Packing for vacation
Writing this book is having its way with me. All this experimentation and research is manifesting small shifts in daily life.
These small shifts are sort of like tides sweeping in and out with surprising regularity and impacting all sorts of things. Like vacation.;)
Making the most of your vacation: bring your house with you.We went on vacation last week, an all-out week at the beach where our only list of concerns included umbrella placement, washing the bendy straws and keeping sand out of the bedsheets.
We are the only people I know who throw a bag of clothespins, a small jar filled with distilled white vinegar, and our good kitchen knife into our vacation luggage.
To my immediate dismay (after lugging heavy rolling contraptions via Long Island Railroad, shuttle bus and ferry) we discovered our week beach rental house was a tad on the icky side. It was nice enough, don’t get me wrong, but the last thing you want to do on vacation is clean house. We were about as far from the dubiously sterile environment of resort hotels on Fire Island as we were from the North Pole.
I didn’t want to be grossed out all week, so I did a settling-in sweep of the place with a damp rag and some white vinegar. I bought a pair of dishgloves and set to work turning our little rental cottage into little house on the beach prairie. Making home away from home feel like home enough for me to relax.
After our place was up to par and we’d settled in, we drank wine and ate snacks.;)
Grow your own caprese!And ate.;)
And ate.;)
;)
You get the idea.
We lugged a full-sized cooler and two cold-storage bags stocked with food for the week. We also managed to fill a grandma cart and a rolling suitcase to the brim with dry goods, the pre-combined fixings for gluten-free pancakes, fine wine, a salad spinner and various kitchen utensils. I venture to say that we were perhaps the only vacationers eating CSA eggs and veggies, locally-raised and harvested meats, homemade bread and canned goods and homegrown produce.;)
Vacation food can be a disaster of pre-packaged, fried meh. Or it can be this.;)
gluten-free toasts with soft cheese and friend-made marmaladeThis trip helped me realize that the way I feel most relaxed on vacation is to bring the most wonderful parts of my home with me. How do you do vacation?;)
Book Process, Travel
Reader Comments (7)
We do vacation much the same way as you: we bring food and utensils. Our vacation is coming up in a matter of weeks. Can't wait to be beachside!
We were soooo glad we brought our tools, too. We ended up in a kitchen barely equipped for take out! Enjoy your beach trip :)
Bringing your own food/equipment probably helped you enjoy your vacation even more. Cooking and cleaning up afterward are much less stressful than feeling sluggish (or sick) from eating foods from unknown sources!
Sounds like a lovely-food vacation! Bummer about the pre-cleaning! =(
So funny -- I lugged bags of food, premade dry ingredients for muffins (and a muffin tin!), homemade granola bars and a stuffed cooler on vacation too! But your food looks way better than mine! :)
ROTFL!! Too funny! at our annual family reunion, i always bring disposable gloves and small spray bottle of bleach & water for a quick clean of door and cabinet handles, countertops, etc. i also bring my sharp knife and fresh vegi's - my mom goes a step further and brings her mints & herbs (in their pots and all) for the asian night dinner! it just makes the vaca all the better!
I love the food part of vacations. When we go with friends we have a great system. We pick two people to be in charge of each meal (everyone gets a few meals to deal with, depending on the length of the trip). The people in charge bring everything for the meal, do all the prep and all the clean up. the rest of the time they can lounge drinking wine. Everyone always makes such an effort since they are 'in charge' and we eat super well. we have learned to do only brunch and dinner rather than three meals a day or we land up feeling totally overindulged and can't float when we get to the ocean!