Where Your Luggage Goes After You Check It

Where Your Luggage Goes After You Check It

Thanks, Donald.

Ana

Donald. What a journey.

OH! I wanna go on THAT ride!!!!!

It is pretty amazing. Thanks for sharing! We never check a bag, after having one lost back in the late 80's. We only travel with what each of us can pack in a carry-on wheelie, even for a month-long trip. The world is not some backwater where you can't buy a toothbrush or get your laundry done, pretty much wherever you go! And it is SO nice not to wrestle with a big suitcase on some steep-as-stairs street in Istanbul, or drag along some bumpy cobblestones in Copenhagen, or lift on and off a water taxi in Vienna. ha ha

I learned long ago to never CHECK my bags. Picture this: Hawaii, getting married, packed a ton of stuff in two large cases and checked them. Had one largish purse with a few things in it, and wedding dress in a suit bag with me.

5 1/2 flight, get to baggage claim and NOTHING. Go to hotel, they promised they would bring our bags to our room when they arrived, next morning....marriage day, NOTHING. Lucky I had my dress but no shoes, only the clothes on our backs, no change of undies, no toiletries, NOTHING. Spent one week on lovely Kauai, and bought some nice new outfits and other 'necessities'. The hotel was awesome and sent over housekeeping with lots of stuff including razor for hubby, and hairbrush,etc for me. Nice of them.

SEVEN days later after a wonderful honeymoon, we got in the shuttle to go back to the airport and got stopped going OUT the driveway. THEY HAD OUR LUGGAGE, just being delivered. What a trip. Seems that we went to Hawaii and our luggage went to Miami! But we got it all back on the way out.

Never again did I ever carry more than a small carryon an only packed a minimal amount of things. Trips were much better, no hassling with baggage or waiting for the 'carrousel' to come around and identify things. Off plane, out to taxi, done.

I often wonder if the contestants on Amazing Race ever thought about lightening their huge back pack loads and thus saving time and energy? I'd probably pack all my stuff in a large fanny pack and do with what I had. Yup...never again.

The whole scene of getting in line to check luggage, hoping it makes it, and waiting in the carousel room - so awful! And if you have a brief interval to catch a connecting flight, the stress can spike. Traveling with only a carry-on makes the whole vacation a lot simpler, doesn't it?

Since that first fiasco with my wedding trip, I plan extra cash for eventualities. IF I buy too much, there is always the big tote bag to carry on, makes a nice souvenir too. And the 'native' clothing from wherever you went is nice too, and jewelry and...

It's caught on with my friends too. They are now taking only the bare necessities and enjoying not standing in lines, or carrying ultra heavy suitcases. No tipping the porters, no lost luggage or items in them. Trips are so much more fun.

On a side note: I spent my first trip to Hawaii filming everything I saw in glorious 8mm. It was only after the trip that I realized I had not seen ANYTHING just for enjoyment, but rather to make sure I had 'captured' it on film. I also realized that all the 'real important places to see' were available on film at the shops. Why waste a wonderful time just taking pictures. Now the only camera I take is a tiny pocket one which has a 'record' function if I need it and I only take pictures of RARE things and almost always with my people or occasionally others in the shot. I went through my extensive albums and realized that pictures taken years ago could not be recognized as to where or what unless they were labeled. Why have them if they aren't awesome? I also make my albums now of only 8x10s. It's amazing how professional they look as you flip the pages and you can see all the things in them much better. I marvel at how just a bigger picture makes it so great. Sometimes they look like pictures in books. Wow.

Oh Sorta, I beg to differ on taking photos. My camera and I go almost everywhere together and my walls are full of my work. Nothing compares to me to perfectly capture what you saw and have it for a lifetime. My FB page is full of some of my work. I don't miss out of anything.

Ana

That's awesome!

Thanks Donald!


Ana's pictures are beautiful and even breathtaking Sorta. I have several on my screen saver file.


Her pictures certainly make me wish I were at some of those locations myself.


joe

Me, too, on the pics. I don't take snapshots of us standing in front of everything, but I do take trip photos ~ a lot of them. We usually are gone for three weeks or a month at a time, and the beauty we see comes home with us. This is especially true since the advent of digital. Yes, there are plenty of "file photos" and lots of wallpaper out there, but nothing compares to a print on the wall that you took yourself, and the memories that seeing that photo stirs up years later.

Awww, thanks Joe. I'm happy to hear that what I enjoy, makes others happy too!

Ana

Oh yes I agree! Ana's pictures rival anything I ever did.

Then again, my dead departed mom, who knew nothing about cameras and had to have help just finding the button to push, took some of the most awesome shots ever seen. I don't know how she did it.

I love the 'snapshots' I take, it's the MOVIES that got me upset. Imagine going through an entire vacation with one eye glued to the viewer on a camera and never really taking time to see the 'whole' scene? That was me. Not kidding. Everyone else was enjoying glorious Hawaii, and I was looking at it with ONE eye. Ugh.