Traveling Light

Imagine having THREE BAGS to carry only your essentials all of the way around the world, to the other side of the globe.  Imagine trying to decide exactly what was necessary to "take" and what was possible to leave behind.  You have weeks to think about it and your list of "indispensables" grows daily.  Everything else gets left behind for a full year.
Do you take your pictures?  Spices?  Your pillow?  Socks?  Your favorite snack?  Do you expect to just buy new shoes?  jewelry?  electronics?  Tylenol?  clothing?

The Doctor struggled and struggled with her limited baggage capacity.  At home, she has closets and dressers full of excellent clothing and accessories.  But she only brought a few essential pieces of clothing.  Her bags contained THIRTEEN pairs of shoes and TEN huge hardback books, including "The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes"!  She also brought her writing notebooks and her iPod.  All essential to her.

Bonobo brought an entire bag full of his favorite toys...toys to inspire his imagination. He brought a large bag full of Crazy Bones (little figures that he likes to play with) some basic weaponry, and decks of his favorite card games.  And his DSi, of course.

Jerry brought work clothes and shoes, electronic essentials, and books and gadgets necessary to basic astronomical observation.

I gave about half of my space to The Doctor's books, some games we enjoy playing, homeschool lesson books, essential paperwork and whatnot, some favorite family and personal CDs and DVDs, some extra-favorite snacks, and basic mix-and-match casual tops and bottoms.  And a fully-loaded Nook!

We have missed a few things.  Mostly familiar foods.

 Mostly we found that STUFF has absolutely no effect on our days here.  The most important things we brought are our senses of adventure, our love for one another, and a willingness to try new things!
And now, on to the adventure!