Our next meeting will be Saturday, March 4. If you live in the area or are visiting for the day, welcome!
Meet at our usual spot at 10am - Woops! French Bakery, 119 N 4th St, in downtown Coeur d'Alene.
AN ASSIGNMENT- bring your favorite daypack & also your favorite packing cubes and/or packing organizers. Share with the group what packing style works well for you!
Oh, what a fun assignment! Will you share your findings with us?
I love this idea, Jean, I think I'll borrow it for one of our meetings!
Mardee, sure! We have such a fun group with a variety of travel styles. It should be interesting to see what everyone brings.
And my passport arrived in the mail this week! Four weeks for a renewal is celebration time!!
CWsocial, great! Let us know what your group liked, too!
Hahaha...Jean...great idea! I'll also bring the list I've got from last Fall where I weighed every dang cube and pouch I own looking for the lightest combo that would work for me, lol!! You realize I'll have to unpack some of them because yesterday I started to put things together although I'm not leaving for 6 weeks, hahaha!!
Mardee, if we can possibly enable you for more purchases we will do our best!
CWsocial, I'm sure your folks will enjoy it too!
Jean, good to hear your renewal took only 4 weeks. My nephew (also would have sent in from CdA) just got his renewal Saturday before last and it took 8 weeks. Maybe they stopped processing over Christmas as he sent his in before the holidays (yes, Auntie Pam was a nag...!!). You hit a great seam to get that quick a turnaround!
@Pam, it might be helpful for the group to see one of your cubes packed, instead!
I'm sorry to be missing this, but I'm off to warmer weather in Arizona for a week. My daypack is the RS one that he used to give out for free. It's been to a lot of interesting places. See you all in April hopefully.
"I'll probably leave the mini one I use for underwear and socks at home.
Jean and Aimee...that is the one I've started packing and no I'm not bringing socks, undies and pjs to unpack amid the croissants and macarons! (or in my case a red velvet cookie if they have them otherwise, a Chaos cookie, haha).
Mardee, if we can possibly enable you for more purchases we will do our best!
Oh, please do! 🤣🤣🤣 By the way, I bought that Calmak tech organizer - in pink, of all things! I'm not ordinarily a pink person, but for some reason that color was calling to me.
no I'm not bringing socks, undies and pjs to unpack amid the croissants and macarons! (or in my case a red velvet
Pam you are just no fun at all !!
I do like the idea of taking some of the stuff packed to show -- maybe I will stop by your meeting 🤣🤣🤣
If it’s snowy weather, we’re all meeting up with Kim in Paris at an even more authentic French bakery!
; )
We’ll be there soaking up information weather permitting 🌦❄️💨☔️🌤☀️
M&S
Mary, probably two or more weather emojis for any day in March!
Oh yes, let's make this convenient for Kim and go to her neck of the woods, snow or no snow on our part!! And of course Kim (and anyone) would always be welcome to join us!
Mardee...I packed my tech case partially yesterday but I need to match cords to cubes to slots in the organizer. Staples used to have some tags you could clip on to cords and I might do that to designate which ones I need to take with me. We want a report when you get that new organizer.
M&S - I forgot to bring S his book on the P47 back 2 weeks ago. I'll remember this time.
Leslie...are you sure you need to go south before the meet up?
I would drop everything for Paris, but today after getting two fingers from both hands stuck in my garage door at the same time, I definitely need a vacation. I escaped injury free,but what a stupid thing to do. But, hey Paris is always a good idea.
Ok…I’m really missing you guys!
And Leslie, it’s not much warmer here in AZ!
Ouch, Leslie! Stay well until you’re off to Arizona!
I’m getting used to the cold again. Dan & I just returned from warming up in Hawaii.
Well, if we can't make it to Paris, I vote for Hawaii as a back up.
Yuck to Cathy's weather in AZ and yikes to Leslie's smashed fingers! Owie!
Last weekend I was just contemplating putting my Sorel snow boots up because ... uh....have not needed them since before Christmas. I hope my thoughts didn't stimulate this cold, snowy spell!
I’m getting used to the cold again. Dan & I just returned from warming up in Hawaii.
Jean, I had the same problem - I was in Naples FL for 2 weeks basking in 80+ degree weather only to have to come back to sub-freezing temps. Wouldn't it be nice to bring the weather back with us?
And if you meet in either Paris OR Hawaii, I'm there!
Pam and all, I will definitely let you know about the tech organizer.
Just giving this a bumpety-bump to the top in case there are any folks in the CdA/Spokane area who might want to join us!
Thanks, Pam. I just went to look for a notice and found it easily this time. :) Am planning on coming with some basic questions on Metro tickets for our trip..........think I have it sorted but good to ask others. I also just bought a Louvre ticket for myself and am feeling quite pleased with it all. We've also booked two walking tours for when my husband joins me that he picked out.
Judy
PS Jean, if you see this, I have actually used an example of your planning calendar that I think you showed two meetings ago though not quite as big, to get my husband focused on what he wanted to do and when. :)
Judy...I've got some Navigo Easy cards that a forum friend gave me. They are empty but I'll try to remember to bring the and you can save a couple of Euro each if that is the Metro plan that works out best for you.
That would be awesome Pam! I downloaded an app yesterday that I think lets you load them through it. 😊
Judy, that’s great to hear it was helpful for you! I moved our trip calendar from my office out to our dining room table yesterday, as we were working through some London steps together. It is so helpful to have the whole picture of the trip on one large paper.
Dan received a notice from Delta yesterday that his flight back from London is leaving early afternoon instead of early morning, so that’s saving us an extra hotel cost that final night. I leave the next day through Gatwick, so we were keeping our in-city hotel that last night, so we didn’t need to mess with our suitcases that last full day, and my connections are handy from there. So, yeah! He said, “Let’s have a special dinner now that evening.” That’s a much better way to spend our time and the money!
I also switched our second Cotswolds’ lodging to a barn close to Chipping Campden. (The first one is one of the earliest inns in England with lots of interesting detail work.) I’ve never slept in a barn, albeit a charming remodeled barn - LOL! Oh wait, I did sleep in a barn! It was a Dutch home’s half home/half barn, and the son/daughter-in-law lived in what was originally the barn side of the structure.
Time to gather my daypack and packing cubes. Pam, mine are all weighed, too. The earliest mesh bags with the gather strings are even a little lighter than the slightly stiffer second set we received from a second trip.
I am looking forward to finally being able to attend another meeting!
Lisa
Glad you can come, Lisa!
We had a wonderful turn out this time with ten people attending!
Packing cubes there:
Rick Steves - black mesh ones and the old drawstring white very thin bags - the white ones are the lightest
Eagle Creek
Tripped compression cubes - wins the award for the prettiest! Colorful scenes on the backsides.
Travelon mesh striped zipper pouches - 3 bright colors
Compass Rose packing cubes - all the same size and stack in a suitcase like books on a shelf.
Am I missing any others someone brought?
An interesting fact: Pam & I weighed all of ours before we came. Both of us found the colored Eagle Creek cubes were slightly heavier than the white ones of the exact same style.
And many thanks to Jean’s Dan for extracting Terry’s car from a tight parking spot where 2 extremely rude people had blocked her in!! He was wonderful in spite of the fact that he had 3 women waving their arms and telling him how much room he had, lol!!
