La Vida Luggage

A few people have asked me what it was like to pack a family of three for a six-month overseas trip.

In a word? Maddening.

It was a real challenge to try to predict everything we might need for six months, especially since:

1) I've never been to the UK at this time of year before (thus making it impossible to guesstimate the climate)

2) We're on the cusp of winter and spring, and summer is right around the corner (thereby forcing us to pack for just about every possible British climate)

3) Packing for cold and rain is one thing. We had to also make sure we packed enough hot-weather clothes for our  upcoming Orlando trip. (Yes, I know it's  weird to vacation in Florida when we're already in England. We had it planned long before this UK opportunity materialized.)

4) We don't only need to pack clothes; We also need to pack toys for Frankie, and all of the other necessary gear that goes along with a preschooler.

The worst part of the packing has actually been dragging all of the suitcases back and forth from airports and cars. To give you a sense of what we were dealing with, here's are a few pictures of all of the bags we hauled over here:

Now, imagine toting all of that (plus a four-year-old) across 3000+ miles.

It's a little crazy.

Of course, we thought we were soooo clever. Matt went on a trip to the UK two weeks before we all packed up and went over together. When he went over, he brought an extra suitcase with him, filled with a lot of the things (clothes, toiletries) that we knew we'd be needing in England.

He stashed the stuff at his office, and we planned to pick it up on our way from the Manchester airport to our Maryport rental. At the last minute, though, it turned out that we had to spend our first week in Bristol, not Maryport. Now, that suitcase is 6 hours away, and everything inside it temporarily useless.

It's not that big of a deal, just funny. No matter how smart you think you are about trip planning, there's aways some of snafu.