l'etoile
Dec 20, 01, 2:38 pm
So I screwed up the head. It's supposed to say: How to make it home with one carry-on when you have a sleigh-full of purchases you’re not about to check – and a word about the awesome conditions at Whistler
This is mostly a tale of how to get three suitcases full of ski gear, clothing, and Christmas gifts into one carry-on. If you’d rather just hear about Whistler, skip to the part that says amazing, awesome, incredible, light, fluffy powder. Or just stop right here cuz that pretty well sums it up.
So Rod, T-wiz and I zipped up to Whistler for a few days to take advantage of a great package they were offering at the Westin (thank you Empress) and because it’s one of our favorite winter sports destiations.
We are carry-on-only travelers, with the exception of when we’ve traveled with our tandem and of course, we check skis and ski boots. So we each had a carry-on tightly packed with all our bulky layers of ski clothing and headed out.
Once at Whistler, besides taking advantage of the great snow, I had some Christmas shopping to do. In my usual Christmas shopping fashion I found three gifts for me for every one I found for someone else. Before I knew it, I had a beautiful Finlandia sweater for me, a Canadian leather purse for a friend, some fluffy cow slippers my son insisted on buying for a teacher who likes cows, many boxes of candy, a fleece for my son, several handblown glass Christmas bulbs, a gorgeous glass handblown light I found at a great gallery. On the drive back to YVR we stopped on 4th Ave. to do a bit more shopping – adding several more things to the collection including some candles that look like gourds marked 50 percent off that should look great on next year’s Thanksgiving table.
As you might guess, this collection of stuff did not fit into three carry-ons that were full when we started our trip. And all the purchases were large and much of it fragile – meaning lots of space in packing material. What to do? If we were traveling with our rollaboards, I might have agreed to check them. But when we are on trips where we are staying at a destination rather than traveling around, we bring our beautiful Hartmann leather luggage that in 12 years have never seen a cargo hold and never will.
So here was the plan … I instructed everyone that they would wear as many layers of clothing as possible. T-wiz, who at 12 thinks just about anything his mother does these days is embarrassing beyond belief, gave me one of those, "Mom, you’ve lost it completely looks." I did manage to get him into two layers of shirts. Rod was a little more accommodating – he wore a T-shirt, under a button-down denim shirt, under a fleece. He refused to wear his long underwear under his jeans.
I, OTOH, wore my long underwear – top and bottom – under a turtleneck, a big heavy wool sweater and jeans and ski socks. I could barely move and was hotter than you know what, but what mattered was there was more space in the suitcase ... although still not enough.
So here comes the really great part … my North Face ski parka normally drives me crazy because it has so many pockets and zippers and velcro closures, I can never figure out what pocket I’ve put anything in. Drives me nuts. But now I could use it to pack just about a suitcase full of stuff into.
In all there were 13 – yes 13! – pockets in my jacket and I stuffed every single one of them. Some had toiletries, some had candles, some had goggles and hats - one pocket was big enough to hold four boxes of candy. It worked like a dream and everything fit. I did have to carry on the glass light, but I figured that was my personal item and no one bothered me about it.
Now a recommendation should you try this yourself ... don’t wear the jacket. Not only did it bulge in all the wrong places, but it was very heavy – 8 pounds actually (I weighed it when I got home).
You may be thinking this would work great in a cold climate when you’re bringing a heavy parka, but I think it could work for trips to tropical places too. So you carry a parka to Fiji. People might look at you strange, but who cares.
On the flight home, T-wiz and I brainstormed perhaps a whole line of carry-on traveler clothing … trench coats filled with pockets in the linings; skirts with a ring of pockets going around the hemline ... I think we could be on to something. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
As for the snow, there was amazing, awesome, incredible, light, fluffy powder. It was the most snow Whistler has had at this time of year in several years. At the base it was light and fluffy, at the top even fluffier ... the kind of snow that shoots big rooster tails out when you ski. And for the first time ever in many days I’ve spent at Whistler, I actually got to see the top of the mountain from the valley. After snowing all day Tuesday, Wednesday the clouds cleared and skies were blue – something not often seen in Whistler in December.
Westin Whistler is great too!
Oh, BTW, if anyone is interested and convinced by our ingenuity, T-wiz and I are looking for investors for our line of clothing that doubles as suitcases. Any takers? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 12-20-2001).]
This is mostly a tale of how to get three suitcases full of ski gear, clothing, and Christmas gifts into one carry-on. If you’d rather just hear about Whistler, skip to the part that says amazing, awesome, incredible, light, fluffy powder. Or just stop right here cuz that pretty well sums it up.
So Rod, T-wiz and I zipped up to Whistler for a few days to take advantage of a great package they were offering at the Westin (thank you Empress) and because it’s one of our favorite winter sports destiations.
We are carry-on-only travelers, with the exception of when we’ve traveled with our tandem and of course, we check skis and ski boots. So we each had a carry-on tightly packed with all our bulky layers of ski clothing and headed out.
Once at Whistler, besides taking advantage of the great snow, I had some Christmas shopping to do. In my usual Christmas shopping fashion I found three gifts for me for every one I found for someone else. Before I knew it, I had a beautiful Finlandia sweater for me, a Canadian leather purse for a friend, some fluffy cow slippers my son insisted on buying for a teacher who likes cows, many boxes of candy, a fleece for my son, several handblown glass Christmas bulbs, a gorgeous glass handblown light I found at a great gallery. On the drive back to YVR we stopped on 4th Ave. to do a bit more shopping – adding several more things to the collection including some candles that look like gourds marked 50 percent off that should look great on next year’s Thanksgiving table.
As you might guess, this collection of stuff did not fit into three carry-ons that were full when we started our trip. And all the purchases were large and much of it fragile – meaning lots of space in packing material. What to do? If we were traveling with our rollaboards, I might have agreed to check them. But when we are on trips where we are staying at a destination rather than traveling around, we bring our beautiful Hartmann leather luggage that in 12 years have never seen a cargo hold and never will.
So here was the plan … I instructed everyone that they would wear as many layers of clothing as possible. T-wiz, who at 12 thinks just about anything his mother does these days is embarrassing beyond belief, gave me one of those, "Mom, you’ve lost it completely looks." I did manage to get him into two layers of shirts. Rod was a little more accommodating – he wore a T-shirt, under a button-down denim shirt, under a fleece. He refused to wear his long underwear under his jeans.
I, OTOH, wore my long underwear – top and bottom – under a turtleneck, a big heavy wool sweater and jeans and ski socks. I could barely move and was hotter than you know what, but what mattered was there was more space in the suitcase ... although still not enough.
So here comes the really great part … my North Face ski parka normally drives me crazy because it has so many pockets and zippers and velcro closures, I can never figure out what pocket I’ve put anything in. Drives me nuts. But now I could use it to pack just about a suitcase full of stuff into.
In all there were 13 – yes 13! – pockets in my jacket and I stuffed every single one of them. Some had toiletries, some had candles, some had goggles and hats - one pocket was big enough to hold four boxes of candy. It worked like a dream and everything fit. I did have to carry on the glass light, but I figured that was my personal item and no one bothered me about it.
Now a recommendation should you try this yourself ... don’t wear the jacket. Not only did it bulge in all the wrong places, but it was very heavy – 8 pounds actually (I weighed it when I got home).
You may be thinking this would work great in a cold climate when you’re bringing a heavy parka, but I think it could work for trips to tropical places too. So you carry a parka to Fiji. People might look at you strange, but who cares.
On the flight home, T-wiz and I brainstormed perhaps a whole line of carry-on traveler clothing … trench coats filled with pockets in the linings; skirts with a ring of pockets going around the hemline ... I think we could be on to something. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
As for the snow, there was amazing, awesome, incredible, light, fluffy powder. It was the most snow Whistler has had at this time of year in several years. At the base it was light and fluffy, at the top even fluffier ... the kind of snow that shoots big rooster tails out when you ski. And for the first time ever in many days I’ve spent at Whistler, I actually got to see the top of the mountain from the valley. After snowing all day Tuesday, Wednesday the clouds cleared and skies were blue – something not often seen in Whistler in December.
Westin Whistler is great too!
Oh, BTW, if anyone is interested and convinced by our ingenuity, T-wiz and I are looking for investors for our line of clothing that doubles as suitcases. Any takers? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif
[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 12-20-2001).]