Any time you travel, it’s important to have a realistic budget of how much you will spend on your vacation set up ahead of time.  It’s important because unless you understand exactly what things will cost (or a very good estimate) you may continue to put off travel as ‘something I can’t afford.’ 

The way to construct a realistic budget is to use the most current travel guide that you can get, an up-to-date currency converter and a good calculator to just simply do the math.  Once you’ve gotten your ‘math’ realistic budget worked up, multiply it by at least 1.5 and that’s a good realistic budget.  I usually try and multiply by 2 if I can afford it without waiting till the 2^nd Coming to go on vacation.   

Don’t skip over the over-estimating part.  That’s the surest way to end up broke when you get home, trust me- I’ve been there.  I had my budget figured out down to the dime when I went to England for the first time and I still ended up blowing it.  If you’ve over-estimated then you will have a little bit of wiggle room when you need it.

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Recently renamed, Orange County International (formerly John Wayne Airport) is one of my favorite airports to use when flying into and out of the greater LA area.  Orange County Airport has one of the most accessible locations for anyone using California’s car-culture, located at the intersection of the 55 and the 5 freeways in the city of Orange.  If you are driving to the airport, there are ramps that lead directly off from the freeways and into the airport, which makes it very easy to find (yay for no street driving!).  The short-term parking structure is also conveniently located attached directly into the terminal for easy pick-up and drop-off of passengers. 

The terminal itself is a two-story structure with departures on the upper floor and arrivals w/ baggage claim on the lower level.  Once inside the terminal is simple to navigate and check in at, retaining its ‘small airport’ charm despite the major airlines that are beginning to use it as a hub (American, Southwest, United).  The well thought out architecture keeps the inevitable security screening line moving and provides beautiful vistas of the airfield itself to passengers waiting for their flights. 

If you are traveling to any of the Southern California Attractions, especially Disneyland or the beaches, Orange County Airport is the way to go. 

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This all-purpose bag has lots of great features and seems to provide exactly what the business traveler needs in an overnight bag.  The insides feature a flex-file to keep papers crisp, an expandable section to secure one night’s change of clothing and a padded area for your laptop.  Pen and pencil holders, lots of pockets and handy external passport and cell phone pockets make this carry-on very convenient.

If business trips are frequently short jaunts on an airplane, and if they require you to have the minimum baggage handling time, this bag is perfect.  As a regular briefcase (the motive behind my initial purchase) it is far to easy to over load to the point of giving you a hernia from carrying it.  As a non-business carry-on, it is a bit over-pocketed, I have a tendency to loose my things in the numerous hiding spots.

Samsonite luggage is known for being well made, and this bag delivers.  I’ve only had one small hiccup in the nearly 3 years that I’ve carried it.  On a recent trip to Orange County the hardware that enables the straps to swivel 360 degrees popped out and the bag fell on the floor.  This is probably due to my afore-mentioned tendency to overload the bag with a small library of books.  A quick fix with a pair of pliers and I was good to go again.

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Ever go away for a weekend (or longer) and forget your Sudoku puzzle book for the plane? What about your hairbrush? Or, worse yet, your passport?

I’ve done all of these. Each time I managed to wheedle out of needing it (the passport one was, obviously, before 9-11 security craziness), but not without major stress to myself and my traveling companions. “Why don’t you make a list?” asked T# who is very good at never forgetting anything. And I mean ANYTHING!

It’s not that I don’t make a list and check it twice for packing, I always do, the problem is that when I make the list I forget to put these all-important things on it. Then I went on a crazy organizing spree and came up with a solution: pre-packing. There are two elements to pre-packing: 1) the List and 2) the Bag.

The List

The List operates on the assumption that we usually go on a trip for one of three reasons. 1) vacation of 7-10 days 2) weekend for 3-4 days or 3) work 3-5 days. You create a List for each of these three scenarios and keep several copies of each list in that bizarre ‘private things’ pouch in the side of your suitcase that you never use for anything else. On this List are the things to pack in that particular bag, made using MS Word, that has boxes next to each bullet item, and is separated by category into where each item is normally kept in your house. For example, under “Bedroom” you would have the clothing, jewelry, etc. that you normally take with you. If you are very optimistic you can also create a specific List to keep in your toiletry case or your carry-on luggage case. One person I saw online even had mini-lists created and laminated for her kid’s daily backpacks and her purse. I’m not that obsessed. Yet.

The Bag

The second part of the pre-packing strategy involves what I call the Bag. The Bag is a 1-gallon plastic zip-lock bag into which you put two different collections of things. One Bag is for your toiletries. This is where you put an extra toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo and conditioner. Buy travel size if you like and if you want to carry them on, but do buy something other than what you have at home regularly. Otherwise you’ll end up like I did when T# went on a trip to Covina, CA and took the last toothpaste in our house with him. And left it there.

The second bag is a bit more counter-intuitive. Put into this bag the things you always need in your carry on. A pen, a pencil, your passport, your sudoku book, a list of people you always send postcards to so that they can be jealous of your travels. Some cough drops and candy. A film canister with some extra $1 in it for buying a snack on the plane. Whatever. But then it’s all together in one spot and you don’t have to be the rude seat companion who paws through all their carry-on luggage to find their ballpoint.

Pre-packing can save you a lot of hassle in the long-run. Plus, if you’re going through a dry time in the travel department it is a good excuse to drag out your luggage and dream of what you might need on the beach in Hawaii. Or the streets of Japan. Or in the Dead Sea… or….

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Many of the things we love to see and learn about in other cultures is religion. Each Sunday I bring you ‘On The Trail of God,’ pictures, sounds, links, stories etc. of religions and sacred sites from around the globe and in my own backyard. If you have something you’d like to contribute contact me.

This Sunday I thought I’d share a couple of inspiring pictures from a recent trip to Ireland that are particularly beautiful examples of Catholic funerary art. Funerary art is art that is done to decorate a grave or in memory of a deceased loved one. When I went with Dee & Dum Tours to Ireland, we saw some amazing examples of this kind of art. This week I’m just posting the Catholic/Christian examples, next week I’ll get to the pre-Christian ones.

Carved crosses at Monasterboice Ireland

These intricately carved stone crosses were used to teach the Christian stories to illiterate persons through the use of imagery and symbolic metaphors. Here you can see the story of the Roman Guard piercing the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross. Around you see the blending with native symbols in the Celtic knot work that represents eternal life.

A Celtic cross in the graveyard at the Rock of Cashel that keeps silent watch over the countryside.

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