I previously posted articles detailing the clothes, toiletries, and backpacking equipment I planned to take to Ireland. The items listed would suffice for a normal trip, but I’ll be backpacking for 4 weeks and my pack was too heavy. After carefully rethinking and then discarding or replacing items, I got my pack down to 19.5 pounds carried weight. This…
I think there are two kinds of people when it comes to spending money in a foreign country: those who don’t think twice about what card to use or how to exchange money, and those who constantly fret that they are messing things up and getting screwed over by the banks. I tend towards the…
If a bolder person wrote this piece, it would be broken into five articles with titles like “2 Books You MUST Read Before Traveling to Ireland” or “The 10 Best Irish Songs of All Time”. Better yet, they’d post a video with the title “She Wandered into an Irish Dance Class and You Won’t Believe What…
Sometimes it can be challenging to write an article, but this time I couldn’t even decide what to title it! We will be in Ireland for a total of 6 weeks and the final 2 weeks will be familiar, traveling by car and sightseeing. During the first 4 weeks, though, are we backpacking, hiking, trekking,…
I promised to share some tips on sharing SIM cards with multiple devices, plus how I approached activation with my AT&T SIM in the Huawei device. I think it is easiest to activate the SIM on a phone because providers will allow you to activate directly via SMS or similar short code dialing. The AT&T…
I wasn’t planning to write this article, but a recent email from a friend revealed I’m not the only one who broods over lotion and shampoo and travel containers. While I haven’t asked Chris specifically, I’d bet dollars to donuts he devotes a tiny fraction of the time I do to this subject. What can…
I used to be a disaster at packing. I’d start out with good intentions, but then the “what-ifs” set in and I’d throw in clothes and shoes for every possible weather/activity combination. Chris is a seasoned traveler though, and started working on me and the kids 15 years ago. Rule #1: No checked bags, period.…