Traveling in the Fall

 

Ten years ago, right around this very time, Ryan and I set out on a long, soul-filling vacation to the eastern part of the country. It was just a few months after I left WBCL, and I’d spent those first few months of stay-at-home-wife-life finally sorting through our overcrowded house. I consolidated and downsized the many things we had in duplicate since combining our households, and we held a massive yard sale to help it all find new homes. We took the money from our sale and headed out on a trip. I’ve loved every trip we’ve taken, but this was extra special because it was so sweet for our hearts.

                We’ve taken a handful of other trips in the fall: long weekends, day trips, and a couple of proper vacations. I really do love fall travel, because it offers such pretty views. In honor of those trips, I thought today I’d share some of our favorite things to take along in fall travel.

                Layers of clothes. I love crafting outfits for fall travel, because the weather is a mix of warm and chilly, so it’s all about layering! Jackets, leggings, light sweatshirts, cute hats…so many fun things go in the suitcase for fall travel!

                Real coffee mugs. Ryan and I usually pack reusable travel mugs for the car when we’re on a trip. They keep our coffee warmer than a paper cup at a coffee chop, and if we’re planning to be in the car all day, we can make our own coffee directly in those that morning. But we have also started taking ceramic coffee mugs with us to enjoy while at the hotel. (Short term rental houses usually have them in the kitchen, but hotels don’t.) We just enjoy drinking out of them more than the hotel cups, so it’s worth it to us to take real mugs. If you’re worried about breaking a favorite mug, you can always thrift a few that are fun but not sentimental, and if you have a mishap…it’s okay! This feels extra important in the fall travel months because there are so many fun fall coffee drinks!

                Atlas. This is a good idea any time of year, if you’re traveling in the car. We always stick an atlas in the back seat, just in case something goes crazy with GPS. It hasn’t happened yet, but you never know when a weird outage might kick in!

                Travel tripod. Also good to take along any time of year, but when you have pretty colors to capture, it’s so much fun to have options beyond selfies!! We love our little collapsible tripod, and we use the Bluetooth timer to take the picture. It easily fits in our backpacks and works really well for getting great pictures!

                Hats/gloves/ice scrapers. Ryan forgot to take a sock hat on this last fall trip we took, and because we had one really early morning outside adventure, he had to go buy one locally. We tend to take our ice scraper out of the car in the summer, and sometimes on fall trips, we’ve been surprised by frosts. It’s good to have these as a backup, just in case!

                Umbrella. Ryan and I love our umbrellas that his grandma gifted us several years ago. They are like these – and open backwards so you can open them easily from the car! Handy to have when you’re in unpredictable fall rains!

                All this has made me ready to plan a fall trip again, but alas, I think we’re out of vacation time for this fall. Maybe next year!