Going Away

As I sit at the computer this morning, the sun streaming in is so warm and so bright that my right shoulder is heating up and I have to shield my eye . This should be something to celebrate. However, the timing of this beautiful weather change comes on the cusp of our first ever five night vacation to Mexico. (We've been on vacation before, but never to Mexico). Most of the snow has melted in the past few days, as we have enjoyed a mild spell. I've seen red-winged blackbirds (the first harbingers of spring), as well as flocks of Canada geese gathering at low lying flooded areas.

Beautiful morning sunshine

When we go on vacation, it is always to escape the cold and the snow. I don't feel like we are escaping anything this year. However, it will be nice to drive to the airport in good conditions. We have had other experiences of driving through nasty snow storms and dangerous roads to get to the airport. This will be much more pleasurable and less stressful.

Not only is this our first time to Mexico, but I am challenging myself to another first. For this vacation, since it is a little shorter than our usual six night, seven day vacation, I am going to travel with just a carry-on piece of luggage (and a big purse!) In the past, we've always had our carry -ons and a larger checked bag. But, by doing this, we will avoid line ups at the luggage carousel, we will be able to get through customs quicker, and we won't have to pay for an extra bag (something we encountered a couple of years ago when we flew with an American airline). Boy, we got tired of paying for that bag!

I am not a light packer. I am a "just-in-caser". I bring a variety of clothing, choices of bathing suits, lots of reading material, and enough medication to cure everything from headaches to gastro issues, to mosquito infestation. I also have hair that goes squirrely in humid weather. It needs a lot of taming. I usually bring at least three types of hair product and two hair appliances. I'm not sure what my game plan is this time. Maybe a handful of hair elastics just to hold back the mess.

As many of you probably know, liquids are severely restricted on board an airplane. I like to bring full sized bottles of sunscreen, in at least two SPFs. I am now forced to transfer sunscreen into silly little 100 mL bottles (or less) and use my handy dandy label maker so we don't mix up our 30 (beginning of the week) with our 15 (end of the week)! I purchased a teeny tiny container of hair spray and husband has a teeny tiny container of shaving cream which will reside in a small see-through bag with a teeny tiny toothpaste, my foundation make-up, and a silly little bottle of hair conditioner.

I also like to take a choice of footwear. Shoes take up a lot of space. At this point, I am pretty sure I am going to infiltrate my husband's carry-on luggage. He brings less. He doesn't need room for a make-up bag. He doesn't even bring a book! (What are you going to do for five days???). And then there's chargers, camera, tablet, beach bag...

In the wee hours of the morning (don't forget the time change!) we are crossing over the border to fly out of Detroit. It is a direct flight there, and we have one stop over on the way home. We did not have a good experience with this sort of thing in the past, missing a flight due to incredibly long line ups and having to spend extra money for a hotel room, and getting home a day late. So I am a bit nervous about that again. That is another reason for keeping it to just one piece of carry-on luggage each. Hopefully this will make it easier for us to move quickly through airport procedures during our stop over.

The resort we are going to in Cancun is not "top drawer". But the beach along there looks amazing. Reviews on TripAdvisor are usually good, but many of them say the resort is getting old and showing its age. They charge for wifi (quite a bit, per device) so I won't be spending time on the internet. I will post when we get back and hopefully be able to say everything went smoothly and I am now an expert packer, ready to take on the world in one bag!