Packing

Packing at the end of a vacation is always a mixed bag. No pun intended. In a way you are happy to be returning home but in another way, especially if you have enjoyed a home exchange like this, you are sad to be giving up some amenities. Like an outdoor grill, flower pots outside the window, a BIG washer and dryer instead of a stackable unit, and a view from the dining room window that a mother moose and her twins scampered by while we were eating dinner the other night. These are things I will not have in NYC. But then again I am taking a few new things home with me.

I always, always pack too much when I am going away. I return home with clothes not worn and bath "essentials" not used. Really? I had to pack that specific bath gel and THAT many moisturizers? Not hardly. And I always say I am going to leave room for items I know I'll purchase while away and will want to stuff in unused corners. So as I pack today I am having to add room for the following items:

                          

*An Alaska Starbucks mug. I've used it every day since I purchased it in Wasilla (nope, could not see Russia from there) and it makes a great addition to my collection.

* Four pair of socks because, of course, I forgot to pack any when I left NYC. It wasn't as if we were going HIKING or anything. But in my defense, it was very warm when we left the city and who wants to think of cool weather items when it's hot?

*An Alaska ice cream scoop because we love our ice cream and did you know that Alaskans consume more ice cream per capita than any other state? Go figure. As explained to us by one of the ice cream store clerks at a nearby store touting a sign that says they have "The Best Ice Cream in the World", you can go outside in Alaska on most any given day and your "ice cream does not melt" ! Okay then.

*I purchased a used copy of James Michener's Alaska when I arrived and I lived, breathed, slept, and ate with this book the entire time I was here. I could not have read it anywhere else. I loved it.

*Socks for The Wee One. What little guy can resist socks with trains on them? He'll probably never wear them because by the time we have sock weather again he will have outgrown them. But that's not the point.

*My most pathetic purchase. Replacement scrubbers for my dishwand. If there is any store in NYC that carries these things I have not found it. Plus I have way too much fun looking for these in any store that has aisles as wide some streets I've been on. Which happened to be the case at the Target over in - you guessed it! - Wasilla.

Back to packing. Let me see. Maybe I need to wear two sweaters on the plane because I'm not sure I'm going to get these in.................