Little Black Guidebook

Now that I am getting to know my camera a little better I am also accumulating more equipment that I want to take with me on our trips and I really need a better solution that padded sleeves buried in my purse.

Like Mrs. Limestone of the blog Brooklyn Limestone I’m on the hunt for a camera bag. I share some of her criteria in that I want something for travel, protection of camera and maybe 1 extra lens and I want it to work as a bag for other things if I don’t want to carry my camera. However, I also want my husband to be able to use it, or schlep it, when I’m not. This limits my aesthetic options to the decidedly non-purse category.

I want to be able to carry the stuff I wouldn’t leave in my hotel room:

• Canon T2i DSLR w/50mm lens
• Extra 18-135mm kit lens
• extra battery
• iPad
• guidebook
• cell phone
• map

The iPad seems to be the limiting feature as a lot of bags have great dividers for padding cameras, but don’t necessarily have an extra slot, pouch, area the whole width of the bag that an iPad would fit in. I don’t want a behemoth of a bag the size of a carry-on, but my criteria seem to be pushing me into large messenger bags suitable for 3-4 lenses and beyond what I actually need. I’m not in love with any of these options, but they are the best I have found so far:

$89 from manfrotto, Italian maker of tripods, this one has top access and a spot for a tripod and laptop so I can use it for ipad or laptop for more flexibility

$69.95 from Tamrac, but appealing because it is smaller sized than the Manfrotto one, only holds iPad not laptop, but more pedestrian looking and decidedly laptop bag looking. Hubby would hold it, but really I may just get him his own bag before schlepping this around with me.

Also considering:

At $199 it seems like a lot to pay for a bag that isn’t real leather and hubby still thinks it looks purse like. I think its cute and checks all my boxes, but is a bit large for what I need.

Help?

^{Photo by Emiliano Granado}

Look at the photo. Those pants don’t look like travel pants do they? They certainly don’t look like bike pants. They don’t zip off and you wouldn’t think she was going hiking in a few minutes would you? But they shed rain and dirt, dry fast and resist wear and tear which makes them perfect travel pants.

I know they cost an arm and a leg, but pants I can wear to work, a meeting with a button down shirt, walking around and still sink-wash and dry-overnight might just be worth it. Available from Outlier for both men and women.

Does your Valentine love to travel? Or, do you need an excuse to treat yourself? Here are some treats I love in price order.

Chocolate Walk – We tried to take the famous Paris Chocolate Walk, but our stupid Italian train conductor decided to take a 3 hr coffee break and we missed it. If you happen to be taking the ultimate romantic trip to Paris this Valentines you could sign up for the real thing or invent your own.

Take your sweetie on an adventure of your own, sampling chocolates from the local shops and seeing a little more of your home-town. In Fairbanks, Alaska we have a tiny little downtown, but even that has a smattering of coffee shops and a little chocolate shop called the Fudge Pot.

Lush Travel Shampoo – I wish I had enough of this to use all year round, it makes my hair smell wonderful and takes the place of both shampoo and conditioner liquids when I travel. (Amazon or Lush $9)

This jersey cardigan is just weighty enough to feel like its wrapping me up cozily on a flight. I have one in black which I love as an airplane cover-up, night-time wrap, and scrunchable cardigan which never wrinkles. (Anthropologie $98)

Wanting to capture memories together screams: “I Love You.” Loud and Clear. I used to think that having my phone be my camera, video camera, music player PDA, etc. etc. etc. was great until I realized that once its battery goes dead I can’t do anything. Now I’m looking for small gadgets that do things well. I’m looking at this Flip HD camera for low-tech, high quality video capture of our upcoming trips together. This one captures 120 minutes of HD goodness at a time and dumps onto any device with a USB port. (Amazon $193.94)

Want to hear something you might consider grody? I haven’t changed my socks in three days. I was so behind on life and laundry that I got to the bottom of the sock drawer and then went to my stash of travel clothes to find socks. This shoebox size tupperware contains my Exofficio underwear and Smart Wool socks. Now the Exofficio underwear belong in the travel box because they are admittedly quite ugly and should really only be used under circumstances where you need quick dry hotel sink friendly clothes, but why oh why have I left these socks in there that long? They are awesome. And while they are overnight dryable after sink washing, they are also WAY oder resistant, and they are plain comfy walking socks. If I don’t need fancy slack socks these would easily replace 3-4 pairs of my normal everyday jeans/casual wear socks and they last forever.

So, I’m now going through my drawer of yoga socks, running socks, hiking socks, life socks, etc. and ruthlessly purging all discolored, holey, or otherwise subpar socks and pulling my Smartwool socks permanently out of storage.

They come in a variety of styles, but my all time favorites is the Smartwool Adrenaline Light Mini Crew Sock which is the perfect combination workout/light-hiking/travel/casual sock. $16 so not cheap, but really does last and really does wick moisture and not stink.

Here is my first pass at a packing list for our upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Singapore. I long for uber-cute outfits and tons of accessories, but I know from experience that without the budget of a travelista who is going to have a driver carry her bags and a single hotel to stay at, all that cuteness comes with a price. It weighs you down.

My biggest struggle is to find nice linen or cotton items which layer, don’t cost a ton and sort of color coordinate so I don’t have to bring as much. The expected temperature for the time of year we are going is 85-90F so I also had to call a friends to find out whether sleeveless was appropriate and if I really needed a suit in Singapore, the answer to both was yes.

I have two days of meetings which require a suit and at least one formal dinner to attend all while sink-washing. I did find a nice drip-dry suit, but it is black and tropical wool is really a pain. I opted instead for linen with a lining for the suit, which I will not wash, but just wear for the two days. If packed properly it won’t wrinkle before I wear it. When I get around to actually shopping for the trip I may opt out of packing a jacket for the suit. I picked a pair of linen pants which looked like they wouldn’t wrinkle too badly, but I’m still looking for the perfect pair of travel khakis which are sink-washable, but don’t look like they should zip off at the knees. I also picked a swimsuit which can be worn as a top when used as a seperate.

So here it is, 11 days, 2 countries, and 13 possible outfits for a one bag travelista. 

Asia Trip(1)

And here it is broken down into outfits. Ocassions covered: formal dinner, business meeting/conference, comfy/cute on the plane, working out in the room, site seeing.

Asia Trip (2)

Tonight I’m off to Florida for a weekend meeting. I have 3 evenings to myself and my hotel is inside Disney World. We’ll see if I can look up a friend who is nearby and spend some time hanging out. Simple weekend trips call for a 4-wheeled rolly bag and a handbag big enough for a few magazines and possibly a laptop. I love this leather bag from Lovegrove & Repucci. It is inexpensive and has a cute detail of the key ring.

Vegetable tanned leather. Red nylon liner, inner zip pocket, magnetized closure. Saintly ring attached to red cord to always keep things close by.

8 3/4″ x 10 3/4″
$49.00, Buy it here.

I subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow’s newsletter GOOP. Her surprisingly down to earth newsletter has me watching new movies, trying different workouts and generally thinking that celebrities can be more down to earth than I ever thought possible. Her most recent post was about her Spring looks. While I won’t have the budget to buy a $750 dress from Burberry on a whim, I was inspired by her looks and came up with a couple cheaper looks of my own. These two outfits would be perfect for Spring. I’m hoping the weather will cooperate and allow skirts in the near future. If I hit my 10% weight loss goal before it sells out, this purple dress will be heading my way.

Gwyneth Paltrow Inspiration