and her friends have to rob Mr Latte and give him the nickname to distance themselves from his lack of sophistication.
Spoiler alert: he does switch to espresso, as I recall. But he’s a sturdy fellow and is not psychologically injured by their mocking. And all this is of course recounted with self-awareness’s.
Anyway, that’s the answer: Europe shakes its head!
So many cute ones for great prices on EBay! I am a cotton hanky gal, too! Many from thrift shops, Salvation Army shops or grandma!
Thanks. However, I am recently a great grandma so can’t get even from mom any more but will check out your sources.
Wow embarrassing typos. In the car. Sorry.
Max I love your columns thanks so much for writing them! When traveling I’ve found it helpful to focus on different senses so I have two types of earplugs and noise cancelling headphones; lens wipes, shades and eye mask, a stash of clean hankies in pretty colours and a bottle of geranium oil, a tiny nail file, a soothing pebble if I can fit that in, and a tiny tub of hand cream – and lip balm. Water bottle also essential and of course indispensable bullet journal! Can’t tell you how much travel stress has been averted by just having a hanky and a lens wipe handy at a vital moment. On a trip today I am experimenting with also having a very sweary adult colouring book and my favourite felt tip pens and can confirm this is a panacea ti airport stress
Yes to the earplugs, lens wipes, and hankies. For any trip longer than a few days, I pack my ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. Every morning I zap my eyeglasses, toothbrush, and Invisalign retainers. (A couple of pair of socks fit in it to justify the space it takes in the suitcase.)
Need name of coloring book plz!
Where do you get your colored hankies? My stash from a trip to England many moons ago is in bad shape. I am so desperate that I am contemplating hand sewing some from fabric. I don’t own a sewing machine since mind died a slow death a few years ago. I strongly dislike kleenex for sustainability reasons. Thank you.
All my pretty handkerchiefs are from thrift shops.
I have cut up old garments even a flannel item. Those are so so soft!! I use a serger on the edges though a zig zag stitch or hand stitched edge would work.
At 71 I don’t travel often these days and love home life more than ever. But, when I pack to leave home I make sure to pack 1) a knitting project, preferably easy, mindless stuff, 2) My journal, 3) a book 4) charging cords – because I always forget them!
Hello, I love and always look forward to your self care columns. Today taking care of myself means traveling less because of my carbon footprint. This has become central to my daily choices of traveling by bus, metro to minimize green house gas emissions to help even in a small way to protect the future. An airplane trip to Paris and back is the equivalent of two tons of carbon dioxide. That weighs on me and hence my self care is to stay closer to home with my knitting and enjoy all there is to see close by.
Yes! So true. One must really consider, what is an appropriate amount of travel by air and what is its impact.
I, too, pack a picture of our kids. I have one all the time in my wallet, but there’s also a “travel picture.” Plus, knitting, back up knitting, needles, back up needles (my husband sat on one and broke it in Honolulu once…ever tried to buy knitting needles in Honolulu????) journal, ear plugs, book/s, and granola bars.
What are airline rules about knitting needles in carry-on luggage? Don’t they consider them weapons?
I travel with circular needles (metal, at that), and no problem at all. Now that I’ve said that, we are going to India …let’s hope they agree.
I travel constantly and I have had on 2 occasions my DPNs taken away by TSA and Mexican authorities in Mex city. I also had Chaigoo steel needles taken away because they were more than 6 cm long cable needles seem to be okay as long as they are not steel
On a current trip to the UK I packed several ziplocks of my homemade (Food 52) olive oil and maple granola. I use it as a condiment to the cereal provided by the hotel/b&b and it starts my day right.
I’ve traveled with knitting for years, wood and metal needles, never a problem except passing thru Istanbul where, even tho still in transit and laying over in concourse hotel, we still had to pass thru customs. My needles were questioned. “OK in Atlanta?” “Yes.” “OK in DC?” “Yes.” OK in Chicago?” “Yes.” We never were in Chicago, but the agent was satisfied and I kept my needles. On the return home lay-over in Istanbul, it wasn’t needles but the little 1″ metal tape measure in my purse that caused alarm. “What?” The agent gave me a stern look, pulled out 2′, and pantomimed cutting her own throat. “You’ve got be kidding me!” The severity increased as she wrote my name on a scrap of paper and dropped both in a little plastic dish, and I was allowed to pass. We haven’t traveled thru Istanbul since, but I’ve wondered if my tiny weapon and name are in a drawer in security. I prefer to think of it in a Turkish knitting bag, an assist to a project with a fabulous Turkish yarn. 🙂
All this sounds like such good advice. I didn’t see hankies in the original. But I have to ask, why do you want hankies? In place of tissue? That is one paper product (advance) I’m all in favor of. Didn’t life expectancy go up after people quit blowing their nose on hankies?
I love hankies mainly because they don’t have all the dust even the fancy disposable face tissues have. I am always more stuffed up after using a disposable tissue than a hanky. I started using them years ago when I lived in rural India for awhile where I couldn’t buy tissues, but they did have cotton hankies. As for decreasing life expectancy, I haven’t come across that particular declaration in any of the history and historical fashion videos I watch, but if it’s true, it sounds like one of those maxims where other context has been lost like maybe don’t swap hankies with your buddy with consumption or something. I wash my hankies in warm or hot water in the washing machine sometimes with sanitizer and sometimes not, and I have never had a problem with “reinfecting” myself with a cold or something. Hankies are also wonderfully sturdy and useful for wrapping up small or delicate things like a broken necklace or my kid’s cookie. I carry several clean ones with me and swap them out for fresh daily.
Leaving Athens I’m afraid I was an ugly American. Argued over kid scissors – ok, (changeable tips) needles – no!!! Fortunately a new pkg of tips in the bottom of the bag. But it left me with a bad image of Athens inspite of all its wonderful sights.
TSA allows knitting needles on domestic flights. Scissors must have blades shorter than 4 inches. So we are ok here.
Not every country permits knitting needles so if you travel abroad, it’s good to check in advance.
Thanks
Last year I got searched at TSA (long story). The woman who had to go through my stuff found a large pair of scissors but she held them across the palm of her hand, pronounced them legal and put them back in back. She also gave me advice on the length of the skirt I was knitting. For what it’s worth the female agents at TSA were on my side of the incident that got me searched in the first place.
I’ve carried on my knitting on airplanes. You can even have small scissors! I just make sure it’s a small project (usually socks)that can be stowed in a bag under the seat.
I had my beautiful little (3”) scissors confiscated in Australia. Each country has their own rules!
Australia is the only place I’ve been hassled for my knitting.
I travel with my own tea mug . Must be bone China and Large . (I usually go to a thirift store to purchase , don’t want something to happen to my good ones from home ) . As I don’t like to fly , when I travel to visit some one I take my own bedding , my home comfort and less for them to launder . Of course it goes with out saying a knitting project or 2 is ALWAYS with me .
I always, always travel with my own tea bags! American tea is trash so I have a stash of PG tips! I have a collapsible travel hot water kettle too! I do love a proper cuppa!
I agree about bringing tea. And my knitting and a portable battery charged light. Have always believed that American teas are de-flavorized and weak. Altho I was introduced to a NY state tea company (Harney & sons) at the Rhinebeck sheep and wool fest. Their Scottish Morning and Scottish afternoon blends are the real deal! Their company sponsors the festival workshops.
Ah I think this info is out of date! LOADS of good tea in America now.
Having been a tourist on highways and back roads in the U.S. In my experience “good” tea isn’t easily available to tourists in most places, except if you luck out and can afford to pay Starbucks prices. And in most ordinary restaurants it’s often not brewed well (e.g. a bag in tepid water in a teensy cup). So yes, it’s here, but mostly in supermarkets and fancier food stores. I now carry my own tea and a thermos and rely on Dunkin or McD’s to brew it for me (the only chains I’ve found with reliably boiling H2O).
Good to know about reliable boiling H2O. Thank you.
I like to travel with a collapsible kettle too. I use individual pour over filters for coffee in the morning and my favorite decaffeinated (for health reasons) loose leaf tea for an evening cuppa. I also pack a folding knife and corkscrew if I’m checking a bag…you never know when you’ll find delicious cheese, fruit and wine to enjoy after you’ve settled in for the evening. And, my knitting, of course!
I also prefer PG tips tea. While visiting my sister in England, I asked a woman in grocery store what tea she recommended as I wanted to bring some home. She recommended TG, and now we can get them in the states…or at least I can in New Hampshire.
Oh my. So many things ran through my mind when reading the insulting comment about American tea. I’ll take the high road since there is no reason to be ugly on this forum but did think it important to note my patriotism.
Just FYI I am an American and that’s my opinion!
I am grateful for your forebearance (if that’s the right word?). We humans certainly hold strong opinions
It depends on the mode of transportation. Always bring knitting, back up knitting and some more yarn. Car travel requires “some more”, but length of trip via plane can also. A large beach towel to use as a robe or wrap something for the return trip.
I may adopt the mug idea. The place we stay for winter vacation has small mugs with 1 finger handles.
I too am choosy about my tea mug, wanting a large morning cup that holds the heat for as long as possible. These are heavier but I used to bring my favorite (which I’d made in art school), on car trips until I dropped it in the parking lot while carrying too much at once as I left a hotel room. Now I bring my stainless steel travel mug.
I don’t get the chance to travel much, but I do like to have a lightweight cloth bag to hold layers for regulating my temperature. Warm knit hat, sun hat. A smaller scarf for my neck, silk or cotton, and a larger shawl that can double as a blanket for when it gets cold or hiding place on a train or airplane. Sunglasses in felted case. Cloth handkerchief. Airpods for audiobooks, a real book, journal, various pens, Rescue Remedy pastilles, toothbrush, toothpaste. I usually have all of these (not always a real book or knitting) whenever I leave the house, actually. My Sherpani cross-body bag, which I bought for my trip to Spain in 2019, is my daily purse, and it accommodates my girl scout tendencies admirably. And if I haven’t taken out the list of Beatles songs for a long time, in case of karaoke or singalong, well it doesn’t weigh much. 🙂
I bring tea—my favorite breakfast black tea, some decaf and herbal for late in the day, along with a filter cup. My entire trip is made better when the day starts with proper tea. And knitting, of course!
I too paid way too much for my Vuori joggers… and am ruined for life! Best. Pants. Ever.
Vuori is having a big sale on their website right now. Looks like discounts from 25% up to 50%. Have fun!
I try to remember a few instant latte and chai packets in case the coffee set up is inadequate or hard to figure out that first morning, and a small bar of soap because I prefer that to the shower gel/shampoo combo many places provide.
What a good idea to bring a small bar of soap along. I too dislike body wash liquids.
I bring my pillow and my comfy pillow case(s). And like several others, some tea, not because I am picky but because it’s not always available when I want it.
I will consider upping my travel game though. It’s a good idea.
When I fly, which is a lot less than when I was working, I actually like to hear what’s going on, so I have a single ear bud for an audio book or movie. For comfort I check my main bag and consider it part of the cost of travel. No dealing with overhead bins for me. Bonus is that if I am going to be cooking at my vacation spot I can pack my own sharp knife. (There’s never a sharp knife at a rental.) Snack bars – enough for me and to offer to my seat mates – hand cream, water bottle, knitting, book, light wrap, toothbrush. If I’m really organized I bring home made cookies or muffins for the flight crew. Try that and see how happy they are!
Wow, now that’s thoughtful. When we travel it’s usually to our home in AZ, so I ship extra yarn (usually too much) art supplies, and recipes I plan to cook with. I also check my bag. We’re gone for a few months, so our Kitty comes with us and should have her own mileage program as her ticket costs almost as much as ours. one last thought, is don’t limit your travel because of carbon footprint. An airplane carries 170 people roughly depending on the size of the plane. Divide 2 tons by that many is 23#. Not that bad for the experience of seeing and living in a different culture.
I don’t know what happened to my comment so I will be even briefer. Good quality toiletries in a fancy cosmetics bag and Folger’s coffee sleeves for emergencies when hosts are sleeping, etc.
We take our travel trailer with our home comforts. My husband recently bought an espresso maker that works in our trailer. It’s so good.
I take a little travel kettle…I am a tea drinker and I refuse to heat my water in a coffee maker…even water heated in the microwave doesn’t make a good cup of tea!…and I love a good cup of tea in the morning!
Slippers for the hotel floors. Socks for overnight flights.
This post is timely for me, at least. This summer we will be traveling to Svalbard via Copenhagen and it’s my first international flight in a very long time. One leg of our return is on KLM and I was told this morning knitting needles are disallowed in hand baggage. Oh well.
I flew KLM Boston to Amsterdam and back a few weeks ago no problem with knitting needles. DPNs for socks.
I flew KLM 2 weeks ago (Zurich to Edinburgh via Amsterdam). I’m making the same (2 KLM) flights tomorrow. I just repacked the same sock knitting (4 dpns in my carryon!) Hope they make it – I’ll post a follow up if not!
I almost always pack sock knitting for travel in my carry on with wood (Knitter’s Pride) dpns. My preferred needles are metal – 40 + yrs old old and much loved Bernat needles. I find the KP Dreamz wood dpns almost as slick and should TSA tell me I must part with them at least they are replaceable worldwide. (I pack metal spares in my checked luggage 🙂
Reading these comments about knitting and tea bags makes me smile in recognition. I have these two items with me whenever I leave the house, not just on a trip. As a tea girl in a coffee city, a stash of good tea bags lives in my purse, and my sweet hubby even keeps a couple in his various jacket pockets. Maybe that’s our definition of love…
Having spent too many unplanned overnights in airports or an unintended, temporary city of destination over the last 50 years, I bring a change of underwear, toothbrush & paste, and mini toiletries for pm & am. Got caught in a 17-hour trip last June that should have been 5 hours, and decided I had jinxed myself by forgetting the underwear. I also leave certain things packed in the carry on bag so that I don’t have to find and repack them–earbuds, sanitizer, etc., and now said underwear.
Gone are the days when the airlines gave out little overnight kits for stranded travelers. Or meal vouchers.
Packing can be stressful — the work and the worry about forgetting things. In a moment of clarity I once made a list that went, “3 days before,” “2 days before,” etc, and listed the small tasks I could do and what I could pack that day. Mail pickup arrangements and deciding which knitting project to take — those can happen a lot sooner than packing food or dropping the dog at the sitter, for instance. So now I follow the list and calmly get it all done putter-style.
On the eve of a trip to our neighbors to the north. Thanks for the reminder — I always sleep better after a cup of my favorite herbal tea, and haven’t packed that yet. (Haven’t packed anything, but it’s all on the spare bedroom bed, waiting to be winnowed and packed.) I need something else at REI today, so I may have to try on those comfy pants. I always check a bag — even though I don’t THINK I’m a high maintenance girl, I have a hard time fitting all my personal care stuff in a quart ziplock. And it removes me from the getting my spot in the over-head bin fray.
I like breakfast in bed so I pack it all: powdered soy milk, granola, dried fruit, tea bags, hot cup, bowl/spoon and an immersion coil heater which I love. A leisurely start to the day is my favorite way to go. And of course knitting/books and lots of the other stuff people have mentioned.
Small electric kettle, mug, and tea bags. Also, I’ve started bringing a tea towel for car trips to use as a napkin. And always the mug for hotels, even for one night to avoid the stryrofoam coffee cups.
This was a delightful read. I really enjoyed Ms Daniel’s writing style.
My comforts from home are minimal I travel light so it is usually my knitting.
I recently traveled for 3 weeks which is a long time away for me. As a latte addict, I couldn’t travel without my Aeropress and even ordered a Capresso foamer to be delivered to my destination. No running out for good coffee first thing in the morning.
As for exceptional loungewear/sweats, have you tried Cozy Earth joggers? I love ’em!
I will sacrifice other things to squish my pillow into my suitcase. Bad sleep on vacation? No, thank you.
I’m fortunate to be able to travel to Europe twice a year and have never had my circular knitting needles taken from my carry on. Nor tiny scissors except once while flying out of Leon, MX in about 1993.
Additionally I always take a shower cap, ear buds since I only listen to books so I can knit, RX bars for a snack, prunes in a ziplock which everyone knows why and I add Vit D gummies to the bag too. Happy travels everyone!
I’ve travelled with prunes before too, for the same reason! I haven’t flown in years, but bring: knitting (obviously), e-reader, MP3 player to listen to podcasts and help me get to sleep, hand sewing project so that I don’t overknit and make my hands sore, a new magazine (it’s been my treat to myself for years when travelling- I’m finding it harder to find women’s lifestyle magazines that really speak to me now though)
Scarves! Big, small, cotton, pashmina, kerchiefs, sarongs–they take up so little room and add such pizazz!
I’m another one that carries tea – even have a couple decaf English Breakfast in my purse right now. Might start carrying a variety of loose teas and a tea ball when we take our next getaway since we’re using fewer tea bags lately.
At all times there is a tiny hand sanitizer in my purse (even before COVID – it’s essential when using porta-potties at craft fairs). And in my knitting notions I carry small bottle of hand lotion and small nail file/emery board.
If we travel by car we carry our bed pillows (with dust mite encasement and super soft cotton pillowcase) to help minimize allergic reactions. And my CPAP goes everywhere.
Now I wish we could travel to something other than medical appointments!
I carry tea in a little “tea wallet” in my handbag. My sister found this wallet on Etsy.
It comes in handy when herbal tea is the only choice!
“Travel” doesn’t take me far from home, but there are a few things I prefer wherever I am. Tea, for instance, needs a china cup. Not plastic, not Styrofoam, not paper, not metal, not a travel mug.
I have taken pretty cups to hospitals for sick relatives and friends, as they have done for me. No matter how casual some of our family gatherings have been I serve hot beverages in cups and mugs in spite of those who warn me against “having to wash” them. Dishwashers do that job. Besides, my cups have cups! I like to use them.
I prefer the water for my tea to come at a rolling boil from a tea kettle. Microwave-heated water does not work — it’s a waste of good tea bags or loose tea! ☕
Always my favorite column. This was fun to read.
I was raised by a mom that ironed everything. I spent my adolescence ironing ankle length flannel nightgowns, my dad‘s white undershirts, and pillowcases. The pillowcase thing has stayed with me. There is nothing like putting your head on a freshly pressed pillowcase. When I travel, I always tuck in my own pillowcase. I read this tip someplace else, but I always feel so relaxed when I rest my head on a little bit of home.
I take my own tea with me. Nothing worse than being served some generic imposter when my palate really craves Lady Grey served hot without milk or sugar. I know, I know. Americans generally don’t have milk in their tea. It was something my dad returned with after one R&R in England during WWII.
I bring loose black tea in tea filters, mug, herbal tea, and a travel hot water pot if I’m in a hotel; everything but the pot if I’m at friends or air bnb. And I bring full size health & beauty aids in my checked bag – life is too short and I am too old to deny myself the good shampoo.
Ahhh I love this!
Little luxury: in my underseat backpack, all my stuff is in cute fun Baggu bags: the knitting, the other knitting, the “plane stuff” (Kleenex, Tide pen, Advil, gum etc), the electronics.
I have had a problem with knitting needles only twice. Once was with some straight bamboo needles on a plane in Greece, where the flight attendant looked at me an alarm, leaned in and said “not you but somebody might take them,” and made a gesture of stabbing, And another time where I was told to put my metal circular needles in the trash. So I had to pull them out of a project.
Not wanting that to happen again, I got pretty religious about threading some scrap yard through the top before I flew, but it never again came up.
But! I found these awesome needles which I now call my travel needles – they are called Prym. They have a little bit of a rounded tip and are made out of plastic, which I think makes them less concerning-looking in a scanner. I also read a travel tip somewhere that if you put your needles in your toiletries bag with your toothbrush and your eyebrow pencil, they will attract less concern. But I flew all over Africa earlier this year and kept forgetting to do that and nobody ever said anything about my travel needles.
I think it’s all a crapshoot!
You know, after suffering several stiff necks after using the man-sized-only hotel pillows, I now do whatever it takes to include a flatter pillow in my suitcase. I admit I’m like the princess and the pea, so also search out hotels with firm beds. Comfort at last while traveling!
I pack two small battery-powered votive candles (and extra coin batteries) in my overnight bag (one for bedside and one in the bathroom). They offer just enough light so that I can find my way around without turning on an overhead light or table lamp if I need to get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night or if I get up earlier than anyone I’m traveling with.
I also pack a small LED keychain flashlight on one of those coiled flexible wrist bands for nighttime or early-hour expeditions beyond the room. Very handy and less clunky than using my phone flashlight.
I’m absolutely with you on taking my own mug traveling, or buying a cute one, comfy travel clothes, knitting projects as well! I also take hand sewing projects, since I’m a multi crafter person. One of my favorite cosplays I’ve seen at game conventions is a Steampunk adventurer with her teacup in a leather holder attached to her belt. Tea must be served correctly, even when on adventures.
Returning from India on British Air my size one double points in my sock knitting project got me pulled over. I showed how teeny they were “No madam, not allowed.” So reluctantly I pulled out the needles and handed them over. “No, sorry madam, this is not allowed” — pointing to the two balls of very thin fingering yarn. Really? We had to scramble to cram stuff from our carryon back pack into my purse so I could check the backpack (We’d taken five flights and no one had batted an eye about my knitting and here we were heading home… I refused to leave the almost done socks with the Mumbai airport officials…) I’m going to look into those plastic ones recommended above…
I have travelled extensively with wood or metal circular needles and have never had problems even in Greece. I buy blunt Fiskar scissors when the back to school supplies are sold and they have passed I usually pull them out and place them in the tray at tsa to avoid a search. Most tsa specs want less than 4 inches. Only one agent in Tasmania looked at my scissors twice because he thought they were “ longer than a palm “and I told them they were 4 inches and he let them through. I like to pack a bendable reading light in my carryon great to find something in your bag if the plane lights are off or in a dark closet without a light, or to check that the room safe is empty. I keep it on the nightstand to use to find my way to the bathroom without turning on lights or looking for switches. I always pack soft slippers. On International flights I pack a small bar of soap and paper towel to wash my face and feel human again when I arrive.
I usually travel by, so I take along my own pillows and a wool blanket (mostly for weight).
Chocolate! Airline sized pillow to cushion my back on the plane and use in the hotels because the pillows are always too big. Reading material. And a lace shawl to knit.
We travel infrequently, and usually in our state or adjoining ones. That said, we stay at motels that offer breakfast, and we have a picnic basket with real plates, real silverware, cloth napkins, and the kind of salt and pepper we prefer (no little paper slips of condiments, thank you). We also bring our own coffee, the creamer we prefer, and the mugs we like. I bring my crocheting and supplies, my partner brings her hobby, and we dress for the weather/activities we enjoy. Since we don’t fly, ever, packing is not constrained by airline regulations.
Recently I inherited a large amount of money that I was not prepared for at all and it has been a major adjustment for me. I’m very grateful but I’m still not accustomed to the freedom that comes with being well off financially. I’ve always struggled financially and now that is behind me. I don’t have to worry about my security anymore but like all changes, this one has been very difficult.
how nice for you. Now … to enjoy all the little indulgences. It’s really the little things…enjoy it!
I travel with a cashmere travel wrap, which I also use at home, about 600 times a year. I wrap myself in its cosiness morning and evening most days of the year, hence 600 times a year.
I always pack two yarn projects for any trip. Or now that I’ve gotten in to English Paper Piece quilting , a quilt project. My friends are used to it now and have started bringing their own “extras”. I also make sure to pack an “emergency chocolate stash”, be it a Hershey bar, Kisses, or M&Ms – chocolate is a necessity to travel. My iPod if traveling with my spouse, or just for road tunes.
I’ve had addi circs confiscated in UK. So, I use wooden ones on the plane. My metal ones are packed in my checked bag for when I get where I’m going. I do it even in the US, just so I’m certain to have an on board project to work on. I’ve never actually had any problem in the US, though. I’m just not going to take any chances. That was a long flight from London to California without any needles! Plus, I had to pull the confiscated ones out of the project at the time and it was a pain to put the project back on needles later.
I always take knitting and backup knitting, my Kindle (it’s basically all of the books, so I don’t need to worry about running out), comfy clothes for in the room, spare pair of glasses. If its a work trip, I often take the stuff to give myself a little spa evening!
That was such a fun idea for the comments. It’s a little window into so many lives. We all live a bit differently and like different things for comfort .
What I bring when traveling: a dog (by plane) or 2 (bus or train) or 3+ (personal car); crochet (hooks never have been confiscated, needles have); knitting and extra yarn the checked bag; good hand lotion and lip balm (so dry on the plane!), bars, candy, and nuts; a down wrap in cold weather, a cotton one in warmer; sketch book, index cards and small blank business cards, with a selection of pens, pencils and a sharpie (tbh they are ALWAYS in every bag I carry); napkins, poop bags (can be used for many things, including securing small loose items and personal trash); a clean small ziplock for Just In Case; slippers, spare underwear, earbuds, and my newest and best innovation:
Nail clippers to cut yarn INSTEAD of scissors because they always get thru TSA, and you can use them to cut your nails.