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Mr. Pinot Noir and I just returned from a wonderful weekend in Northern Minnesota from a couple’s wedding shower that my sister-in-law hosted for us. The event was not your traditional wedding shower, but an informal outdoor BBQ at my parents’ home. Since we are having a destination wedding, our family friends and extended family will not be able to celebrate with us in California. The party was absolutely wonderful and it was so much fun to see family, friends and neighbors. I promise to post pictures soon!
Mr. Jasmine and I will be traveling to England in late August for the wedding of our very dear friends. Unfortunately for me, my passport has gone missing. After turning my apartment upside down, I’ve realized that I will just have to apply for a new one.
One of the items on my checklist that I took care of this weekend was registering our honeymoon travels with the US State Department. Although I’ve never registered my travels before, since we are headed to Indonesia, I thought it might be a good idea to do it this time.
Basically, you just provide the State Department with your contact information when you are traveling, so that if there were some emergency, they would be able to contact you. And it’s really easy, since you can do it online. Took about 5 minutes or so, and now I know that if something awful should happen, it’ll be a little bit easier for the government to find me.
Has anyone else registered their travel with the State Department?
I’ve talked quite a bit about our honeymoon, and now that it’s coming close, I realized there are some things that I need to figure out.
Like what to pack. As we are traveling with carry-ons only (since spending a month backpacking in Europe, I have a hard time packing more than just a carry-on), space is pretty limited. I thought I’d share my packing list for other people traveling to warm climates who hope to pack light, as well as open it up to any suggestions for items that I have forgotten.
Clothes (including what I will wear on the plane):
2 knit dresses
1 pair shorts
1 pair pants
2 short sleeved shirts
1 cardigan or long sleeved shirt
birkenstocks
sneakers
socks
underwear
3 swimsuits
1 pashmina
rain jacket
(I plan on buying some nicer sandals once we’re in Bali.)
Read more…
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All-Inclusion Invitation Suites
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A few of our guests have complained that our wedding is too remote. Well, I guess I can sort of agree with that. The photo above lends some perspective to just where Polebridge is located… and that remote beauty is one of the big reasons we wanted to get married there!
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Dear luggage,
I’ve traveled quite a bit with several of you, and I want to take the time to let you know how I feel.
Kelty Redwing Backpack,
you are amazing. You were absolutely faithful in the 3 mile walk to the ferry in Stockholm, never letting in any bit of moisture despite the continuous downpour. You remained faithful going from Budapest to Bratislava, and lasted much better than any rolling bag would have in the cobblestone streets of Riga. But it’s been several years since I graduated from college, and I’ve found that I increasingly need to travel with a suit. We’ve shared some good times, and I will come back to you.
Read more…
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Mr. Penguin booked our honeymoon earlier this week, and while choosing our flights, asked if it was okay that we fly coach instead of first class, to save a bundle of money. I think I would have been more bummed about flying coach if we were booking our honeymoon six months ago, but when I stare, mouth agape, at all the recent wedding purchases I’ve made lately, I realized that penny pinching is probably a better idea!
I’ve never flown first class, save for once when I got bumped up for no apparent reason, but that was only a 45 minute connection flight, and I was flying alone, so I really didn’t get “the whole experience” … just a bigger seat and first dibs on drinks, and a larger snack packet. Whoooopie.
Yeah, I could do this. Image Credit: Senserly.com
Mr. Dahlia and I planned our honeymoon without the help of a travel agent. I’m definitely DIY when it comes to travel, and this was no different. (I’ve used a travel agent once. It was fine. But I could have just as easily done it myself.)
Planning this trip was different from the other trips that I’ve planned for a number of reasons. First, while we were concerned about price, we were also concerned about service (especially for the 18+ hour flight to Bali!). We booked our flights through Singapore Airways, because we have both heard really good things about their service (and food!) Since the flights are so long, we looked at seat guru to help us pick our seats. Not that we were willing to spend any amount of money (I did keep an eye on prices for several months), but if you are traveling that long, it can be nice to have the better service. Tip: The airline may not tell you what model the plane is when you book, but by comparing the airline’s seat diagram with seat guru’s, you can get a pretty good idea.
So, I never filled y’all in on Paris! It’s coming, I promise. In the meantime, this post is a few musings on travel inspired by our trip.
And it’s looooooong — I’m warning you right now! If you want to read something shorter, or at least better, I recommend Rick Steves’ amazing travel philosophy. But if you love to travel and have patience for a long post, read on!
(P.S. To pretty things up, I’ve included a few favorite Polaroid Manipulations from past travels….)
(Hyde Park, London)
A couple of weeks ago, before I decided to go the travel agent route, I looked up all the airlines that service Cancun and went to each of their websites to sign up for event/group rates.
(image via here)
Thanks to our wonderful travel agent, we have rebooked our anniversary trip to the Bahamas for two weeks from now. Because we wanted to activate the travel insurance we bought, we did not try to get my passport renewed in order to leave a day or two later. Also, we will both be participating in a bike tour for Multiple Sclerosis this Sunday and wanted to be back in town by Friday. In the end, our agent was able to reschedule our trip for the same rate and our new plane tickets are actually cheaper than our original tickets (Jet Blue charges a $35 cancellation fee per ticket and then gives you credit for the remaining balance).
It is now officially our one year wedding anniversary. We were supposed to be on a plane headed towards the Bahamas today to celebrate a wonderful first year. Sadly, we have canceled our trip.
I’ve been planning this trip for weeks and even took Thursday and Friday off to run last minute errands in preparation for our vacation. This morning I made a tediously detailed checklist and happily checked each item off as we packed our suitcases. Mr. Spider joked that I should take pictures of my checklist and our perfectly packed suitcases so I could blog about how insane I am. As we were going over the last few items, he opened my passport to laugh at my picture and then turned to me and said “uh oh.” Uh oh. Turns out my passport expired three months ago.
Mr. Petunia and I decided quite a while back that we’d be going to Paris, France for our honeymoon. As soon as we made this decision, I started to look for fares through such websites as Orbitz, Expedia, etc. Months back, they were offering acceptable rates for non-stop flights from Miami to Paris, but we did not make our purchase because, well, it seemed like such a big purchase to make so early on!
…knows that a luggage tag is the most powerful traveling accessory. That’s how one description for a luggage tag reads.
Mrs. Bee already blogged about luggage tags back in March 2006, but I thought enough time may have passed to bring them up again! Also, I thought of them more for their practical use than as a favor or STD idea, though some of these may work that way, too! 
I’ve always loved luggage tags; they’re a great way to express yourself and, with so many people traveling with the same black/grey/brown bags, they make your bags easily recognizable, thereby insuring you take the right bag back to your swanky honeymoon hotel and not some grandma’s needlepoint and waist-high panties.
Consider all these different styles!
Flash your new last name initial if you’re changing your name with these tags from p-b travel, or get them in both your first names’ initials
If you’re travelling by air to Mexico, Canada, Bermuda, or the Caribbean, the new passport accommodations announced by the State Department this month may affect you.
On January 23, 2007, regulations requiring passports for air travel to the aforementioned countries went into effect. But due to the huge backlog of pending applications, on June 8th the State Department announced that U.S. citizens can re-enter the country with a government issued photo ID and official proof of your passport application through September 30, 2007. Last week Congress voted to extend that deadline until June 2009.
Please keep in mind, however, that specific entry requirements for Mexico, Canada, Bermuda and the Caribbean are still in effect. But it may be a bit of good news if you’re travelling to those countries -perhaps you won’t need to rush your passport application after all. For more information, please visit the State Department site.
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