Things I Should Have Brought
- Some kind of rain gear even though the forecast said no rain. Who knew there would be a fluke microburst / severe thunderstorm in Hawaii?!
- A second set of flip flops, my Chaco's or different sandals. After being caught in the rain with my Chaco flops and getting blisters on my feet, I ended up buying another pair which was annoying (although they are cute). I had considered bringing my full foot Chaco sandals since they're great for walking, hiking, etc. and they hit differently than my flops, but I try not to pack more than one pair of a type of shoe. Packing fail for this trip!
- Turkish towel. I had planned on taking this until Courtney informed me that the hotel had towels we could take to the beach. So on the bright side, I didn't have to pack a towel. On the negative side, the Turkish Towels are tiny and much easier to carry around all day. I was on the fence about bringing this and should have. It wasn't a huge inconvenience, but it would have been nice.
- A different beach tote bag. I brough my purple Dickie's tote bag that I've had since high school, but it was a little small. I should have brought a larger but still packable tote. On past trips I have brought a packable shopping tote, and that might have been the perfect move for this trip.
Things I didn’t need:
- Many of my duplicate clothes since we did laundry at least once at the hotel, and I really didn't need them anyway. Otherwise, I did pretty well with not packing things I didn't need.
Things I bought because of packing fails:
- Umbrella! Who knew I would need that? I only bought it because I was trying to not look like a drowned rat on my date-that-never-happened, so it was $6 wasted. Or a $6 donation to Courtney's collection of stuff that she keeps in Hawaii.
- Sunscreen spray. This isn't really a packing fail, this is an "I prefer never to check a bag" situation. I brought several lotions that comply with the TSA 3 oz. rule so I was set to start off the trip, but I prefer the spray. I always buy it at my destination and usually end up using most of it up in a week anyway. I bought the super-sized one so I had some left to donate to Courtney's Hawaii belongings.
- Flip flops that hit at a different spot after I chafed. See above!
Overall, not a bad packing job. I consider myself a pretty good packer, and this trip I definitely overpacked clothes because I wanted to do several different activities. Fortunately, everything still made it back without checking a bag, so it worked out just fine!
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