Starling Travel

I got my toiletry bag from Target over five years ago. It doesn’t really matter which brand you get as long as the bag suits your needs. For me, I needed something that would hold all of my essentials in a size that was smaller than my old Caboodles box. For you, a Caboodles box might be perfect or even a tackle box. The important thing is that the toiletry bag is always full and ready to go. Last April, I included a packing list to help make your packing experience easier:

• Starling Travel » Starling Travel Packing List

Many things on that list are toiletries. Now, I have a toiletry bag that holds EVERYTHING I will need like shampoo, toothbrushes and contact lens solution. Anything that I use in my daily life is in that bag. I also include some first aid items like bandages and triple anti-biotic. I even include some drugs like pain killers and anti-nausea medicines. Now, if I have to go out of town, all I need to do is pack my clothes and grab the toiletry bag. It has made packing for a trip much easier.

Here is a picture of my toiletry bag and a complete list of its contents.

• Contact lenses: cleaner, saline solution, case
• Binder clips
• Facial cleanser (travel size YOUR way)
• Multi-vitamin pills
• Calcium pills
• Perfume
• Hair bands
• Mouthwash
• Lotion
• Anti-perspirant
• Shampoo (in a Sprayco Soft Touch Dispenser)
• Conditioner (in a Sprayco Soft Touch Dispenser)
• Hairspray
• Hair brush
• Earplugs and Eye Mask
• Feminine Hygiene Products: tampons, pantyliners and napkins
• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste
• Dental floss
• Razor and blades
• Pain relievers: ibuprofen, Excedrin, acetaminophen, and aspirin
• Allergy medications: guaifenesin, psuedoephedrine, diphenhydramine, eye drops
• Stomach medications: Mylanta, Alka Seltzer, Dramamine
• First aid supplies: bandages, triple antibiotic, Benadryl cream, sunscreen, lip balm
• Fingernail clippers, tweezers and fingernail file
• Condoms and lubricant
• Bar of soap (travel size)

How did I get so many things in such a small case? The travel size bottles really help, but I also have another secret. Tune in on Monday to find out!

I didn’t used to have ear plugs and an eye mask in my toiletry bag, but over the years they have been bought in desperation on trips and they just stayed with the travel items.

Eye Mask: This is a travel essential if you are traveling with someone else who has a different sleep schedule than you do. Mike doesn’t go to bed until 1 or 2 am, but I’m pretty tired at 9 pm. Rather than let him upset my schedule or have him stumble around in the dark, I use an eye mask. Then he can turn on whatever lights he needs and I can sleep as if I’m in a dark room. This is also helpful if you want to sleep late on your vacation. Light from the window can creep around the curtains and wake you up. Sleeping in is a luxury of our vacations that I don’t want to sacrifice to sunlight. If Al Pacino had packed an eye mask in his toiletry bag, he might have avoided shooting his partner. Hear that? An eye mask could save your life!

Ear Plugs: My little box of earplugs was bought in the hotel gift shop at the Nevada Landing Hotel and Casino about seven years ago. We bought them because the people in the room next to us were partying hard and we were trying to get a good night’s sleep before a long day of work at Comdex. We were exhausted and desperate to sleep and the ear plugs helped drown out the noise of the partying folk next door. I have used them many times and in situations where I never expected to need them. They came in handy a couple of years ago when we visited my grandpa. Since our last visit, he had lost hearing, so the television was blasting at all hours of the day and night. Fortunately, the ear plugs allowed us to sleep despite the sound of Matlock solving crimes at all hours.

Ear plugs and an eye mask are items that just can’t be jury-rigged. If you have noisy neighbors or need sleep during a brightly lit time of the day, there is really no way to “hack” something to fix the problem. Ear plugs and an eye mask take hardly any space in your toiletry bag, but they are life-savers when you find yourself in a situation when you need them. That’s why they made my list for travel essentials.

Another essential for my toiletries travel case are the Sprayco Soft Touch Dispensers. I found these at Wal-Mart. They aren’t available through Amazon.com, but I was able to find them at a site called Organize.com:

Organize.com – Tube Dispenser – Refillable 4 Ounce Size

These have been the BEST refillable travel bottles for the following reasons:

They sit upside down, so the shampoo, lotion or conditioner is easy to dispense. There have been so many times when I have been in the shower, pounding a bottle just to get a pea size bit of shampoo out. With this one you just flip open the top and squeeze. If nothing comes out, it’s empty.

They have an adustable indicator to distinguish what is in each bottle. You don’t have to remember that the red container holds shampoo, it just tells you. When I bought these, I worried that the indicator would slide around and tell me it’s something different than what it contains, but after a year of using these, I have never had that problem. They kind of click into place, so they stay in place, even when they are bouncing around my toiletry bag. I used to go to the trouble of putting labels on my travel bottles, but now I don’t have to.

They have a wide opening for easy filling. Some travel bottles have such an inconvenient opening that filling them is an exercise in frustration. It used to be so bad that I would just throw the full size bottle in the suitcase instead. Now, it’s just an easy squeeze into the mouth of this travel bottle.

I found these at Wal-Mart, but I have also seen them at Von’s Grocery and Smith’s Grocery. They might be a little difficult to find, but they are worth it. I haven’t had to worry about my travel toiletries since I found these bottles. That’s why I consider them a travel essential.

I keep a travel bag that is fully stocked with all my toiletries in travel sizes, but I don’t keep a travel toothbrush in it. I use the Oral B Indicator Toothbrush. Because the toothbrush stays in the travel case, it doesn’t get used as often as my normal toothbrush. In fact, I have a hard time telling how often it has been used without getting out a calendar and marking off the days I’m out of town. That rule for changing your toothbrush every three months can’t really apply to a toothbrush that only gets used three or four times a year.

So, I let the Oral B Indicator Toothbrush tell me when it needs to be changed.

When I saw the original commercial for this toothbrush, I thought that it was just a silly addition to the toothbrush wars. I didn’t even consider that the blue band of bristles that eventually wears to white was a worthwhile feature in a toothbrush. I just change toothbrushes like clockwork, but my travel case is different. Now, that blue band of bristles is the perfect indicator to tell me when I need to change my brush. It has put this toothbrush on my list of travel essentials.

Here is the original commercial for the Oral B Indicator Toothbrush, just in case you’re unfamiliar with it:

Binder clips are used in offices all over the world to keep large groups of paper together, but they happen to be one of the most important travel essentials when you are staying in a hotel. Hotel curtains are horrible. It’s a rare occurence when you can find a hotel curtain that will open easily, close easily AND stay closed. The most irritating failings of hotel curtains is the inability to stay closed. I don’t want a crack of light streaming into the room. I don’t want a tiny peephole into my room for other hotel guests.

I want the curtains to be fully closed and stay fully closed.

That’s why my travel bag has binder clips. They are the perfect tool for keeping hotel curtains closed. It’s amazing how much peace of mind a little ten-cent item can bring me. When I’m traveling, I am already out of my comfortable environment. I don’t want to have to worry about peeping strangers. I don’t want to wake up at 6am with a sliver of a sunbeam in my eyes on my vacation. That’s why the binder clip is the most important travel essential.

When you head out of the Rivercenter Mall toward the Riverwalk, you hear the haunting sounds of Andean Fusion. You can’t escape it. They play there live almost every day of the year and in the evenings, when they finally go home, the overhead music plays their music. You might think that the sound of flutes playing classic hits might be irritating after a week in San Antonio, but I loved them even on the day I left. Here an example of what you can see:

I love to find local musicians wherever I travel, so I immediately bought a CD from the table by the players. Imagine my surprise when I found an album by Andean Fusion on Amazon.com. You can find even more of their albums on their official website:

• Andean Fusion Official Website

Over the week that I stayed in San Antonio, I noticed that there are many members of the group. They switch out every day and even switch instruments during a set. One of my favorite moments in San Antonio involved just sitting in the open air, listening to the music and feeding the pigeons.

Where: Rivercenter Mall
849 E Commerce St San Antonio, TX 78205 – Google Map
Phone: (210) 225-0000

Andean Fusion Concerts
Monday – Saturday, 1:00 – 8:00pm
Rivercenter Lagoon

The TSA has lifted some of the restrictions that they had on beverages and toiletries. See the details here:

• ABC News: Beverages and Lipstick No Longer Forbidden

I knew things would relax after awhile. I just didn’t know it would be so soon.

Next time you’re driving through Oregon, take a detour to visit Half.com, America’s first .com city. It was bought by a company, Half.com, during the first Dot Boom. Years later, how has it fared?

• Design Observer: writings about design & culture – What Ever Happened to Half.com, Oregon? by William Drenttel

William tried contacting the town to see how they fared in this early Dot Boom deal:

Without an operative [town website] in place, I hit the phones, calling local businesses like the Clear Creek Farm Bed & Breakfast, the Birch Leaf Guest House, the Hillside Bed & Breakfast and the Halfway Supper Club: no answer anywhere. I assumed Angela’s Beauty Salon might be open for business on a summer afternoon — yet here, too: no answer. I left a message at Ronda Dillman Insurance Agency. Finally, I tried The Shop (”Need your car checked out? At The Shop, we don’t just work on cars, we fix them.”). A fellow named Gordon R. Kaesemeyer answered. He told me he was busy , but could give me a few minutes.

I asked him about the town’s decision to rename itself Half.com, which, Kaesemeyer told me, turned out to be a rather short-term arrangement. “We just passed a proclamation that lasted for one year.” I asked him whether the town actually got the money and computers promised by Half.com: “Yeah, we got our money and some computers,” he assured me. ” ‘Course that just caused some problems like money always does.” Encouraged by his answers, I thanked him for his time and asked him to put me in touch with Halfway’s mayor.

“That would be me,” he replied.

When you visit Oregon, you can see the sites in Portland and enjoy the skiing near Eugene, but finding a town that survived the Dot Bomb after being bought out by an Internet company is something that’s hard to find. Give Half.com a visit and enjoy the small town charm.

Via: William Drenttel discovers what happened to the small town in Oregon that renamed itself “Half.com” (kottke.org)

Fosta posted a video on YouTube that is a time-lapse look at Tokyo. Fosta placed several cameras around the city and used the photos to create this video. If you have ever visited Tokyo, this video is a fun trip down memory lane. If you haven’t, it will make you want to hop a plane to see the active and exciting city.

Via: Boing Boing: Video: “Tokyo hectic”

Boing Boing has a list of off-the wall links to sites where you might find a little bit of something different when you travel.

• Boing Boing: Web Zen: traveling zen

When you’re choosing your travel destination, try including a unique site to your tourist activities. It will be the one that you remember for years to come.