Thursday, July 15, 2010

More packing

We’re headed for our second mini vacation this weekend!

We’re going to the beach. We’ve never been to the beach.

Not ‘to the beach’ as the destination. My folks live a few miles from the beach in FL & every couple of years we manage to actually sit on sand and get in waves for a couple hours during our visit. But we’ve never gone anywhere where the beach is the whole point of going.

We’re not beach people you see. I can certainly see the attraction of a beach if you are a beach type person – sun, sand, surf. But I need shade & sand gets everywhere (and when you are a girl, everywhere is just that, EVERYWHERE. Getting sand out of your everywhere is a PITA). That doesn’t mean I am anti-beach, just that it would never occur to me to arrange a vacation there. A few days at a beach (with lots of SPF) is a nice change.

It is one of my SIL’s 50th birthday this month & to celebrate she rented a house for a week and invited all her siblings & their families to visit. Last weekend was spent with my family, this weekend will be spent with DH’s. We haven’t seen any of them in about 18 months & that was at a wedding, so it will be nice to have some time to just chat with them.

So I have to pack again. There ought to be a law about that. You should be allowed at least a month between vacation packings. I just got everything unpacked & washed & put away!

Fortunately I did leave the enormous suitcase out, rather than stack it back in the closet, under all the smaller suitcases, carry ons, insulated tote bags and assorted shipping boxes.

My main concern this time is the books. I underpacked my books for last weekend. I only brought one, started it Thursday evening & finished it Friday. That left me with NO BOOKS to read and 3 more days to get through. I used to be able to borrow books from my folks but they switched to Kindles a year ago & my brother & his family don’t read much. Fortunately there was a Books A Million a mile from the hotel & I was able to buy a couple more.

This time I am not so sure about the availability of book stores so I am bringing half a dozen books, even though it’s only 2 nights.

Better too many books than not enough.

I found a great old fashioned cozy mystery series. Though it is set in modern times it has a very Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers feel to it. I read the last book, Death at the Alma Mater, yesterday & will be picking up the first two books in the series – Death of a Cozy Writer & Death & the Lit Chick, from the library today. I’m also bringing Cook the Books, the latest Gourmet Girl mystery. I’m still deciding on a 4th book. Amazon just released the Kindle app for Android & I’m thinking I’d like to get a Kindle book to test it out. Something funny.

Any suggestions?

5 comments:

SciFi Dad said...

I always end up feeling so "not well read" after visiting here. I've got nothing but time at night, and I've not read a single book. (I am, however, getting through S1 of The Wire at a good clip.)

Carrie said...

Hmmm, the only mystery sereies I read it The Cat Who...series - perfect for camping after he moves out of what seems like Chicago he heads to the Northern Woods of Wisconsin. :) (Or so I like to think)

Andrea Chamberlain said...

UGH, I hate packing and I hate unpacking even more so I feel for you.

Have you ever read The Glass Castle? It's a wonderful read.

Mel said...

Thanks for the book tip, sounds like my kind of read too :-)

And I relate to the shade and sand thing! But it's great to be able to walk along the beach at different times of day, especially at dusk, especially if the sun sets in that direction (will it be?)

LizzieMade said...

Can't really help with book suggestions, as I'm not so into crime & mystery as you... I did see a series of crime/whodunnit type books, based around crafting... called the "Scrap-N-Craft Mysteries", which sound amusing as well as mystery stories. Writer is Joanna Campbell Slan. Don't know if they are available in USA. First one is called "Paper, Scissors, Death", the second "Cut, Crop and Die". They might be fun anyway!

I love your story about the suitcase cupboard... we have the same issue about getting at our big cases, except that often the biggest is in the loft, where I cant go...

And you can never have "too many books" for certain (of course, as you're only going for a couple of days, you'll need less clothes - leaving much more room for important stuff, like books!).