Quirky—OK, OK, weird—travel stuff

Most travel items fall in the category of need or gee, that looks like it’s useful. Boring things like adapters and converters for international travel and alarm clocks and travel purses/wallets. Or packing aids like compression bags and packing cubes. But there is another whole category I am discovering: weird things that sound useful but just a bit whacky.

For instance, I’ve discovered a quirky website, the place to buy a Buff. What is a Buff? It’s a odd scarf/beanie/face covering/whatever-you-want for your head. Check it out here, it’s a hoot. I might even get one.

Then there is Scottevest (pronounced Scott-y-vest), the company whose ad Delta Airlines refused to run. If jacket meets carry-on bag is your thing, this is the company to go to! And there is shirt meets bug spray, the Bugsaway Halo shirt, sold by www.magellans.com or www.amazon.com. Also at Magellan's is the luggage scale meets flashlight. I read on one blog that it was appointment only for cruisers who were worried about overweight luggage to use their scale on the last full day of the cruise. Oh, shopping travel is so much fun!

I’m discovering all these interesting places by reading the Independent Traveler, which has tons—probably literally, were I to print out all the fascinating content!—of travel-related information. Like "35 Travel Tips Revealed: Top Secrets of Travel Writers." One of those tips is to bring a travel scarf that doubles as a purse. Seems like a great idea, but there isn’t a store closer than Albuquerque and there is no online way to buy. Too bad!

Speaking of purses, Epiphanie is a wonderful site for camera bags for women. I am getting very tired of plain old black bags to carry my camera equipment in (Note to my old English teacher: I KNOW I shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition but it just seems so awkward to say "...in which to carry..."). Some of these bags seem so lovely and I am sorely tempted to get lyric or lola or maybe stella. There are other places for beautiful—if not quirky—camera bags. For example: here and here and here.

And, of course, the ever popular Rum Runner, or how to smuggle any liquid on board your cruise ship because the cocktails on board cost more than dinner out back home.

I can’t believe I am now starting to think about our vacation in 2013, a river cruise in Europe. Might even take the kids (don’t listen, Kathy, Ken, Greg, Yolanda; we haven’t really decided yet) if the stock market doesn’t completely tank. I’d like to do a 30 day river cruise (I think such a thing exists) from somewhere in eastern Europe to Amsterdam with options for shorter segments for our kids who are still working. I need to spend more time looking at which companies are best for our purposes and then which boats. Are they boats? Or are they ships? Our old and—sadly—deceased friend, Captain Paul, said a boat could be carried on a ship but not vice-versa. So, by that standard, they are river “boats.”

Mumbai, here we come!

Booked our first tour so now I feel like we really, really are going on this cruise!

Thanks to a previous cruiser I discovered Mumbai Magic Tours and have booked them for Sunday, June 3, 2012. Gosh that seems a long way away! Through Cruise Critic Roll Call for the Sun Princess World Cruise 2012 (you’ll have to join Cruise Critic to read the messages) I’ve enlisted six other people to join us in the Mumbai Magic Tour. Should be a great tour! I’m working on some others, even further away in both time and distance, in Le Havre for a Honfleur and the beaches of WWII fame. It’s hard to say how much to do how soon.

Princess has updated the schedule for the cruise and we now know we are leaving Sydney on May 16^th from the  Barangaroo Wharf 5, Hickson Rd, Barangaroo, Sydney, Australia. Try to find THAT on a map. I’ll save you the trouble, it’s here but it’s not the wharf by Circular Quay, it’s over by Darling Harbour. On the google map there is a ship docked there with sort of a greenish top. It means we will sail out under the Harbour Bridge. Cross your fingers for good weather for us! But when we come back on August 29^th, we will dock at Circular Quay. Greg has said he would be on the Harbour Bridge as we sailed out so we’re going to get a really big US flag to hang on our balcony for him to see as we sail out.